Mexican Crock Pot Chicken for Tacos and Burritos
Super easy way to prepare Chicken for all sorts of healthy, cost effective chicken lunches and dinners. Tacos, burritos, burito bowls (over rice), quesadillas etc etc.
Equipment
- Crock Pot
Ingredients
- 4 lbs Chicken Breasts skinless / boneless
- 1 medium Onion diced
- 5-8 cloves Garlic minced
- 14 oz Can diced fire roasted tomatoes whole can (NOT drained)
- 6 oz Can diced chiles green chilis
- 4 Tsp Chipotle Chili’s in adobo sauce diced / minced - this is fairly spicy so consider your family before adding
- 1 tsp Ground Pepper
- 1.5 tps Each: Salt, Cumin, Chili Powder, Smoked Paprika, and Oregano
- 1/4 C Chicken Stock *Maybe - see Note
- 1 tsp Liquid Smoke
Instructions
- Place Chicken Breasts into the crock pot.
- Chop onion and garlic.
- Add all other ingredients into the crock pot - spreading out a bit so the ingredients get moderately mixed.
- Put the lid on your crock pot and turn on low for 6-8 hours or on high for 3-4 hours. I’m sure you are familiar with your slow cooker and whether it cooks hot or not. Mine cooks hot – so I put mine on low for 6 hours and the chicken was fall apart ready.
- When the chicken is ready to fall apart, shred Chicken using two forks. Mix all of the ingredients fairly well.
- Choose your serving preference. Consider adding cilantro, avocado, lettuce, cabbage, cheese, salsa, fresh tomatoes, jalapeno - whatever your heart desires!
Notes
Liquid - check the amount of liquid in your crock pot. You don't need a lot, but you need some. You could add 1/4 or less of a Cup of Chicken Stock or even water if you think you need a smidge more liquid to cook happily. If you might be out all day and can't check on your crock pot - go ahead and add some extra liquid... better to be safe than sorry.
After cooking and shredding chicken, in the event you have too much liquid in your crock pot I'd recommend boiling away / condensing the flavors. I put a bunch of the cooked chicken (and liquid) into a sauce pan and heated it up / boiled out the liquid before serving when I had too much liquid (first cook where I added 1 C of liquid...which was TOO much.)
I've also seen other recipes (Carlsbad Cravings again!) where she puts cooked carnita's onto a sheet pan and then into the broiler. This too would help condense flavors if you have too much liquid.
Last time I made this I DID NOT add any additional liquid and there was no need to boil / otherwise reduce the liquid remaining.
Broth vs. Water - Don't sweat it ! I didn't have an open container of chicken broth in my fridge and I didn't want to open a container of 4 cups for just 1/4 of a C of broth so I was prepared to use water. But then I decided my crock pot had enough liquid and skipped it entirely.
Chipotle - You probably have seen my Kitchen Tip on zipping up your entire can of Chipotles in Adobo - and storing that in your fridge? That post can be found here. That's how I get 4 Tsp of chipotle and Adobo readily without making a mess on my cutting board !
Green Chilis - Recipe called for the large can - 6 oz. I only had 4 oz cans - so I tossed in two into the latest pot. Again, don't sweat it. We are not baking and this is not chemistry. Use one 4 oz if that is all you have. Use 2, 4oz if you like green chili's.
Nutrition
Calories: 192kcalCarbohydrates: 4gProtein: 33gFat: 4gSaturated Fat: 1gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 1gTrans Fat: 0.02gCholesterol: 97mgSodium: 294mgPotassium: 603mgFiber: 1gSugar: 1gVitamin A: 197IUVitamin C: 8mgCalcium: 28mgIron: 1mg
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!