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No. 23MexicanChicken

Tinga Roja Chicken Tacos

What beats a kick-ass taco?

John Drummond

Three soft corn tacos on a brown ceramic plate, filled with brick-red shredded chicken tinga and darker seared strands, topped with pink pickled onion, radish slices, avocado cubes, crumbled white cheese, a drizzle of crema and coriander, with lime wedges, a cast-iron pan of tinga, a cloth of tortillas and a bowl of pickled onion behind
Prep45min
Cook1hr 15min
All up

2hr+ 8–24 hours

Serves4
LevelMedium

Mise en place

What you need

Tick each one off as it goes in.

The chicken

The tinga

Crema, avocado and radish

Pickled onion

To serve

Makes 4 serves

My favourite cuisine Mexicano Mofo! What beats a kick-ass taco?

Tinga is from Puebla: roasted tomato, browned onion and chipotle, with shredded chicken cooked into it. The starting point was the Gourmet Traveller chicken tinga tacos. Rick Bayless makes the case for keeping tinga to those three things, and that's where this one stays.

What it came down to: - The salsa gets fried, not simmered. Charred tomato blended and poured into hot chicken fat, cooked until it goes from scarlet to brick and the fat splits out red. That's what makes it taste Mexican rather than chicken in tomato sauce. - The chipotles are minced and fried in the fat first, before the tomato. The smoke and heat go into the fat, and the fat carries them into every strand. - Bone-in thighs, salted the night before and roasted. The fat they give up does the frying, and the brown bits in the tray go into the salsa. No stock. - Two textures, made properly. Two-thirds of the chicken is cooked in the salsa until it clings. The other third is seared plain in a hot pan until the edges go mahogany, then tossed for ten seconds with a spoon of salsa, and goes on top. Never folded back in, never a platter of fourteen going soft. Rounds of four, eaten as they're made. - No smoking wood. The chipotle is the smoke. The charcoal is just for the tomatoes. - Crema on top of the meat, not under it. Avocado in pieces, not blended. Radish raw and iced, not pickled.

Chipotles in adobo come in tins from the supermarket's Mexican shelf (La Costeña, San Marcos). La Tortilleria makes whole-corn tortillas in Australia and they're stocked around Adelaide, including at the Central Market. Buy the small 12.5 cm ones, not the 20 cm. Queso fresco from a Latin grocer; cotija if that's what they have.

Before the last salt goes in, build one whole taco and eat it. The tortilla, cheese and crema all mute the pot. Season the taco, not the pan.

It hasn't been made in this exact form yet.

AI reviewed by Grok, Codex & Claude

The method

Sixteen moves.

  1. Chicken, Salt

    The night before. Pat dry. 9 g salt over and under the skin. On a rack, uncovered, in the fridge, 8–24 hours.

  2. Chicken, Roast

    Oven 210°C fan. Thighs skin up in a shallow metal tray. Roast until the thickest reads 82–85°C beside the bone and a probe slides in with no resistance, 35–45 minutes. 75°C is safe; 82–85°C is when thigh pulls. Rest 10 minutes.

  3. Fat, Fond, Save

    Pour the fat into a cup. You want about 4 tablespoons; top up with oil if short. Splash up to 60 ml hot water into the tray and scrape up every brown bit. Keep that too.

  4. Chicken, Pull

    Skin and bones off. The skin is the cook's. Pull the meat into strands about 1 cm thick, not cotton wool, not chunks. Taste a strand; it should be seasoned. Put a third of it aside, plain, for the crisp.

  5. Onion, Pickle

    Bring the vinegar, water, sugar and salt to the boil. Pour over the red onion. 20 minutes, then drain and pat dry.

  6. Tomatoes, Char

    Big Joe or gas BBQ, direct and hot, no wood. Tomatoes cut side down 3–5 minutes, turn, 5–8 minutes more, until blistered, slumped and black at the edges. Garlic on the cooler side until soft. Or under the oven grill at 250°C. Squeeze out the garlic and blend coarse with the tomatoes and their juices. No chipotle in the blender.

  7. Onion, Brown

    Wide pan, 30 cm if you have it. 1 tbsp of the fat, the white onion, a pinch of salt. Medium, 15 minutes, until deep gold with dark edges.

  8. Chipotle, Bloom

    2 tbsp more fat. Heat up, not smoking. The three minced chipotles and the adobo, 45–60 seconds, stirring, until the fat goes brick-red. Don't walk away; it catches.

  9. Salsa, Fry

    The tomato in all at once. Stand back. Fry, stirring, 8–10 minutes, until it goes from scarlet to brick, a spoon drawn through shows the pan, and red fat beads at the edges. If it tastes thin, push it aside, fry the tomato paste in the gap for a minute, and stir it through. Oregano, rubbed between your palms, for the last minute. Tray juices in; reduce back to the same thickness.

  10. Chicken, Finish

    The two-thirds of the chicken into the salsa. Gentle, 5–8 minutes, until every strand is coated and it clings, no puddle. Take 2 tbsp of salsa out into a cup for the crisp. Lime, off the heat. Keep it warm, lid ajar.

  11. Crema, Mix

    Sour cream, lime and salt. Cold. Shave the radishes thin into iced water, 10 minutes, then dry them.

  12. Test Taco, Taste

    Heat one tortilla in a dry pan. Build it whole, as below. Eat it. Then fix the pot: salt in pinches first, then the held-back chipotle, chopped, if the smoke's gone quiet, then lime. On a spoon on its own the tinga should taste a little too salty.

  13. Crisp, Sear

    Per round of four tacos. Cast iron, hot, 1 tsp of the fat. About 70 g of the plain chicken in one layer. Press it down. 90 seconds untouched, turn, 45–90 seconds, until deep mahogany at the edges. Not black. Off the heat, a spoon of the saved salsa, toss 10 seconds. Done.

  14. Tortillas, Heat

    Dry comal or cast iron, hot. 20–30 seconds a side, then a short final turn until they puff. Straight to the plate, within a couple of minutes.

  15. Tacos, Build

    Tortilla. About 35 g of the juicy tinga. About 17 g of the crisp on top. Pink onion, two radish slices, a teaspoon of crema on the meat, a few pieces of avocado, salted and limed as you cut them. A pinch of cheese, coriander. Lime in the hand. Eat the round, then sear the next.

  16. Ahead

    The juicy tinga keeps 3 days. Cool it fast in a shallow tray, from 60°C to 21°C within 2 hours and down to 5°C within 4, in the fridge. Reheat to 75°C, then a couple of minutes in a wide pan. Keep the plain third in its own shallow box and sear it only at the table.

    The onion can be pickled the day before. Radish, avocado, crema and tortillas, on the day. Contains dairy (sour cream, cheese). The tortillas are corn and salt; check the adobo and cheese labels if you're avoiding gluten.

Keep wandering

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Tinga Roja Chicken Tacosserves 4 · 2 hr + 8–24 hours