Chicken Tinga

I greatly admire Marcus Samuelsson as a person and chef, and have always had great success with his recipes. This one, for Chicken Tinga, is no exception.

The first step was cooking the chicken. In this recipe, the chicken is seasoned with salt and pepper then placed into a pot with water, peppercorns and bay leaves.

This all was brought to a boil, then reduced to a simmer to cook for about 20 minutes. Throughout the cooking time, I skimmed off whatever schmutz came to the surface to keep the stock as clear as possible.

Once the chicken was done and cool enough to handle, it was shredded up and set aside. 

The stock the chicken was cooked in was reserved for this next step...the sauce.

Onions were sauteed in some olive oil, minced garlic was added, along with diced tomatoes (with their juices), some of the reserved stock, and some chipotles in adobo. I used a very light hand with this last ingredient, due to it fiery nature and the fact that I am a wuss about overly spicy, hot food.

The sauce was allowed to simmer away for about 20 minutes. It was then put into a food processor, pureed until smooth, then poured over the chicken.

To plate the dish, I put some of the chicken/sauce mixture on a homemade tortilla, then topped it off with a lightly dressed slaw containing cabbage, red onions, and carrots.

We are talking about some seriously good chicken. The kick from the sauce was countered very nicely with the slaw, which also provided great crunch and color.

I have no doubt that this dish will be making a repeat appearance on our table.