Chicken Tacos

Ever since visiting Chipotle for the first time when I was down in Arizona last month, I have been craving Mexican food. Specifically, I have been craving Chipotle, but as there isn’t one here in Edmonton I thought I should check on-line and see if I could find some copy cat recipes. Well, lo-and-behold there is a whole website devoted to Chipotle recipes!

So, this past Sunday I decided to make “Chipotle’s” Chicken Tacos for dinner. I used this recipe for inspiration, but I made a few tweaks (such as omitting the dried ancho chillies and just using some of the chipotle chillies from the can) to the recipe.

1 (7 ounce) can chipotle pepper in adobo sauce
1 teaspoon black pepper
2 teaspoons cumin powder
2 tablespoons fresh oregano, chopped
4 cloves garlic
2 teaspoons salt
1 red onion, quartered
1 cup water
1/4 cup oil (canola/vegetable/olive)
12 chicken thighs

1. Pull the chipotle peppers out of the adobo sauce and set aside. Add all of the sauce to the blender and then use the 1 cup of water to rinse out the remaining sauce in the can and add it to the blender.

2. Add as many of the chipotle peppers as you want, depending on how spicy you want the marinade. I used 4 peppers this time.

3. Add all of the remaining ingredients to the blender, except for the chicken. Blend until smooth.

4. Cut any excess fat off of the chicken thighs and then stab them all over with a fork.

5. Put the chicken thighs into a large zip-lock bag and add the marinade. Refrigerate for 1 hour or up to overnight. I kept the chicken marinating for about 5 hours.

6. For best results, grill the chicken thighs on the BBQ until fully cooked and crispy on the outside.

7. Cut up the chicken into chunks and serve in small tortillas with your favourite toppings. I served my tacos with finely grated Montery Jack cheese, home-made fresh salsa and shredded lettuce.

I thought that these chicken tacos turned out really, really good. They certainly didn’t taste exactly like Chipotle, but they were pretty close and tasted pretty darn yummy. The chipotle peppers gave the marinade a smokey flavour, but also made it quite spicy. I found once the chicken was grilled, however, the spice mellowed out a bit and all of the other ingredients in the tacos helped balance out the heat. I will definitely be making these again!

(Sorry the pictures aren’t the best, the food was so good that I got a little pre-occupied eating!)

Happy Monday!