Chicken Tinga Tacos

Ingredients

• 700 g boneless chicken thighs
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 3 tbsp chipotle in adobo
• 2 onions, one sliced, one finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 200 ml chicken stock
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 12 corn tortillas
• 100 g queso fresco or feta, crumbled
• a handful of coriander
• 2 limes, in wedges

Method

1. Poach the chicken

   Simmer the thighs in the stock with a pinch of salt until just cooked, about 15 minutes, then shred them and keep the liquid. Poaching rather than frying keeps the meat soft enough to shred into threads.

   15 min

2. Char the aromatics

   Fry the sliced onion and whole garlic in the oil until blackened in patches. Those burnt edges are where tinga gets its smokiness — pale onion gives you a flat tomato sauce.

   10 min

3. Blend the sauce

   Blend the charred onion and garlic with the tomatoes, chipotle, oregano and a ladle of the poaching liquid until smooth.

4. Reduce with the chicken

   Pour the sauce back into the pan, add the shredded chicken, and simmer until the sauce clings to the meat rather than pooling around it. Wet tinga makes a soggy taco.

   15 min

5. Heat the tortillas properly

   Toast the tortillas one at a time in a dry hot pan until they puff slightly and smell toasted, then stack them in a cloth. Cold tortillas crack; steamed ones go limp — a dry pan is the answer.

6. Build

   Fill with the tinga, chopped raw onion, queso fresco and coriander, with lime to squeeze over.