Rotisserie chicken bathed in a smoky, slightly spicy tinga sauce. Wicked good! Everything your Taco Tuesday (or any day of the week ) dreams are made of.
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You know that dreaded feeling? It’s time to make dinner but you forgot to plan. Or the plan for the day went haywire and you don’t have time to make what you planned. Years of personal experience talking here. You want to feed your family healthy homemade meals but adding one more thing feels impossible?
Enter rotisserie chicken tinga tacos. If you need them tonight they can be made in 20 minutes. Even better, plan ahead and make a large batch. Then you can have packets of sauce ready at a moments notice. Honestly, a life saver in the kitchen. Making Taco Tuesday a tradition has never been so easy or delicious.
🧅 Ingredients
Olive Oil: Adds great flavor with the added benefit of being heart healthy.
Onion and garlic: Essential for adding in layers of flavor.
Chipotle Peppers: Smokey jalapeno peppers in adobo sauce. The perfect amount of heat.
Oregano: Preferably Mexican oregano but feel free to use what you have on hand.
Cumin: Lends another subtle smokey layer. A classic Mexican spice.
Canned Fire-Roasted Tomatoes: The tomatoes are charred before being canned. Really ramping up the smokey flavor of the sauce.
Chicken stock: Helps to thin the sauce to the correct consistency while adding flavor.
Kosher Salt: My go-to salt.
Rotisserie Chicken: Pull it yourself or buy it already pulled. Either way it makes for a super quick dinner.
🔪 Instructions
Put your seat belt on because this is going to go fast. First saute the onion and garlic in oil. Then add in the oregano and cumin for 30 seconds. Next everything else goes in except the chicken. Let that all heat up for approximately 5 minutes. Once hot the sauce needs blended. I prefer to use an immersion blender, but if you don’t have one you can use a regular blender or food processor. Be careful though because the sauce is hot. Add the chicken into the warm sauce. Once the chicken is warmed through it’s time to eat.
🌮 How to serve
These are our absolute favorite toppings for rotisserie chicken tinga tacos. Feel free to use some or all of them!
- Lime juice
- Cilantro
- Red onion
- Cotija
- Avocado
- Roasted Pineapple Habanero Salsa
Best Way To Warm Tortillas
Finding the perfect method for warming tortillas has taken me many years. Early on the most popular way was to lightly fry them in oil. But that has too many extra calories. Then wrapping them in a damp towel or paper towels was the way we did it. Problem being that the tortillas often end up being so soft they fall apart. No good! Another method is to wrap in foil and warm in the oven. But that is so inconvenient when you don't already have the oven on. I also love to char them over a gas burner, but usually that takes too long to do one at a time.
My favorite way is to get out the pancake griddle. That's right, the pancake griddle. Heat it as hot as it can go. Spray it with cooking spray or use one of my favorite kitchen tools, the Misto. Place the tortillas down and warm for a minute. Right before flipping spray the tops of the tortillas with more spray. Use a light touch here. They don't need a lot. Once that batch is done add the tortillas to the amazing tortilla warmer. It's life changing. It keeps the tortillas perfectly moist. If you don't have one get a pan with a lid and place them in there while you do the rest.
👨👩👧👦 For a crowd
This rotisserie chicken tinga tacos recipe is perfect for feeding a crowd. Keep the sauce and chicken prepped but separate for up to two days ahead. When it is time to serve, warm the sauce and then add the chicken until hot. Prep the toppings and tortillas just before serving.
🙋 Questions & Answers
No. Feel free to use whatever chicken you have on hand. Just be sure to measure out six cups of cooked, shredded meat.
Yes! It can be frozen with the chicken or without. Often I freeze zipbags of sauce so that after picking up a rotisserie chicken on grocery shopping day I have a quick and easy meal. Thaw the sauce and warm in a skillet before adding in the chicken.
I answered this with a lengthy description up above. Check out the answer there!
Just use less chipotle peppers in adobo if you want it slightly less spicy.
📖 More Mexican food recipes
- Shredded Honey Lime Chicken (with rotisserie chicken) - A simple, flavorful chicken recipe made in under 15 minutes. Great for tacos, enchiladas, and more.
- The Ultimate Grilled Taco Marinade - An authentic marinade made easy in the blender! Great for chicken or skirt steak, this marinade makes the BEST street tacos.
- Cooked Street Taco Salsa - For the days you're craving restaurant-quality salsa for chips, tacos, or burritos... this is it!
👨🏼🍳 Tips & Tricks
- Start with less chipotle peppers if you are worried about the spiciness level. You can always add more after tasting it.
- One whole rotisserie chicken (3 pound) from Sam's or Costco should be enough for this recipe. Measure the shredded chicken to be sure.
- If you have extra chipotles in adobo freeze them flat in a zipbag for next time.
- Warm tortillas on a pancake griddle or skillet with a light spritz of oil. Keep warm in tortilla warmer.
📋 Recipe
Easy Chicken Tinga Tacos (Using Rotisserie Chicken)
Ingredients
Tinga Sauce
- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion roughly chopped
- 4 cloves garlic
- 4 tsp oregano Mexican if you have it
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 2-4 chipotle peppers in adobo
- 2 14.5 oz cans fire roasted tomatoes
- ½ cup chicken broth
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 6 cups rotisserie chicken meat shredded
Taco Ingredients
- 20-25 corn tortillas
- 1-2 limes, sliced optional
- 1 head cilantro, chopped optional
- cotija cheese optional
- avocado, diced optional
- red onion, diced optional
- salsa see post for recommendation
Instructions
- Heat oil in a deep skillet or saucepan over medium-high heat. Once hot add onion and garlic. Cook until onion is translucent. Add in oregano and cumin. Cook, stirring constantly, for 30 seconds.
- Add in chipotles in adobo, fire roasted tomatoes, chicken broth and salt. Bring to a simmer. Using an immersion blender (or regular blender/food processor) carefully blend ingredients until mostly smooth. This is a personal preference so go as smooth as you like.
- Add in shredded chicken and stir to coat in sauce. Allow to warm through.
- To serve: Warm tortillas (see below) and top with your favorite toppings.
Notes
- Start with less chipotle peppers if you are worried about the spiciness level. You can always add more after tasting it.
- One whole rotisserie chicken from Sam's or Costco will be enough for this recipe.
- If you have extra chipotles in adobo freeze them flat in a zipbag for next time.
- Warm tortillas on a pancake griddle or skillet with a light spritz of oil. Keep warm in tortilla warmer.
This recipe was inspired by The Minimalist Kitchen via Pinch of Yum. We have altered amounts and directions to suit our preferences.
David says
Yes, please!
Eileen says
How many tortillas with the tortilla warmer hold?
Borrowed Bites says
The back of the tortilla warmer says up to 12 tortillas if you are placing the tortillas inside and microwaving them. However, when I use it as described in the post I can easily fit 24 or more.
Eileen says
Thank you!
Leslie says
These are AMAZING! I will be making these regularly. Super easy even on a school night.
Misty says
Makes us happy that you loved them! Definitely a great weeknight dinner.
Destiny Rogers says
I made this tonight and it was excellent. It was a hit with my husband, I will definitely be making this again. The directions were easy to follow and easy to make. It made a great weekday meal. I did not blend up the sauce because I didn't want to clean something else and it was great. I liked the chunkiness of the dish. Thanks for sharing another amazing recipe
Misty says
So glad your family liked it! Leaving the sauce unblended is a great option if you like that texture.
Danielle says
So happy to hear how much you liked it! Love that you modified it to fit your taste.
Rachel says
I made this recipe last night for my family, wow wow wow. This is a mighty step up from your regular taco night. My husband was raving over how delicious it was. I started with just one chipotle pepper in adobo sauce and that was plenty hot for us. We used fresh cilantro, cotija cheese, and fresh avocado slices as toppings. I was thinking about adding salsa as a topping, but the sauce covering the chicken was completely amazing on its own. A very fast and easy dinner, especially since it allowed for leftovers (There was three of us eating a total of 12 tacos, for reference).
Misty says
So glad you liked it! Thanks for sharing your notes with everyone.