The most delicious shredded chicken tacos this Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga is flavorful, tender, juicy and smoky. The perfect slow cooker meal!
Are you craving some slow cooker goodness now that the weather is warming up? You can’t get any better than this easy Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga!
With delicious and easy ingredients this cooks up to be tender, juicy and full of flavor. The perfect filling for your tacos, burritos or over rice.
We love Chicken Tinga and always have. I love that we are able too make it in the slow cooker, this is the main way that we have always made it and won’t stop.
When I can put a meal together and forget about it, I’m game. The slow cooker is one of my favorite appliances around and we make use of it all year long.
This recipe really fills the family up and they love when we make this, I have not gotten any complaints from my kids when we whip this up, which is good because they can be picky!
This Chicken Tinga is a delicious taco recipe (that is the normal way we serve it) that requires minimal toppings because the chicken alone has so much flavor.
Some of our other favorite Mexican-style recipes we have on our site include Slow Cooker Street Tacos, Slow Cooker Barbacoa Beef and Carne Asada!
WHY THIS RECIPE WORKS:
- It uses minimal ingredients, so it comes together quickly.
- You can double this to serve more people.
- You can control the spices and how hot or milk you want this.
INGREDIENTS NEEDED (FULL RECIPE AT BOTTOM):
Chicken thighs
Salt
Pepper
Olive oil
Onion
Garlic
Cumin
Oregano
Tomato puree
Chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
Tortillas
HOW TO MAKE SLOW COOKER CHICKEN TINGA, STEP BY STEP:
- Generously season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place in the Slow Cooker.
- Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat, add the sliced onions and sauteโ until translucent, about 5 minutes
- Transfer onions to the slow cooker. To a blender, add tomatoes, garlic, cumin, oregano, and chilis in adobo sauce. Pureeโ until blended into a sauce.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and onions. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or low for 4-6 hours.
- Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the thighs to a cutting board and shred with two forks.
- Return the meat back to the sauce. Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes on low or warm setting.
See how easy this Chicken Tinga is? Literally not much effort here, so this is one main reason that we absolutely love this recipe and make it a lot!
WHAT IS CHICKEN TINGA?
Chicken Tinga is a Mexican recipe made with shredded chicken in a sauce of tomatoes, chipotle chilis in adobo, and sliced onions. It is often served on a tostada or in tortillas.
We prefer this dish served in tortillas because I like the softness of a flour tortilla rather than the crunchiness of a tostada, but you can serve any way that you’d like.
WHAT DO I SERVE WITH THIS?
You can serve any of your favorite sides with this some of our favorites include:
Whatever your favorite side dishes are you can absolutely serve them with this Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga, there is no set rules here, make what you like!
HOW TO STORE:
This can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container or ziptop bag for up to 3 days.
This can also be frozen, you can place your Chicken Tinga Recipe in a freezer bag and squeeze the air out. Place in the freezer where it should keep for up to 3 months.
Let defrost in refrigerator overnight and you can reheat in slow cooker on low/warm or in a pan on the stove until heated through.
TIPS AND TRICKS:
- The heat in this recipe is medium. For mild, use 1 Chile and 1 teaspoon of adobo sauce; For hot, use 3 chiles and 2 tablespoons of the adobo sauce
- This can also be made with boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Shredding chicken hack: If you have a stand mixer, place the thighs in the bowl of the stand mixer, use the paddle attachment, and turn the mixer to โstirโ or a low setting, run until chicken is shredded.
- Your favorite cheese can be substituted for the Cotija cheese.
- This can be frozen, see my tips above on how to do that!
- You can double this recipe, just use a larger slow cooker.
If you want a super easy and utterly delicious recipe then you have to whip up a batch of this Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga!
If you like this recipe you might also like:
If you’ve tried this SLOW COOKER CHICKEN TINGA or any other recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers! You can also follow along with me on PINTEREST, FACEBOOK and INSTAGRAM to see more amazing recipes and what shenanigans I’m getting into!
Slow Cooker Chicken Tinga
Ingredients
- 2 - 2 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1 Tbs olive oil
- 1 medium onion thinly sliced
- 3 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp oregano
- 14 oz can fire roasted tomatoes
- 2 chipotle chiles in adobo sauce + 1 tablespoon of the adobo sauce the chiliโs are in.
- Tortillas
TOPPINGS:
- Red onion
- Cotija cheese
- Cilantro
Instructions
- Generously season the chicken with salt and pepper. Place in the Slow Cooker.
- Heat olive oil in a small skillet over medium-high heat, add the sliced onions and sauteโ until translucent, about 5 minutes
- Transfer onions to the slow cooker. To a blender, add tomatoes, garlic, cumin, oregano, and chilis in adobo sauce. Pureeโ until blended into a sauce.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and onions. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or low for 4-6 hours.
- Once the chicken is cooked through, remove the thighs to a cutting board and shred with two forks.
- Return the meat back to the sauce. Let it simmer for 20-30 minutes on low or warm setting.
- Serve over tortillas with red onion, cilantro and cheese.
Notes
- Nutritional value is for chicken only.
- The heat in this recipe is medium. For mild, use 1 Chile and 1 teaspoon of adobo sauce; For hot, use 3 chiles and 2 tablespoons of the adobo sauce
- This can also be made with boneless skinless chicken breasts
- Shredding chicken hack: If you have a stand mixer, place the thighs in the bowl of the stand mixer, use the paddle attachment, and turn the mixer to โstirโ or a low setting, run until chicken is shredded.
- Your favorite cheese can be substituted for the Cotija cheese.
- This can be frozen, see my tips above on how to do that!
- You can double this recipe, just use a larger slow cooker.
Nutrition
Tornadough Alli is not a nutritionist or dietitian, and any nutritional information shared is an estimate. If calorie count and nutritional value is important to you, we recommend running the ingredients through whichever online nutritional calculator you prefer. Calories and values can vary depending on which brands were used.
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