Chicken Birria Tacos

Chicken Birria Tacos need to be on the top of your list of recipes to make!

I have a new love affair, and it’s with birria tacos.  I decided to make them a bit healthier by using chicken.  You will love these chicken birria tacos!

The depth of flavor of this consomme can’t be explained.  Like I wonder sometimes if it would be okay and sip it like bone broth?  It’s has a bit of a kick, smoky, and I pretty much want to put it on everything.

How do you make birria tacos?

The most important ingredient are the dried chiles.  There are TONS of recipes out there, and I assume every family has their own version.  My son-in-law uses New Mexico chiles.  I used a mixture of New Mexico and Guajillo.  These chilies are not spicy, but give this gorgeous color to your consomme.

Jacob used chuck roast and beef shank in his tacos.  Truth be told, I do lean towards the beef version just because I am a beef fan, but these chicken birria tacos are a very close second.

If you are on WW or are starting a healthy wellness journey, please still buy bone in skin on chicken breasts.  It gives your broths, soups and stews an extra depth of flavor and I remove the skin after the initial cooking process.

Ingredients:

What meat is birria tacos made of?

Any protein will work for birria tacos, but typically it’s beef.  Chuck roast is a great cut to make birria tacos, but for this recipe, I used split chicken breasts with the skin on.  Leaving the skin on gives the broth an extra layer of flavor, but is removed before making the tacos.

This recipe is pretty much hands off.  You want to sear the chicken, skin side down, for about 10 minutes.  Add all the ingredients and simmer for an hour.  Remove the chicken and then you’ll want to strain out all the peppers, garlic, etc. and blend that with a couple cups of the consomme.  Look at that deliciousness after an hour.

Strain the peppers, cilantro, etc.

Look at this gorgeous color after blended!  Simply add to the broth in the stock pot.  This is your consomme for dipping your tacos into.

Typically you are supposed to dip the tortillas into the consomme, then build your taco and cook.  However, I love a crunchy taco, so I put just a bit of the consomme on the inside of the taco, pan fried in avocado oil spray for 4-5 minutes a side, then dipped back into the consomme right before eating.  They were still crispy!

If you have never made a single recipe of mine before, make these!  Well, it’s 98% Jacob’s recipe – so thank you Jacob!  I left out the onions in mine – ha!

These chicken birria tacos check all the boxes for me – flavorful spicy, crunchy taco and not too many smart points – winning!

If you love tacos as much as I do, check out my breakfast taquitos made in the air fryer.  

Have you tried birria tacos before?

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Chicken Birria Tacos

Yield: A lot!

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 1 hour

Total Time: 1 hour 5 minutes

Birria tacos are taking over the internet - mine are made with chicken and so delish! The consomme is ZERO points!

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Ingredients

• 3 pounds bone in, skin on chicken breasts
• 1 teaspoon avocado oil
• 1 small (10 oz) can tomato sauce
• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 white onion (I left out!)
• 8-10 dried chilies (I used half New Mexico and half Guajilla) (seeds removed)
• 3 tablespoons minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons cumin
• 1 tablespoon oregano
• dusting of cayenne pepper (add more if you like it spicy - I added 1/2 teaspoon)
• 1 tablespoon ancho pepper powder
• 48 ounces chicken broth or stock
• 2 tablespoons powdered Knorr brand chicken bouillon
• 2 roma tomatoes
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 bay leaves (I didn't have any so left out - but please add if you have)

Instructions

Heat stock pot (at least 5Q) on medium high heat with oil.  

Salt and pepper the chicken breasts, then cook, skin side down, for 10 minutes, or until skin starts to brown.

Remove chicken and add onions and saute for five minutes, or until translucent.

Add chicken back in, the tomato sauce, cilantro, chilies, garlic, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper, ancho pepper powder, and stock.  Stir until combined.  Sprinkle the chicken bouillon over the top, stir again, add tomatoes and bay leaves if you have them.

Simmer on low for one hour.  Remove chicken to cool.  Once cooled, remove skin and bones and pull chicken.

Using a slotted spoon, scoop out the peppers, cilantro, etc. and add that, plus two cups of broth to a blender, and blend until smooth.

Convince me that buying a Vitamix is a good idea.

Pour that into the remaining consomme.

To make the tacos:

Warm tortillas.  If you have a gas stove, consider yourself lucky.  If not, microwave for 20-30 seconds so they are pliable.

Dip the tortilla in the consomme (I only dipped half).  Add chicken and cheese of choice, and fry for about 4-5 minutes a side.  Right before serving, dip the tacos in the consomme - I really like crunchy tacos, so that's why I didn't dip the whole thing.

Notes

I've tried to figure out the WW points for this, but because I took the skin off the chicken after it simmered, I am counting the consomme at 1 WW point on all plans for the little amount of oil and residual fat that came off the chicken skin while cooking.

My corn tortillas are 1 point each (El Milagro Brand) and 50 calories.  So the points would just have to be calculated for the amount of chicken (blue and green) and cheese (all plans) you add to each individual taco.

Did you make this recipe?

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