These Instant Pot Chicken Tinga Tacos take only 30 minutes in your pressure cooker! You’ll love the tender, smoky and flavourful chicken.
Ingredients and substitutions
- Olive oil – or another neutral cooking oil like avocado or canola oil.
- Yellow onion – white onion or shallots would also be good here.
- Garlic – freshly minced garlic is best but jarred minced garlic can be used in a pinch.
- Chili powder – make your own using a blend of paprika, cumin and cayenne.
- Ground cumin – add in some more chili powder or use coriander instead.
- Salt – to taste.
- Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce – diced poblano peppers, chipotle chiles or ancho chilies would also work.
- Fire roasted diced tomatoes – if you can’t find fire roasted diced tomatoes, you can use regular diced tomatoes with a pinch of paprika for a similar flavor.
- Chicken breasts – you can try using boneless skinless chicken thighs, but you’ll need to adjust the cooking time.
- Corn tortillas – flour tortillas would also work or you can serve the chicken in lettuce wraps for a low-carb alternative.
Topping ideas
- Red onion – diced white onion would also be good, but has a milder flavor.
- Cilantro – leave this off if you’re not a fan of cilantro.
- Cotija cheese – feta cheese or a shredded cheese blend of your choice can be used instead. You could also use a dairy free cheese of your choice.
- Lime wedges – leave these off if you don’t have fresh lime.
How to make chicken tinga in the Instant Pot
Step 1: Cook the chicken.
Add all ingredients except for corn tortillas and toppings to the Instant Pot in the order in which they are listed. Make sure the valve is set to sealing, then cook on high pressure for 5 minutes (Instant Pot will take 10-15 min to preheat). Do a quick pressure release once the cooking cycle is finished.
Step 2: Shred the chicken.
Open the lid when safe to do so and remove the chicken breasts. Shred apart with a knife and fork.
Step 3: Make the sauce.
Meanwhile, blend sauce with an immersion blender until smooth, then add chicken back to pot, tossing to combine.
Step 4: Serve and enjoy!
Serve on warm tortillas, add your chosen toppings and dig in.
How to Serve Chicken Tinga
Here are some of my favourite ways to serve chicken tinga:
- Tacos: Serve them in corn or flour tortillas with toppings like avocado, guacamole, cilantro, feta, cotija cheese, lime crema (made using sour cream, lime zest and lime juice) or pico de gallo.
- Burrito bowls: Serve the chicken over cilantro lime rice instead of in a tortilla with any toppings of your choice.
- With sides: Enjoy the chicken tinga on its own with a side of refried beans, black beans or Mexican rice.
- Tostadas: Serve the chicken and your fave toppings over crispy tostadas for a bit of crunch.
Frequently Asked Questions
The sauce for this Mexican dish is made of onion, garlic, chili powder, cumin, salt, chipotles in adobo sauce and fire roasted tomatoes. It cooks alongside the chicken in the Instant Pot before being blended up using an immersion blender – it’s super flavourful!
If you find that your Instant Pot chicken tacos are rubbery, you may not have cooked the chicken long enough – make sure that you cook the chicken on high pressure for 5 minutes.
Tinga is a Mexican chicken dish made with a tomato-based sauce with chipotles in adobo sauce and onions in a variety of seasonings.
This chicken tinga Instant Pot recipe definitely has some heat to it, thanks to the chipotles in adobo sauce. If you want to cut down on the amount of spice, use less chipotles.
If you want to make this recipe in the slow cooker, add all the ingredients to the crockpot and cook on high for 4 hours or low for 8 hours. Shred the chicken, then serve.
Storing and reheating
Store any leftovers of these Instant Pot chicken tacos in the fridge for up to 5 days. Make sure to store the shredded chicken and toppings separately to keep everything as fresh as possible. Reheat in the chicken in the microwave for 1 to 2 minutes in some of the sauce, then assemble your fresh tacos and dig in!
Freezing this recipe
You can definitely freeze this chicken tinga recipe. Once the shredded chicken has completely cooled, transfer it to airtight glass containers or Ziploc bags and freeze for up to 3 months. When you’re ready to make your tacos, let the chicken defrost in the fridge overnight then reheat as normal.
More Instant Pot taco recipes
Meal prep tools for this recipe
- Grab some glass meal prep bowls if you plan on turning these tacos into your weekly lunches.
- I get all my free-range chicken from Butcher Box, conveniently delivered to me frozen.
- Get a meat thermometer to make sure your chicken is cooked through before shredding.
- Freeze leftover chicken tinga meat in glass microwave-safe bowls up to 3 months.
Instant Pot Chicken Tinga
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 yellow onion diced
- 4 cloves garlic minced
- 1 tbsp chili powder
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 cup chipotles in adobo sauce minced
- 1 cup fire roasted diced tomatoes
- 1 lb chicken breasts
- 8 corn tortillas
Topping ideas
- red onion diced
- cilantro finely chopped
- cotija or feta cheese crumbled
- Lime wedges
Instructions
- Add all ingredients except for corn tortillas and toppings to the Instant Pot in the order in which they are listed.
- Cook on high pressure for 5 minutes (Instant Pot will take 10-15 min to preheat) and do a quick pressure release once the cooking cycle is finished.
- Open the lid when safe to do so and remove the chicken breasts. Shred apart with a knife and fork.
- Meanwhile, blend sauce with an immersion blender until smooth, then add chicken back to pot, tossing to combine.
- Serve on warm corn tortillas and top with diced red onion, cilantro and cheese. Enjoy!
