Smoked Chicken Tacos
Ingredients
- Smoked chicken
- Tortilla wraps
- Roasted chayote squash
- Poblano peppers
- Roja salsa
- Cotija cheese or vegan feta from Violife
- Optional: Hot sauce or habanero peppers for extra spice
Instructions
- Heat the tortillas, smoked chicken, chayote and poblano peppers.
- Place the chicken, peppers and chayote on the tortillas wraps and place the salsa then the cotija or other crumbly cheese on top(for dairy-free cheese: ). Use a squeeze of lime over the top to finish and add any spice with an extra hot sauce or fresh peppers.
- Enjoy the best smoked chicken recipe for tacos!
Notes
How to smoke the chicken:
Preparation and seasoning:
Season the chicken with simply sea salt or use your favorite rub or Mexican marinade. If you want to make Smoked jerk chicken tacos use a jerk chicken rub and coat the chicken in it before putting it in the smoker. For a Smoked Mexican chicken breast use a marinade with achiote such as this one.
For breasts only :
Place in smoker grill and cook at 225 degrees Fahrenheit for 1 hour. Check the temperature and make sure the internal temperature reaches 165 degrees.
For 1/2 chicken: Cook at 250 degrees for around 2 hours. This time does vary depending on the size of the chicken. The more pounds it weighs the longer it will take to cook. Check internal temperature and remove when it has reached 165 degrees. Make sure not to touch the thermometer to a bone or joint as it will read much higher and give an inaccurate depiction of the doneness of the meat. A general rule is that it takes about 45 minutes per pound. So generally it will take between 2-4 hours.
Smoked chicken thigh tacos:
Using thighs only takes about 1 hour to smoke at 250 degrees. You can prepare the chicken for season by brining it, marinading, using a rub or simply seasoning with sea salt.
You may pull the chick apart to make classic smoked pulled chicken tacos, the appearance is shredded rather than neatly sliced. Or cut the chicken into cubes or thin slices.
Tip for moist chicken: Brine the chicken. Heat 1 gallon of water on the stove top and add 1 cup of kosher salt and 1 cup of brown sugar. When the mixture is fully dissolved, remove it and allow it to cool completely before placing the chicken in it. Cover and refrigerate for 24 hours.
How to roast chayote squash:
Wash the outside of the chayote squash well with water and soap. Cut into small cubes and disperse over a baking sheet. Drizzle a little olive oil and season with sea salt then toss to coat evenly. Place int he oven and cook for 20-30 minutes. Look for them to be tender but not too soft or they will get shrunken and sad looking. Some subtle golden brown on edges is okay.
How to roast the poblano peppers:
Place the whole peppers on a baking sheet and cook in the oven for 30-45 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When the peppers are done remove them from the oven and cover them with tin foil or place them in a bowl that you can cover with a lid. The steam from covering them will help the outer skin easily peel off. If some of the skin remains it is totally fine. Slice the pepper in half and remove the stem, seeds and center vein. Slice them into strips.
For the Roja salsa:
This is a simple and easy recipe for salsa roja that is delicious. The full recipe is here.
For the best tortilla wraps:
I make homemade tortilla wraps that are only two ingredients, super healthy and the BEST texture and taste of any I have ever had. They just happen to be gluten-free, dairy-free, corn-free and vegan. The full recipe is here. These are a MUST try.
Assembling the tacos:
How to reheat tortillas:
You can use a flat top grill or griddle, non-stick pan or place the tortillas directly on a clean electric burner. You can also wrap them in a damp towel and place them in the oven or microwave(watchfully so the towel doesn’t catch on fire!!). I have an electric flattop stove so I just clean it and then throw tortillas directly on that and flip them several times until they are heated to a soft and pliable state. It can be helpful for corn tortillas to get them slight damp with water which will help them to steam during the reheating process and allow them to be more flexible so they don’t break as easily when eating.