Smoky chicken tacos with pickled pico
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Total Time: 35 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
Ingredients
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 1 ½ lbs skinless, boneless chicken thighs
- 1 ½ teaspoons chili powder
- 1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground coriander
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pepper
- ¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ¼ cup beer/stock/water
- Corn or flour tortillas
Pickled pico de gallo
- ½ small red onion, diced
- 1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup cilantro, chopped
- 2 cups cherry tomatoes, diced
Instructions
- Start the pico: Combine red onion, jalapeno, lime juice and vinegar in a small bowl. Mix well, cover and let sit while you cook chicken.
- Heat oil over medium-high heat. Mix together all spices in a small bowl.
- While oil is hot, sprinkle both sides of chicken pieces with half of the spice mixture. Sear chicken for 2-3 minutes on each side until brown.
- Pour in beer/stock/water, reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook for 15 minutes or until chicken is fully cooked through.
- Add remaining spice mixture and shred chicken in pan. Turn off heat.
- Add tomatoes and cilantro to pico and stir to combine.
- Serve chicken in warm tortillas (I love a cast iron for this), topped with pickled pico de gallo.
I live in the land of very good tacos, so it’s amazing to me that I still want to come up with new ways to taco (it’s a verb, okay?). But I do! So here we are!
More than anything, this recipe is a lesson in the power of a quick spice rub. You all know I love keeping homemade mixes on hand for ever-y-thing. And while my house seasoning would work perfectly here (same spices!), the one in the recipe above is super simple to pull together last-minute and 100% the worth the extra 5 percent of effort.
And the pickled pico?! It’s basically my answer to the fact that we’re a society putting pickled red onions on everything. The 20-ish minutes the onions and jalapeno spend bathing in lime juice and vinegar is juuust enough to add a little vinegary bite to these tacos, officially raising them a notch above your normal weeknight chicken taco situation.
And you’ll have more than enough left to shove into your face with your favorite crunch, salty chips. You’re so very welcome.
