Chicken Tinga (Tinga de Pollo) is incredibly flavorful and deliciously versatile.

It has been a hot minute since I have gotten to update here, and with the whirl of the holidays, the political mess that is occurring in our country, and the decision to finally re-sand and re-stain the cabinets in our kitchen and downstairs bathroom have put any kind of culinary adventures on hold. Home renovations, especially DIY projects when you are visually impaired, take a bit longer for me to tackle. First, the painters tape, the laying down of the drop cloths, the washing of the cabinets after the removal of the doors and drawer fronts, sanding, washing the dust off, then the staining, staining, touchups, topcoat, topcoat, topcoat is an incredibly long process when you do not have adequate drying racks to do all the doors and drawer fronts in one go. So while the sulky/curious cats sit outside the baby gates blocking them from both the loft, kitchen, guest room, and downstairs bathroom, we wait. There is a lot of waiting for things to dry. Waiting for a real, home cooked meal rather than sandwiches or takeout. Waiting for the husband to inspect things before moving on to the next step to make sure I haven’t missed anything nor accidentally stained something that shouldn’t have been.

But finally, finally, after the first two weeks of the project, I was able to hop back in the kitchen to do a crockpot meal. I did a pretty simple chicken chili. For full transparency, I am not the hugest fan of the crockpot as I am a control freak in the kitchen and love to poke and prod my food as it cooks, to feel and taste the ingredients as I go. However, I can fully appreciate the convenience of kitchen appliances like this in many situations that present themselves like home renovations. While the chili I made was great (a riff on this Skinnytaste recipe which I could basically just “dump and go” with my ingredients) I was sorely wishing what I could have made was this incredible Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga. The slow cooker is not my preferred vehicle to prepare food in as a great dutch oven you can achieve the slow braising results BUT you get the added benefit of being able to brown and sauté vegetables to develop flavors you wouldn’t necessarily achieve in the “dump it and go” mentality that a slow cooker has. That being said, you can achieve those layers of deep flavor in the slow cooker by taking a few additional steps than the traditional “dump, stir, cover, then eat 8 hours later”. This Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga is a perfect example of how to really extract as much flavor with minimal effort as possible.

Fresh Cilantro cooks down to add flavor, but you can add additional fresh Cilantro when serving for a fresh punch of herbiness to contrast the deep flavors of the chicken.

First off, living in the Southwest, I have access to incredible Mexican cuisine. Growing up in the Northeast, taco night was those little pre-baked corn shells that you filled with ground beef, shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes, and cheese with their little packet of sauce as a garnish. Delicious in its own right (hello, nostalgia food), but not authentic by any means nor did it really delve into the nuances and varying tastes, textures and variety that Mexican cuisine offers. Originating in Puebla, Mexico, Chicken Tinga (Tinga de pollo) is a shredded chicken dish that is bursting with the flavors of chipotle chilis in adobo, tomatoes, onions, and garlic. It is an incredibly flavorful chicken that can be served in a variety of ways, with an array of fresh toppings like avocado, cilantro, sharp crumbled cheese, shredded lettuce, and salsa.

At this point, you can use this Chicken Tinga in a variety of ways. My preference is on a nice bed of rice with beans and tons of fresh toppings.

My love of this Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga deeply eclipses a simpler slow cooker salsa chicken (which is also delicious) because the flavors are so deep, intense, and just an altogether different experience when you eat it. The smokiness of the chipotle in adobos peppers twines with the onions and garlic, deepening the acidity of the fire roasted tomatoes and the cumin adds a delicious earthiness that helps ground everything together.

Browning the onions and the spices together in the beginning is key to really unlocking the deep flavors of the sauce in the final dish. This adds an incredible amount of dimension to the sauce, and since there are only a few ingredients you really want to maximize the flavor of each ingredient. I highly recommend blending together the sauce ingredients as it helps homogenize the flavors and the viscosity of the sauce is nice and thick. An added bonus is if there are littles that hate onion chunks they magically disappear once you blend the sauce. I like to add the cilantro in at the beginning as the soapy flavor cooks out for me, but feel free to add fresh cilantro at the end. Fresh herbs really lift up the deep and intense slow cooked flavors that develop in this Chicken Tinga.

The sauce is something you can make ahead if you have the wherewithal to do so, but it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to get everything sautéed, blended, and thrown into the slow cooker. One thing I have found with slow cooker recipes for just proteins like chicken, is that the cook time is much less than something like a stew, soup, or chili. So to avoid the meat from simultaneously drying out and shredding so small, I recommend shredding the chicken into chunky pieces around 2, 2 1/2 hours on high, or 4, 4 1/2 hours on low, then switching the appliance to warm. If you let it go the entire day before shredding the chicken, just be aware that it will shred into tiny pieces rather than nice chunks.

I love to serve this Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga as a rice bowl, with beans, avocado, fresh lime juice, cheese, and fresh jalapeños and tomatoes. I have definitely made it into burritos, quesadillas, tacos, and even thrown the chicken on top of a fresh salad when I wanted something a little fresher. Pickled jalapeños or pickled red onions really make the flavors of everything really pop, too. When using rice for burritos or rice bowls, I recommend using just plain white rice rather than a traditional Mexican tomato based rice, or a cilantro lime rice. This is because the flavor is SO intense in the Chicken Tinga sauce that you want to highlight it, rather than compete with it in the rice.

My interpretation of this incredibly flavorful, chipotle infused Chicken Tinga is easy, keeps well, and honestly is even better the following day as the flavors take more time to meld. It is incredibly versatile and can be utilized in whichever ways you prefer (nachos, tostadas, bocadillas, enchiladas, and so on). Now that I have half of my kitchen back (yay for the base cabinets being completely dry!) you can bet that this flavorful chicken is back in the mix

Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga

This Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga takes only about 15-20 minutes to get prepped and in the slow cooker from start to finish, and that includes chopping/measuring out spices time.

Make sure when you blend the ingredients you allow steam to escape, otherwise you will have an explosion of hot sauce everywhere which I am sure is NOT the goal.

As mentioned above, I am extremely picky about my proteins and how they come out in the slow cooker, so I tend to leave my chicken in there much less time than many typical recipes do before shredding the chicken then switching the slow cooker to warm to allow the flavors to keep building before serving without the chicken completely disintegrating/drying out. You can, of course, let it go all day if you choose to, but please note that the chicken will be VERY finely shredded and you won’t get nice chunks of protein like I have pictured.

Add the fresh lime after you’ve shredded the chicken and let it reabsorb into the chicken, adding it at the beginning of the process will dull the bright acidity. I also serve this chicken with additional lime as it’s my preference.

Ingredients:

2 pounds of Chicken (3 large Chicken Breasts, or 5 boneless, skinless Chicken Thighs)
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Cup Onion, chopped (1 medium onion)
2 Tsp Minced Garlic (2-4 cloves garlic)
1 Tsp Ground Cumin
3/4 Tsp Oregano
1/2 Tsp Ground Coriander
1 1/4 Tsp Sea Salt, divided
1/4 Tsp Fresh Ground Black Pepper
3 Chipotle in Adobe sauce, diced
2 Tbsp Chipotle in adobo sauce
1 14.5 oz can Fire Roasted Tomatoes
1/3 Cup Chicken Stock
1 Bay Leaf
3/4 Cup Cilantro, chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp Lime Juice (1 lime)

Directions:

In a large skillet over medium heat, add the olive oil and then the onion once the oil is shimmering and the pan is heated. Sauté for 5-7 minutes, until the onions are soft, translucent and starting to brown on the edges.
Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds to a minute, till fragrant.
Stir in the cumin oregano, coriander, 1 Tsp salt, and pepper. Stir to evenly coat onions with spices an let them sauté for an additional 1-2 minutes. This allows the flavors from the spices to open up and bloom, creating a deeper, more complex flavor profile in the finished dish.
Add the chipotle in adobo sauce, the additional adobo sauce, stir, and simmer for an additional couple of minutes.
In a blender, add the chicken stock, fire roasted tomatoes, and cooked onion mixture. Blend (carefully) till smooth.
Transfer 1/3 of the blended sauce to the crockpot and make sure it covers the bottom of the dish completely. Sprinkle in 1/2 of the cilantro, then add the chicken. Make sure both sides of the chicken get tossed in the sauce/cilantro in the crockpot, then cover the chicken with the remaining sauce and cilantro. Add in the bay leaf.
Alternately, in the skillet with the cooked onion mixture, add the chicken stock and fire roasted tomatoes then blend with an immersion blender. Continue layering sauce/cilantro/chicken as listed in previous step.
Cover, then cook on low for 4-5 hours, or high for 2-3. At this point you can pull the chicken apart easily, and can shred it as chunky or finely as you like.
Add the lime juice, taste and add the additional 1/4 Tsp salt (to taste), stir, and then cover and cook on low for an additional 15 minutes to allow the shredded chicken to absorb the sauce.
Serve over rice, with beans, avocado, and whatever else strikes your fancy.