Ginny’s Chicken Tinga

This chicken can be made as spicy as you like by adding more or less chipotle peppers to the sauce. I recommend making tacos with the chicken tinga, shredded romaine lettuce, sharp cheddar cheese, and Crema.

Unbalanced

% Daily Values based on a 2,000 calorie diet

Step 1

Bring to a boil chicken, chicken broth, salt, oregano, halved onion, garlic, and bay leaves in a large pot. Reduce heat to medium low, cover, and simmer for 30 minutes.

Step 2

In a separate skillet, sauté the diced onion in a small amount of oil. Once soft but not brown, remove from heat and cool.

Step 3

Once chicken has finished simmering, turn off heat. Use a large slotted spoon to remove all contents from the pot into a separate bowl, leaving the broth in the large pot. Add the diced onion to the large pot with the broth. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium low, allowing liquid to reduce by half, uncovered, for about 15 minutes.

Step 4

Using tongs, sift through the bowl with the chicken. Discard bay leaves. Remove onion and garlic. Place into a food processor with the San Marzano tomatoes and chipotle peppers and chipotle sauce. Purée mixture until smooth.

Step 5

After broth has simmered for 15 minutes and reduced by half, add tomato mixture to the broth. Return to a boil, and again reduce on medium low for 15 minutes.

Step 6

Using your hands, separate the chicken thighs into large chunks. Return chicken chunks to thickened sauce. Simmer 15-30 minutes more.

Step 7

Notes — 1) Spice can be controlled through the amount of chipotle peppers. 21 oz is very spicy, 14 is medium, and 7 is minimum. 2) The leftover liquid after the chicken is finished cooking can be used to make Spanish rice: 4 cups of sauce to 2 cups Zatarain’s long grain rice with additional diced onion.