Instant Pot Chicken Tinga Tacos—easy to make smoky chicken tacos with all the fixings. A fresh weeknight meal that comes together quickly.
Get the SLOW COOKER chicken tinga tacos recipe here
Instant Pot Chicken Tinga Tacos
Chicken tinga is a shredded chicken taco filling that has a tomato chipotle sauce. It has a crowd-pleasing smoky flavor and just a bit of heat. I used my Instant Pot to speed up the process and yum it was good!
I used heated up small corn tortillas for my taco shells. I also love those uncooked flour tortillas that you cook quickly in a pan. I served my tacos with lots of cilantro, a squeeze of lime and a bit of sour cream. I was missing avocados and didn’t have the energy to go to the store but next time I will definitely slice up some avocados or use guacamole with these chicken tinga tacos.
I prefer chicken thighs for this recipe but you can use chicken breasts instead. Or what works really well is a combination of the two. I just buy the big bags of frozen chicken thighs from Costco. This recipe works well with frozen chicken. That’s how I roll.
If you’re a fan of heat you can use 3 chili peppers instead of 2. If you’re scared of heat then just use 1 chili pepper. I like to freeze the leftover chipotle peppers in a ziplock bag for later use.
I am going to use the leftover chicken to serve on salad…kind of like taco salad. I love romaine lettuce, taco toppings and then crunched up Fritos on top. Some other ways to use up the leftovers are nachos, tostados or a rice bowl.
More Chicken Instant Pot Recipes…
Instant Pot Firecracker Chicken
Instant Pot Honey Mustard Chicken
Instant Pot King Ranch Chicken
What Pressure Cooker Did You Use?
To make Instant Pot Chicken Tinga Tacos I used my 6 quart Instant Pot Duo 60 7 in 1*. I love this Instant Pot because it has the yogurt making function which I use almost weekly. It has two pressure settings (high and low), and there are also little slots in the handles so that you can rest the lid there instead of putting it down on your counter-top.
Instant Pot Chicken Tinga Tacos
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes (plus 10 minute NPR)
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 8 servings 1x
Description
Easy to make smoky chicken tacos with all the fixings. A fresh weeknight meal that comes together quickly.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chicken broth
- 2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs or breasts (or a combination)
- 1 cup diced onion
- 1 Tbsp minced garlic
- 1 (14.5 oz) can fire roasted tomatoes
- 1 tsp dried oregano
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 2 chipotle chili peppers (canned) in adobo sauce, chopped
- 3 Tbsp cornstarch + 3 Tbsp cold water
- Salt and pepper
- Lime Juice
- Taco items: shells, tomatoes, sour cream, avocados, cheese, chopped cilantro etc.
Instructions
- Add chicken broth to the Instant Pot. Add in the chicken. Dump the onion, garlic, tomatoes, oregano, cumin, salt and chili peppers on top of the chicken.
- Cover the Instant Pot and secure the lid. Make sure the valve is set to sealing. Set the manual/pressure cook button to 18 minutes for frozen chicken or 15 minutes for thawed chicken. When the time is up let the pot sit for 10 minutes and then move the valve to venting. Remove the lid.
- Remove the chicken and place on a cutting board and shred.
- Use a stick blender to blend the juices in the Instant Pot until smooth. Turn the Instant Pot to the saute setting. Make a cornstarch slurry by stirring 3 Tbsp of cornstarch with 3 Tbsp of cold water until smooth. Add the slurry into the pot. The sauce will thicken in a couple of minutes.
- Stir the chicken into the sauce.
- Salt and pepper the chicken to taste. Add in lime juice to taste.
- Use chicken in tacos with all your favorite taco toppings.
Notes
If you’re a fan of heat you can use 3 chili peppers instead of 2. If you’re scared of heat then just use 1 chili pepper. I like to freeze the leftover chipotle peppers in a ziplock bag for later use.
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
*Karen Petersen is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.
This was really tasty! I made half the recipe in my Instant Pot mini. Used fresh Roma tomatoes from the garden because I was out of canned. Served it with rice and black beans and warm corn tortillas.
★★★★★
there is nothing like fresh tomatoes!
Why does my recipe turn out so soupy? Am I not waiting long enough for the cornstarch to do it’s job? Do I need to drain the can of tomatoes? I’m stumped.
Add more cornstarch and wait for minute!
So simple and delicious! Super filling as well.
★★★★★
Glad you enjoyed it Audrey! 👍
I don’t have a stick blender. Can I skip that step or dump everything into a regular blender?
You can use a regular blender 🙂
Hi Karen,
What changes would you suggest to use the slow cooker instead?
https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/slow-cooker-chicken-tinga-tacos/
Great fish & really easy (and fast!) to make. Used 3 chipotle peppers as we like spice, and adobo adds a lot of depth to the sauce. Used frozen thighs, came out perfect. Served with Pico de gallo Chopped avocado. Delicious, thanks for the recipe!
★★★★★
Omg great *dish*
Love the idea of pico! It’s my favorite.
This was wonderful. I used Mexican oregano instead of regular oregano. Will cut down on the chipotle chili peppers next time for my husband. Served it in hard taco shells. It was great with your cilantro rice for a side dish.
★★★★★
Oh, good idea on the Mexican oregano!
Tried this past weekend. Fabulous.
I find most of your recipes worth trying, and I’ve not found a bad one yet. Only problem is, between you and Kenji/Serious Eats and Chef John/Food Wishes, I’m collecting more recipes than I can possible ever cook.
I wanted to mention one issue I have. I use “Cozi” (www.cozi.com) as my family recipe box. I use browser shortcut they provide to 1-click import recipes; I just click this shortcut and *boom*, the recipe is in Cozi. Once there, it can be added to our meal plan, shopping list, etc. Probably the most brilliant feature of Cozi.
My problem is, when I try to import from your website, the Cozi importer “misses” the “Instruction” part; it gets the “Title”, “Website link”, and “Ingredients” OK, but the “Instructions” are blank. I then go back to your page, swipe/copy/paste into the Cozi form, Save, and *boom*, done!
I’m hoping you can mention this to your blog software developer; they might be able to change things to make Cozi importation smoother.
Solving this would make it even easier to import your recipes into Cozi. I’ll be adding this same request to the Cozi support team as well.
Sorry for the long message in the recipe comments. I couldn’t find a better way to contact you. And for sounding like a Cozi zealot. Contact me directly if you prefer.
Ciao!
★★★★★
Hi there, I’ll see what I can do! Thanks for the suggestion 🙂
Wow. If you are reading this you probably haven’t tried this recipe. This is old school Mexico. I’ve never seen this dish on a menu. If I had, I might have passed it up. What a mistake that would have been. I used 2 peppers and it was perfect. I’m on a keto diet so I used a lettuce leaf instead of taco shell
.
★★★★★
Glad you liked it John!
Is the Chili Peppers in Adobo sauce canned? Or would I use fresh and make my own adobo sauce?
it was canned, good question. I will clarify that in the instructions.
Do you have Instant Pot recipes for the Keto Diet?
Here are the recipes I’ve labeled as low carb. Some of them may be keto: https://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/recipes/?fwp_method=instant-pot&fwp_dietary_restrictions=low-carb