Chicken Tinga

First things first:

You're going to need some chicken. 1 whole chicken deboned, cooked and shredded. (About 4 1/2 cups.) You can do this many ways... rotisserie chicken, leftover chicken... but my favorite?

Cut up a whole chicken, place it in a stock pot with 1 cut up onion, some celery, a few smashed garlic cloves, and boil it. Allow it to simmer just about 2 hours until it is literally falling off the bone. (If you have an Instant Pot, which I don't, I'm sure you can breeze through this step! You really want the chicken to just slide off the bone and be easy to shred.)

While that's going on, break out the food processor.

In it, pulse together:

• 2 whole fresh tomatoes, cut into quarters

• 1/2 of a sweet onion, quartered

• 3 chipotle chilis in adobo (and maaaaybe a little extra adobo sauce if you like spicy)

• 4 garlic cloves, peeled

• 1 heaping tablespoon dried oregano

• 1 teaspoon white pepper

• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Next, dice a the other half of your onion.

Now, you have two options here:

Either throw everything (shredded chicken, tomato mixture, diced onion) into a crockpot, add about 1/2 cup reserved chicken broth from cooking your chicken, and allow to cook on low until ready to eat!

OR:

Throw your chicken, tomato mixture, diced onion, and 1 cup chicken broth into a dutch oven on the stove. Allow to simmer about 35 minutes, stirring occasionally. And that's it!

And that's all there is to it. This chicken makes for some out of this world shredded chicken tacos. Is great in quesadillas. Excellent on salads. Completely mind-blowing in tortilla soup! You need. need. neeeeeeeeed this in your life.