mexican recipe for chicken tinga

Recipe for chicken tinga, better known as "tinga de pollo"

To a mexican person, a tinga means something messy, in disorder, a bit like this dish, as it is like a stew. But stay with me... this is a very good one! Give the Tinga de Pollo the honor it deserves; a dish easy to prepare and worthy enough to be good for any special occasion. This dish originating from Puebla in Mexico is made with a spicy sauce that includes shredded meat or chicken. In this case the chicken gets its delicious flavor from the marinated chipotle chiles; this way of making tinga has become very popular. It is a traditional Mexican dish prepared with shredded meat (or chicken) and tomato sauce with chipotle in Adobo.

It can be made with chicken, beef or pork and is usually served with tostadas, sour cream, cheese and any salsa of your choice. This recipe is considered as a convenient way to make a stew that will please a majority of guests. For a large amount of guests just adjust the quantities found below in this recipe accordingly. When preparing the tinga, cook the onion until it browns completely: for this dish, they have to become caramelized, then you can mix in the sliced chiles with the same broth you got from cooking the chicken.

Recipe for Tinga de Pollo (chicken tinga):

Ingredients:

* 2 Boneless and skinless chicken breasts, or thighs
* 1 clove garlic
* 2 large onions
* 4 tomatoes
* 3 Chipotle Chiles in adobo (chipotles en adobo), with three tablespoons of the adobo
* 2 Chorizo sausages
* 3 red cherry chiles, or any red chile
* Salt to taste
* Vegetable oil
* White Vinegar

Making this mexican recipe now:

1) Boil the chicken breasts in boiling water until they are done, or cook them in a pan with garlic, 1/4 onion and salt to taste.
The chicken doesn't have to be 100% cooked in this operation, as it will finish its cooking in the following steps.

2) Drain the broth from the chicken breast and reserve the broth for other recipes; chop the chicken down to shreds, also reserve the shredded chicken.

3) Chop one onion (one onion left for later) coarsely in quarters and add the quarters to a skillet with hot oil.

While the onions are being browned, cut the tomatoes in quarters, add them to the onion quarters and add half cup of the chicken broth, garlic and chipotle in adobo chiles; add to these vegetables the chorizo sausages and cook until everything is thorougly cooked. Once cooked remove the sausages from the vegetables, and blend everything using your blender or food processor. Reserve the blended sauce for step 5.

4) Chop the cherry peppers to small bits; chop finely the other onion and cook both for about 3 minutes in hot oil.

5) Cut the chorizo sausages to small chunks. Pour the sauce back into the skillet or pan where you have the chopped peppers and onions and add a teaspoon of vinegar and simmer for 10 minutes over medium heat. Mix in the shredded chicken and the chorizos and season with salt to taste.

6) Cover the pan and then simmer for 10-15 minutes or until the broth has reduced to a nice and thick texture.
The real mexican way to have your tinga is making this sauce nice and thick so give it enough time to reduce!

How to serve your tinga de pollo, now? As always with mexican food, creativity is welcome: tinga de pollo tastes great in tortillas, or accompanied by rice and guacamole, or simply slices of avocadoes...