Smoky, spicy, saucy… that’s the magic of Chicken Tinga Tacos. Juicy shredded chicken cooked in chipotle-studded tomato sauce delivers big flavor with little effort. Served on warm tortillas with your favorite fixings, this Mexican tinga de pollo is a weeknight win in just 30 minutes.
5-⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Comment
This recipe delivers!!! Smoky but not too spicy, made with typical pantry staples and everyone’s favourite weeknight protein, boneless skinless chicken breasts, what’s not to love?!
Hayley
I like to think of myself as a bit of a taco connoisseur, and this easy chicken tinga recipe tops my list every time. Authentic chicken tinga (tinga de pollo) is a beloved Mexican dish of shredded chicken simmered in a smoky chipotle tomato sauce that’s spicy, saucy, and seriously irresistible.
This classic recipe hails from Puebla, Mexico—the very same state where the famous Cinco de Mayo battle took place in 1862. My version keeps the rich, traditional flavor but uses simple pantry-friendly ingredients you probably already have on hand.
The best part? In just about 30 minutes, you’ll have a restaurant-quality dish that’s guaranteed to steal the show on taco night. For more easy recipes with authentic Mexican flavors, try my slow cooker carnitas and Mexican pulled chicken next!
Jump to:
Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Quick & Easy: Perfect for busy weeknights when you need dinner on the table fast. Try my oven-roasted chicken thighs cooked with white wine and leeks for another easy dish.
- Versatile Cooking Methods: Make it on the stovetop, in your Instant Pot, or let it simmer in the slow cooker.
- Freezer Friendly: Store leftovers for another night; the flavor only gets better. Even better, there are so many ways to use chicken tinga other than just on tacos. Add leftovers to a platter of sheet pan veggie nachos!
- Simple Ingredients, Big Flavor: Everyday staples transform into something smoky, saucy, and unforgettable.
Ingredients
- Chicken: I use poached boneless skinless chicken breasts but it works equally well with boneless skinless chicken thighs. Just adjust the cooking time to cook a bit longer if using thighs.
- Chipotle chiles: Canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce give the spicy sauce that wonderful smoky flavor. I use two chipotle peppers because I like my chicken tinga spicy. If you want to make it less spicy, use one. Freeze the extras to make these chipotle mashed sweet potatoes for another meal.
- Fire-roasted diced tomatoes: These canned tomatoes intensify the smoky flavors, but regular diced tomatoes work too.
- Lime: A squeeze of lime juice adds some acidity and brightness.
- Tortillas and your favorite toppings: Flour or corn tortillas, cotija cheese or queso fresco, diced onions, pickled red onion, mashed avocado or fresh guacamole, cilantro, lime wedges.
Scroll down to the recipe card for the full list of ingredients with quantities of each one.
Variation
- Save More Time. To make this recipe even faster, you can use leftover shredded chicken from this spatchcock roasted chicken recipe or pull off the chicken from a store-bought rotisserie chicken.
- Fresh Tomatoes. Swap the canned diced tomatoes and use garden-fresh tomatoes. You can roast them in the oven or cook them down in a saucepan.
- Gluten-Free. Make sure to use your favorite gluten-free tortillas.
How to Make Chicken Tinga Tacos
This chicken tinga recipe comes together easily on the stovetop! It’s also easily adaptable to make in the slow cooker or Instant Pot.
Step 1: Cook the Tinga Sauce. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the roughly chopped onion and cook for 5-6 minutes until very soft and translucent. Add in the garlic, oregano, cumin, salt, and chopped chipotle peppers. Cook for an additional 1-2 minutes until fragrant, and then add the crushed tomatoes and broth. Simmer for 8-10 minutes.
Step 2: Blend the Chicken Tinga Sauce. Transfer the sauce to a blender and blend until smooth. Always take extra care in blending hot liquids. Either let it cool slightly or vent the top and cover with a kitchen towel to prevent splatter.
Step 3: Combine. Add the cooked chicken and pureed sauce back to the skillet to warm through. Stir in fresh lime juice and season with more salt to taste.
Step 4: Serve. Spoon the chicken tinga into warm tortillas and top with your favorite toppings. Serve them with a side of Mexican grilled corn for a street food-focused meal.
Jessica’s Top Tips
- Taco Expert Tip: Start with a swipe of creamy avocado mash or fresh guacamole on your warm tortilla. Next, pile on that smoky chicken tinga, then add a sprinkle of fresh cilantro, crumbly cotija, a handful of finely diced onions, and just a touch more cilantro on top. Layering this way gives you the perfect balance of creamy, smoky, fresh, and tangy in every single bite
- Warm the Tortillas. For the tacos, I suggest warming corn or flour tortillas in a dry skillet. Just a few minutes on each side to soften the tortillas. Transfer them to clean tea towel or napkin to keep them warm as you continue to heat the remaining tortillas.
- Store Leftovers. Place the leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate for up to five days or freeze for up to three months.
- Spiciness. This recipe is spicy. For less heat, use only one chipotle chile.
- Shredding Chicken. After poaching or cooking, shred it on a cutting board with two forks while the chicken is still warm.
Serving Suggestions
The versatility of this chicken tinga recipe is endless! You can also use the smoky shredded chicken in burritos or burrito bowls, pile the filling on top of a crispy tostada shell, top a tray of nachos, add to a taco salad, or fold into quesadillas. There are endless ways to enjoy this favorite chicken tinga tacos recipe.
- For a Mexican feast, enjoy these tacos with some cheddar stuffed jalapenos and a bowl of healthy guacamole with crunchy chips.
- Add some vegetables like this corn with bell peppers and onions or a southwest salad.
Chicken Tinga Tacos Recipe FAQs
Most definitely – you won’t want any to go to waste! Place the leftovers in an airtight, freezer-safe plastic or silicone bag. Press out all of the air to prevent freezer burn. Freeze for up to three months. To enjoy, defrost in the refrigerator and reheat over medium heat until warm. To heat straight from the freezer, place the frozen leftovers over low heat and warm up covered, stirring occasionally.
Sure thing! Blend the sauce ingredients until smooth and then pour the sauce into the slow cooker and add the raw chicken breasts to the sauce. Cook on high for 1-2 hours or low for 3-4 hours. Use two forks to shred the chicken right in the sauce and then assemble your tacos.
Yes, it works great. Blend the sauce ingredients until smooth. Add the sauce to the pot and nestle the raw chicken breasts in the sauce. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Use quick release and carefully open the top away from your face. Use two forks to shred the chicken right in the sauce. Assemble your tacos and enjoy!
Absolutely! This is a great recipe for freezer meal prep. First, make the sauce and allow it to cool fully. Then add it to an airtight, freezer-safe container with your raw chicken breasts. When you are ready to cook, thaw overnight in the fridge, and add the contents to your Instant Pot or slow cooker to cook.
More Mexican-Inspired Recipes to Try
The Best Chicken Tinga Tacos
Ingredients
- 1 ½ pounds chicken breasts poached and shredded or about 3 cups rotisserie chicken
- 1-2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 medium onion 1 cup diced
- 3 cloves minced garlic
- 2 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce roughly chopped
- 1 tablespoon adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers
- 1 ½ teaspoons dried oregano
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¾ cup fire roasted diced tomatoes
- ¼ cup chicken or veggie broth
- juice of half a lime
For serving:
- Tortillas
- Avocado
- Queso fresco or cotija cheese
- Finely diced onions
- Chopped cilantro
- Lime wedges
Instructions
Stovetop:
- Poach the chicken (see recipe post).
- Heat olive oil in a large skillet or sauté pan. Add onion and cook for 5-6 minutes until soft and translucent.
- Add minced garlic and cook another minute until just fragrant.
- Stir in oregano, cumin, salt, chipotle peppers and adobo sauce and cook for one more minute.
- Add in tomatoes and broth. When it's bubbling, turn the heat down and simmer on medium-low for 8-10 minutes.
- Transfer sauce to a blender (venting the top) and blend until smooth.
- Pour sauce back into sauté pan over low heat. Add in cooked, shredded chicken and heat for a few minutes until sauce thickens and coats chicken. Check for seasoning and add more salt to taste. Finish with a squeeze of lime and a sprinkle of fresh cilantro leaves. Serve in warmed tortillas with desired toppings.
For the Instant Pot:
- Add olive oil, onion, garlic, oregano, cumin, salt, chipotle chilis, adobo sauce, broth and fire roasted tomatoes to a blender and blend until smooth. Do not sauté first.
- Pour sauce into Instant Pot with stainless steel liner. Nestle whole raw chicken breasts in the sauce.
- Place the lid on, make sure the valve is pointed to sealing, set to manual high pressure for 10 minutes.
- Allow to natural release for at least five minutes. Carefully release remaining pressure, shred chicken with two forks right in the sauce and finish with a squeeze of lime and sprinkling of cilantro leaves.
For the slow cooker:
- Follow the exact same instructions as the Instant Pot and cook on high for 1-2 hours or low for 3-4 hours.
Notes
- This recipe is spicy! To reduce the spice level, use one instead of two chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. I find that two is the perfect amount of heat.
- Poaching chicken. Bring a large pot of water (or broth) and a few crushed garlic cloves to a boil. You can also add onion scraps, slices of lime, or even a bay leaf to infuse flavor into the chicken. Add the chicken to the boiling water in a single layer. Allow it to come back to a boil, cover the pot with a lid, and then remove it from the heat. Let the chicken sit in the covered pot for 20 minutes (or up to 45 minutes).
Nutrition
Jazz
I made your chicken tinga tacos for lunch last week to break up all the holiday foods and they were so delicious! Perfectly tender chicken and the flavors were on point.
Taneisha
This recipe has everything I love — flavour and texture!! Loved everything about this east recipe!
Michelle Lee
This is madness. How is this simple recipe so amazing? It’s possible to make with a toddler “helping” and other kids arguing. That’s how simple. And then the FLAVOR. I can’t even. Make this for dinner or lunch or breakfast or a snack. You need it right now.
Robin
Of course you had me at chicken tacos! The flavors you extracted here were simply magnificent – we enjoyed them immensely.
Nija Clark
I made this with the kiddos for taco tuesday. they love the spicy pop of flavor! so good.
Linda
Thanks, Jessica, for the recipe because I have a reason to make tacos. 30 minutes dinner, please count me in.
Marta
I’d been craving tacos for two weeks and finally got fed up after seeing the pictures for your chicken tinga tacos. I made them. I devoured them. I love them. I’m no longer a brat to my family. You are my hero.
Elizabeth Pesce
Made this for dinner tonight using the instant pot. It was ridiculously easy and tasted delicious: smoky and spicy. We made tacos and have leftovers to make salads, bowls, burritos, hash, etc.
Hayley
This recipe delivers!!! Smoky but not too spicy, made with typical pantry staples and everyone’s favourite weeknight protein, boneless skinless chicken breasts, what’s not to love?! We enjoyed this in a lower-carb “taco bowl” form but however you taco, definitely add this recipe into the Taco Tuesday night rotation! So delicious!
Erika
This was so good and very quick and easy. I used precooked, shredded rotisserie chicken and pre chopped onions and it was an easy week night meal. Loved it and will make again!