Homemade chicken tacos couldn’t be any easier to make than this recipe. The bold and smoky flavor of chipotle makes this Chipotle Chicken Street Tacos recipe stand out from the crowd. Cook them outside on the grill or inside in your oven, either way, they’ll be super delicious. Enjoy with guacamole, cabbage, queso fresco, and a squeeze of lime for a perfect Cinco de Mayo meal!
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I’m not alone in my sentiment of tacos. Truly everyone loves tacos! Taco Tuesday is totally a thing now which I love (though I think every day could be Taco Day!); I love tacos because everyone makes them so differently.
You can have different meats in the taco, the taco shell can be different (soft, crunchy, flour, corn, etc) and there are tons of different salsas to put on them! I’ve never had the same taco twice. I thought I would add to the world of tacos my delicious and jaw-dropping Chipotle Chicken Street Tacos recipe.
What is a Street Taco vs A Regular Taco
Tacos come in a whole variety of different meats and sizes. What distinguishes a street taco from a regular taco is the size. Street tacos are typically sold from street vendors in Mexico. They are smaller to make it easier for people to carry one (or 5) without needing a big plate to hold them all.
When making a street taco, of any kind, it is important to keep in mind that they’re going to be rather small, you only need about 1.5 ounces of filling within the taco because the tortillas are smaller. This means you can feed a ton of people with less filling because of the toppings everyone adds to their tacos.
Making Chipotle Chicken Street Taco Recipe
How to Marinate Chicken Street Tacos
You really want to incorporate as much flavor within the taco meat as much as possible from the beginning. Creating a delicious chipotle chicken street taco marinade is simple. My recipe calls for
- Chipotle peppers
- Dried cilantro (I like using dried herbs in marinades)
- Garlic powder
- Onion Powder
Once the chicken is mixed with the marinade, I let it sit in the fridge overnight (about8-12 hour) to get the most flavor as possible.
If you’re wanting to step out of the chicken game for a bit, you can definitely make these same tacos with steak, pork, or even shrimp! If you’re a vegetarian, no worries! Make this same marinade base and use it to heat up your favorite beans. Don’t let me tell you how to get your taco on!
Cooking Chicken for Tacos
These chipotle chicken street tacos would be a perfect recipe to make during the summer because you can use the grill without heating up the house. Grilled chicken would add another dimension of smoky to these tacos that you can’t get any other way.
If you happen to not have a grill, you can still get amazing grill marks on chicken by using a pan like this. I love that it’s cast iron which means it gets hot fast and it retains the heat really well.
I love cooking my chicken in the oven, after searing it on the stove top first, because it creates a delicious crust that adds a wonderful texture to the taco.
But if you’re rocking a grill, go for it! It’ll make these tacos taste even better.
To help you make sure that you cook the chicken thoroughly, I highly suggest using an oven-safe meat thermometer like this one. I use mine all the time and it’s perfectly fine to use on the grill as well.
What Toppings to Include for Chicken Street Tacos
What really inspired this idea of making tacos was my recent find at the farmers market: radish sprouts! Spring is awesome for tons of sprouts as farmers and gardeners need to thin out their seedlings; now there is a perfect use for them!
Typically when you get street tacos, you get some radishes and cucumbers to add texture and some coolness to offset the spicy meats and salsa. I thought that radish sprouts would be a fun twist on the classic taco accompaniment, as well as making the tacos look a bit fancier.
When I updated this recipe, though, I couldn’t find any radish sprouts and instead have shot my pictures with a cabbage and cilantro mix instead. This is a classic way to top street tacos that adds texture and enough flavor to highlight the meat.
I also love adding queso fresco or cotija cheese to my tacos because they’re creamy, yet salty and soft. Those are my preferred cheeses to add to my tacos of any sort.
With chipotle included in this recipe, if you’re not a connoisseur of spice like I am, I highly recommend adding some crema (loose table cream) or sour cream to your chipotle street tacos to mellow out the spice a bit.
Of course, a taco wouldn’t be a taco if you didn’t have some rockin guacamole on the side and some limes to add to some zing!
Can You Freeze Chicken Tacos
Ummm… the meat yes. The taco, no.
If you have found that you have made too much meat for everyone to enjoy in a taco, you can put the rest of the chicken meat into a Ziploc baggy and freeze. Reheat it in the oven and enjoy with your favorite tortilla.
Please enjoy this recipe and be sure to make enough to share. I know I have a hard time sharing my tacos. Let me know how you enjoyed this recipe by telling me down in the comments and be sure to leave a rating!
Happy eating!
Need some recipe ideas that would go great with this Chipotle Chicken Street Taco Recipe? Be sure to check these out:
Shredded Pork Chilaquiles with Eggs
Authentic Key Lime and Hibiscus Agua Fresco
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Chipotle Chicken Street Tacos
Homemade chicken tacos couldn’t be any easier to make than this recipe. The bold and smoky flavor of chipotle makes this Chipotle Chicken Street Tacos recipe stand out from the crowd. Cook them outside on the grill or inside in your oven, either way, they’ll be super delicious. Enjoy with guacamole, cabbage, queso fresco, and a squeeze of lime for a perfect Cinco de Mayo meal!
Ingredients
Marinade
- 2 each chipotle peppers, in adobo sauce, chop peppers finely
- 1 teaspoon dried cilantro
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 pound chicken meat, breast and thighs
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
Cabbage mix
- ¼ green cabbage, thinly sliced
- ½ bunch cilantro, rough chop
- 1 each shallot, minced
- 1 lime juiced
Garnish
- Sour cream
- Salsa
- Queso Fresco
- Gucamole
Instructions
- Mix marinade ingredients and add to chicken and marinate overnight.
- Cook chicken over a grill or in the oven until fully cooked, or reaches an internal temperature of 165 degrees.
- Pull chicken from heat and let meat rest.
- Mix together the cabbage mix in a small bowl and set aside.
- When ready to assemble tacos, warm up tortillas in a small skillet until softened. In the tortilla, place a small amount of meat, top with queso fresco, salsa, sour cream and radish mix. Squeeze lime over taco and enjoy.
Notes
*If radish sprouts aren’t available, feel free to use cabbage. You’ll only need to use about a ¼ of a cabbage and be sure to cut the cabbage small to fit into the tacos.
Nutrition Information
Yield 10 Serving Size 1Amount Per ServingCalories 226Total Fat 13gSaturated Fat 4gTrans Fat 0gUnsaturated Fat 8gCholesterol 66mgSodium 685mgCarbohydrates 7gFiber 1gSugar 3gProtein 20g
This nutrition information is just an estimate.
Looks great Marlee, pinned and twitted! 🙂
Thank you Patty!
I have to agree with you – there’s simply no way that you can eat a SINGLE street taco. Three is the magic number in my mind. Love the flavours here (I adore chipotles in adobo), and I think you’re definitely right when you say that you could use any number of proteins and end up with an awesome taco. I’m intrigued by the dried cilantro in the sauce, as that’s an ingredient I pretty much only use fresh. I’m going to have to give it a shot. It’ll give me an excuse to dehydrate leftover cilantro instead of letting it go bad in the fridge anyway. 😀
I agree with you agreeing with me 😉 I used dried cilantro as I didn’t have any fresh on hand when I had the marinade and since it sits for a long time (optimally) I think dried cilantro works best. Let me know how you like the dried cilantro!
I love easy dinner recipes, especially when they turn out to be something my whole family loves!. This one also looks tasty and i hope me and my whole family will definitely love this. I’ll try this for sure .
It will be a crowd pleaser for sure! You just might find your neighbors coming over for dinner as well!