Tinga de Pollo is a classic shredded chicken Mexican taco filling. The slow cooker works well to infuse and layer flavors by stewing chicken with tangy tomato, chipotle chiles with an exciting results. Learn how to make Tinga de Pollo Tacos.
Serve this with Gulf Coast Style Oven Baked Rice for a balanced meal.
What Is Chicken Tinga?
From the city of Puebla, Chicken Tinga is a traditional Mexican dish made with shredded chicken cooked in a spicy, smoky tomato-based sauce. The sauce typically includes:
- Tomatoes
- Onions
- Garlic
- Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (for heat and smokiness)
- Spices like oregano and cumin
The chicken is simmered in the sauce until tender and flavorful and can be served in tacos, tostadas, burritos, or even over rice. Garnishes like sour cream, avocado, lettuce, cheese, and a wedge of lime are common.
What You Can Expect From This Recipe
Having just returned from New Mexico with tons of Southwestern inspiration and a car load of New Mexico spices, it wasn’t hard for me to turn towards some chile powder, poblano peppers and chorizo for these Chicken Tinga Tacos.
Stewing chicken works beautifully in the slow cooker. A slow cooker is much more than just a “set it and forget it” appliance. It works well to build layers of flavors. And with the ingredients involved to make Tinga de Pollo tacos, the slow cooker just makes sense.
The end flavor result is truly delicious. There’s Mexican chorizo involved, which adds texture and a smoky edge. My recipe includes potatoes for a creamy smooth treat. And how the chicken easily takes on the Southwestern flavors is simply exquisite.
A smear of refried bean, as a base, just ramps up the experience even more.
Garnishes For Tinga de Pollo Tacos
Once the refried beans have been placed on the corn tortillas, and the shredded chicken added, simply pass a plate of garnishes. Suggestions:
- Chopped avocado
- Chopped raw sweet onion
- Sliced Pickled Jalapenos
- Mexican crumbling cheese: Cotija cheese works very well here.
- Chopped Cilantro
Recipe for Slow Cooker Tinga de Pollo Tacos
I hope you give this one a try and if you do, please come back and let me know how you liked it and give the recipe a star rating. Your feedback is valuable to me for developing future recipes.
More Popular Taco Recipes
And if you’re taco crazy like us, don’t miss my Tacos Category. You’ll find lots of great recipes, including the most popular taco recipes on my site for Fried Tacos. Made with ground beef, everyone I’ve served these too ask for the recipe.
Slow Cooker Tinga Chicken, With Chorizo and Potatoes
Ingredients
- 1 14 ½ ounce can chopped tomatoes not drained
- 2 – 3 canned Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce seeds and veins scraped away, plus 1 Tablespoon of the adobo sauce.
- 1 tablespoon Achiote Paste
- 4-5 cloves garlic peeled
- 2 pounds Boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon Kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon Freshly ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon New Mexico Red Chile Powder
- ½ pound Chorizo sausage ground
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 1 poblano pepper diced
- 2 cups potatoes 1 inch cubes
- 1 Tablespoon Sherry vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Mexican Oregano
- 1 tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
- 16 ounce Refried beans canned. And warmed.
- 1 dozen Corn Tortilla Shells Tosted
Instructions
- In a food processor, blend together the canned tomatoes, the Chipotle peppers, achiote paste and garlic.
- Add the chicken to a large bowl and sprinkle with flour. Use your hands to mix well and coat.
- In a small bowl, mix together the salt, pepper and red chile powder. Add it to the floured chicken and use hands to distribute the seasoning.
- In a fry pan, (or your stove top friendly Slow Cooker insert) heat the pan over medium high heat. When hot, add crumbled Chorizo Sausage. Let it cook a couple of minutes to release some fat.
- Move the sausage to the edges of the pan and add half the chicken. Move the pan so the chorizo is somewhat off heat. Let the chicken sear for about 5 minutes, then turn. Sear the other side for a couple of minutes. Move the seared chicken to a plate, as you'll need to do this in two batches. And you may need to drizzle in some oil as you fry, depending on how much grease the chorizo creates.
- Once the chicken is seared and moved to a plate. I like to add a big splash of white wine, red wine or chicken stock to deglaze the pan. There's lots of flavor on the bottom of that pan. Use a sturdy spatula to stir all that flavor from the bottom of the pan.
- Add the chopped poblano and onion to the chorizo and let cook for about 2 minutes.
- Place the chicken on the bottom of the slow cooker. Top with the chorizo vegetable mix. Pour in the tinga chicken sauce, then sprinkle the potatoes on top.
- Sprinkle in the Mexican Oregano, Sherry Vinegar, and Worcestershire. Cover and cook on low 6 hours.
- Taking two forks, shred the chicken meat while still inside the pan. Stir well
- To serve, toast the corn tortillas directly over a gas stove grate, or in a hot comal stovetop. Spread the tortillas with refried beans. Top with Chicken Tinga mixture.
- Garnishes: chopped avocado, sliced pickled jalapenos, diced yellow onion, and Mexican crumbling cheese such as Cotija.
Video
Notes
Nutrition
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Tinga de Pollo Tacos … They’re What’s For Dinner.
Why Trust My Recipes? I am a Culinary School Graduate and a lifelong student of home cooking. I hope to inspire you try to cook as often as you can. I’ve been cooking for 50 years, and my recipes are tried and true tested and tested and then tested again before published. To read more take a look at my About Page.
Looks nice! I’m making it as instructed right now. I am a little worried that the meat/chicken might dry out (there wasn’t a whole lot of liquid in the pot. Do you think adding 1/2 cup of stock might be overkill?
i meant to give this a 5 star rating 😮
You made my mouth water and brought back memories of growing up in New Mexico!
Thank you! I hope you give the recipe a try.
I’ve made this a couple of times and it is absolutely delicious. It is quite spicy. Are the chipotle peppers the main source of the heat? I’d like to adjust to try to make it less spicy.
Hi Lori, so glad you like the recipe and thanks for your note. Yes, the chipotle peppers are your source of heat. They can deliver a big kick of heat. They’re jalapeno peppers that are dried and then added to a lively adobo sauce. Make sure you’re scraping the seeds and veins before use in this recipe, that’s where the majority of the heat lies. Or to keep that smoky flavor that makes these tacos special, substitute sweet smoky paprika. Start with a healthy teaspoon and then add more if you want, after a taste test. Let me know if you have any other questions.
These look and sound delicious!
Thank you Caroline!
Killer dish — SO full of flavor. And easy — my favorite kind. Definitely a winner — thanks.
Yuuup. You could say I’m now straight up pumped for Taco Tuesday. These look absolutely incredible!
Thank you so much Karly. Let me know what you think about the recipe.
I was introduced to tinga just a couple of weeks ago with some cabbage and carrot tinga tacos. The flavor of the tinga was great and we were talking about how good it would be with chicken. And here you are! These tacos look amazing and I love the addition of the chorizo.
Thanks so much for the comment about these tacos. After studying several recipes, I came up with a combo of flavors that I thought would work. The Chorizo is a Rick Bayless idea.
The cabbage and carrot tacos sound very interesting.
I have to tell you, I used New Mexico Chile Powder, a package I bought a Rancho de Chimayo, and following your recipe for Red Sauce, made some Pork Adovada this past weekend. My gosh was it good. Thanks again for your post using the powder.
I have a beautiful supply of fresh dried chile from Taos Spice Shop. I’ll use those for the next batch.
I cannot wait to try these! They look so amazing! We love chorizo and potatoes! Love them in this chicken recipe!
Thank you so much Nikki. Let me know what you think about the recipe.
This looks delicious! I have to admit I am a lazy crock pot cooker and very rarely sear my meats before I add them to the slow cooker.
I have had my “no sear” moments, but try to do it every time. Even though it messes up my stove top. 🙂
I will definitely be making this for supper soon. The chipotle pepper sauce for this dish sounds amazing!
Thank you Marcelle – let me know what you think.
These tacos look amazing! And such a great bonus that they can be made in a slow cooker!
Thank you Liz.
It looks and sounds delicious Lea Ann but no way can I deal with a splash as an amount (non-culinary school engineer you know) – would you make a guess as to the amount.
At least a tablespoon of the vinegar and a good glug of wine. 🙂