Chicken tinga
Tinga de pollo
Poached, shredded chicken simmered with sliced onion, tomato and chipotle in adobo until smoky and saucy. Piled on tostadas with crema and cheese.
Recipe by I Want Some Food · Reviewed by the editorial kitchen. Native name preserved: Tinga de pollo.
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 45 min
- Rest
- None
- Total
- 1 hr
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Spice
- Medium heat
- Cost
- Weeknight budget$8–16 USD · indicative, not a store price
About
Tinga is shredded chicken cooked in a sauce of tomato and chipotle chilli in adobo, with a lot of onion sliced thin and fried until soft and sweet. The chicken is poached first in water with onion and garlic, which gives you the broth to loosen the sauce. The finished tinga should be moist but not soupy, smoky and a little sweet, with heat that depends on how many chipotles you use. Two is warm and four is hot. It is a filling, so make a batch and use it on tostadas, in tacos, tortas or quesadillas.
What you'll need
15 ingredients. Tap each one once it's out on the bench.
- Chicken
- Sauce
- To serve
Ingredients
Chicken
Sauce
- Onion, thinly sliced2 medium
- Garlic2 clove
- Tomato, or a 400 g tin of tomatoes4 medium
- Chipotles in adobo, plus 1 tbsp of the sauce3
- Oregano, dried2½ ml
- Neutral oil30 ml
To serve
- Corn tortilla, bought tostadas, or tortillas baked crisp12
- Sour cream, Mexican crema, or sour cream89 ml
- Queso fresco, crumbled100 g
Scaling multiplies the written quantities. Baking still prefers a scale.
Steps
Step 1
Put the chicken in a saucepan with the water, the half onion, 2 garlic cloves, the bay leaves and 1 tsp salt. Bring to a simmer and cook gently, 20 minutes for thighs or 15 for breasts, until cooked through. Lift out, cool a little and shred with two forks. Keep the broth.
30 min
Step 2
Blend the tomatoes, chipotles and their sauce, the remaining garlic and the oregano with 150 ml of the broth until smooth.
3 min
Step 3
Heat the oil in a wide frying pan over medium heat and fry the sliced onion for about 10 minutes, until soft and golden at the edges.
10 min
Step 4
Pour in the sauce and cook 5 minutes until darker and thick. Add the chicken, 1 tsp salt and another 150 ml of broth and simmer 10 minutes, stirring, until saucy but not wet. Taste for salt and heat, and add another chopped chipotle if you want it hotter.
15 min
Step 5
If making your own tostadas, bake the tortillas on the oven racks at 200°C for 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, until crisp. Pile the tinga on top and finish with crema and crumbled cheese.
10 min200°C
Nutrition
Per serving · estimate
- Calories
- 488 kcal
- Protein
- 48.2 g
- Carbs
- 40.4 g
- Fat
- 14.6 g
- Saturated fat
- 4 g
- Fibre
- 6.2 g
- Sugar
- 6.5 g
- Sodium
- 1239 mg
Calculated from canonical ingredient data (USDA FoodData Central averages and equivalent published tables). Estimates only.
Allergens
Informational only. Not a medical guarantee. Cross-contamination happens in real kitchens.
- Milk
- Nut-free
Adapt this recipe
The original recipe stays as it is. Personal versions are labelled. Serving changes are simple maths.
Adaptations · 0 / 15 used. Resets 13 November.
Substitutions
Chicken → Pork shoulder
Tinga de cerdo. Simmer the pork for about 1½ hours until it shreds, then carry on the same way.
Crema and cheese → Sliced avocado
Keeps it dairy-free and cools the chipotle just as well.
Tips
- Tinga keeps four days in the fridge and freezes well. It is better on the second day.
- Freeze the rest of the chipotle tin flat in a bag and break off a chilli when you need one.
History & culture
Tinga is everyday home food across central Mexico and a standard at parties, set out in a clay pot with a stack of tostadas, crema and cheese. Fondas serve it as one of the guisados for tacos de guisado. Leftovers fill the next day's quesadillas, and it travels well to a picnic or an office lunch.
Tinga is from Puebla, and nobody is sure where the name comes from. Tinga poblana, made with pork and chorizo, is probably the older form; chicken tinga is now the more common one. Chipotles, smoke-dried jalapeños, are a pre-Hispanic way of preserving chillies; tinning them in adobo became an industry much later.
Traditional — Puebla cooks often add a little chorizo for fat and flavour. Tinned chipotles in adobo are what nearly every Mexican kitchen uses now. Check the tin if you need the dish gluten-free, as a few brands thicken the adobo with flour.
Provenance: Editorial adaptation.
Questions about this recipe
Answers taken from this dish's times, amounts, swaps and tips.
How long does Chicken tinga take?
1 hr all in — 15 min prep, 45 min cook. Cook and rest follow the method. Leftover storage and optional extra waits are not included.
How many does it serve?
The recipe is written for 6 people. Scale the ingredient list on the page if you are cooking for a different number.
How hard is it?
Easy.
How spicy is it?
Medium heat.
What allergens should I watch?
This recipe is labelled for Milk. Labels are informational — check the packets in your kitchen. This is not medical advice.
Does it fit a diet?
The published recipe is labelled Nut-free.
6 more questionsFewer questions
What does it cost to cook?
Weeknight budget — about $8–16 USD, as a grocery budget for this recipe, not a restaurant price.
What equipment do I need?
Saucepan, Blender, Frying pan, Oven.
How much salt do I put in?
The recipe lists Salt at 2 tsp (1 for the pot, 1 for the sauce).
What can I use instead?
Chicken → Pork shoulder. Tinga de cerdo. Simmer the pork for about 1½ hours until it shreds, then carry on the same way. Crema and cheese → Sliced avocado. Keeps it dairy-free and cools the chipotle just as well.
Any tips from this recipe?
Tinga keeps four days in the fridge and freezes well. It is better on the second day. Freeze the rest of the chipotle tin flat in a bag and break off a chilli when you need one.
Can I use an air fryer?
This method is not written for an air fryer. The core technique on the page still applies.
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