Serious Eats: Recipes
Dinner Tonight: Chipotle Chicken Salad Tacos
I just didn’t want to leave the house. It took me roughly eight hours to get home from weekend trip to New York (involving two canceled flights, six hours of delays, and two airlines), and I returned home tired and beaten. I had no idea what food I had at home, or whether any of it was still fresh. But I knew I wasn’t going to set one foot out the front door. It was time to improvise.
I made Rick Bayless's chipotle chicken salad tacos by mixing vinaigrette with leftover meat I scrapped off the backbones of chickens I used to make stock. Sounds perfectly delicious, right? Sure, I was stretching to create something tasty without going to the store, but it does work. Bayless’s original recipe balanced things with red skinned potatoes and avocado, and those would have worked nicely. Since I had neither, I used some nice sour cream. This would probably taste even better cold, but I didn’t waste any time trying to find out.
About the author: Nick Kindelsperger is a co-founder of The Paupered Chef, a blog dedicated to saving time and money while enjoying food in every way possible. He sells wine for a living and lives in Columbus, Ohio.
Chipotle Chicken Salad Tacos
- serves 2-3 -
Adapted from Mexican Everyday by Rick Bayless.
Ingredients
3 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 teaspoon dried oregano
2 canned chipotle chiles en adobo, finely chopped
1/4 red onion, diced
6 ounces cooked, shredded chicken
2 cups romaine lettuce, chopped
Corn tortillas
Salt
Canola oil
Procedure
1. Toss the chicken in a small pan and turn the heat to medium. If the chicken is mostly white meat than add a little oil. Lightly brown the chicken while you get the dressing mixed.
2. Combine the cider vinegar, oregano, chipotles, and red onion. Season with salt.
3. When the chicken has lightly browned, pour in the vinegar mixture. Stir until combined.
4. Heat a large pan over high heat. Cook the tortillas for a few seconds on each side to soften them.
5. Toss a little of the chicken on each tortilla, sprinkle on a bit of lettuce, and eat.