Chipotle Chicken Tacos

These chipotle chicken tacos are a little spicy, a little smoky and a whole lot of deliciousness. The chicken is marinated in a simple chipotle sauce and tucked into tortillas with a cool and crunchy cilantro-lime coleslaw.

Here are a few fun facts about these chipotle chicken tacos:

• The simple chipotle marinade doubles as a sauce. It’s a twofer.
• You can cook the chicken on the stove or on the grill. Choices! Yay.
• The spicy chipotle peppers are balanced out with some creamy, cool Greek yogurt that also helps tenderize the chicken as it marinates.
• A crunchy cilantro-lime slaw adds texture and flavor. I love a good slaw.

Ingredients

• Diced canned tomatoes
• Chipotle pepper plus some adobo sauce
• Plain Greek yogurt
• Cilantro
• Kosher salt
• Boneless, skinless chicken breasts
• Coleslaw mix
• Fresh lime juice
• Warm flour tortillas

How to Make the Tacos

Chipotle Marinade

For the marinade, we’re combining canned diced tomatoes, cilantro, Greek yogurt, chipotle pepper plus adobo sauce and salt.

I usually go with one chipotle pepper, but you can add more if you want it extra spicy. You do you!

Pop it all in the blender and blend until smooth.

Divide the marinade and use half of it to marinate the boneless skinless chicken breasts. Save the other half to drizzle over the tacos.

Make the Slaw

The chicken only needs about 30 minutes to marinate and while it does you can make the slaw.

First, save yourself some time and buy a bag a coleslaw mix or a bag of shredded cabbage.

Combine the coleslaw with Greek yogurt, lime juice, cilantro and salt. Mix and pop it in the fridge while you cook the chicken.

Cook the Chicken

Remove the chicken from the marinade and let the excess marinade drip off.

Cook the chicken on the stove in a large skillet or grill it over medium-high heat. If you opt to grill I recommend cooking the chicken over indirect heat so it doesn’t char too much.

Once it’s cooked through, let it rest for a couple of minutes and then thinly slice it.

Assemble the Tacos

Warm some flour tortillas, pile on some slaw, top it with the sliced chicken, and drizzle some of the reserved sauce over the top. Add a sprinkle of some chopped cilantro with a squeeze of lime juice if you’re feeling it.

A Couple More Thoughts

• You can use the same amount of boneless, skinless chicken thighs instead of breasts.
• Sometimes I skip the tortillas and pile the chipotle chicken on cilantro rice with the slaw for a taco bowl.
• You may end up with some extra chipotle sauce and, for the record, that’s not a bad thing. Store it in the fridge and use it like you would enchilada sauce. It goes with all the things.
• Just make sure to toss the sauce you used as a marinade and keep the extra separate. Any sauce that touched the raw chicken should be tossed (i.e. the marinade) and any sauce you serve with the tacos should be kept separate.
• The chicken is very leftover-worthy. If you want to save some just pop it in a container and keep it in the fridge. It will keep well for several days.

Juicy, tender chicken wrapped up with all the crunchy slaw and spicy-smoky sauce. These chipotle chicken tacos are anything but ordinary. Enjoy!

Happy Cooking,

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More Recipes to Try

• BBQ Pork Tenderloin Tacos
• Salsa Verde
• Double Decker Tacos
• Baked Black Beans
• Short Rib Tacos
• Shrimp Taco Bowls

📣 Do you love this recipe? I would love to know! Leave a comment below the recipe along with your recipe star rating.

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The nutrition is an estimate only. It was calculated using Nutrifox, an online nutrition calculator.

The post updated from the archives. First published in May 2016.