This easy Mexican grilled chicken tacos recipe for tacos de pollo asado makes corn tortillas filled with incredibly delicious chicken pieces that are moist and flavourful thanks to a marinade of chipotle and spices such as cumin and paprika. Delightfully smoky courtesy of the griddle pan, you can also cook the chicken on a barbecue or grill.
Most of the time we’re more than happy to hang out in the kitchen and slow cook carnitas – we’ll share that recipe soon – but when we don’t, for a quick mid-week meal, Terence makes this super-easy but incredibly delicious grilled chicken tacos recipe for tacos de pollo asado which we now top with our tasty Mexican corn salsa.
So what makes this grilled chicken tacos recipe so quick and easy? Pollo asado, which is simply chicken (pollo) that’s grilled, barbecued or roasted (asado), consists of whole chicken pieces cooked on an outdoor barbecue or grill. But who feels like firing up a barbecue on a week night?
Instead, Terence cooks the chicken pieces on a griddle pan to get that smokiness we love from cooking on an outdoor barbecue – with means far less effort and mess – after marinating the chicken to ensure it is moist and full of flavour.
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Grilled Chicken Tacos Recipe for Tacos de Pollo Asado for an Easy Mid-Week Meal
We love cooking outdoors over fire as much as you do – some of my happiest memories are of family and friends gathered together for backyard barbecues or sitting around a blazing fire on camping trips as dad turned steaks and sausages on a sizzling hot plate and poked foil-wrapped spuds deep into smouldering coals.
It’s a sensory experience – from the smoke in our eyes to the heat on our cheeks – and there’s something so primal about cooking with fire. Humans have been cooking over fire since the start. It’s a reminder of where we’ve come from.
It’s also a reminder of far simpler times, of how it’s possible to be happy by getting back to basics, by lighting a fire to cook our dinner, especially during such a horribly complicated and overwhelming period in history.
But when we don’t have time to get outside and get the barbecue going and stoke those flames, there are other indoor options. The one we like best, particularly for making this grilled chicken recipe, is the griddle pan.
Griddle pans, which are distinguished from skillets and grills by the thick ridges that create those lovely char-grilled lines on food, are great for separating fats from food and thereby caramelising sugars and creating smoky flavours. They make food healthier and more flavourful.
Cast-iron griddle pans can be nearly as heavy as some barbecue hot plates, so can withstand temperatures as high as your stove can generate, making them perfect for cooking up these grilled chicken tacos.
A tip: if you make our corn salsa to go with them and use fresh corn cobs rather than canned corn, do the corn on the griddle, wrap them in foil and keep them warm in the oven while you make our grilled chicken tacos recipe.
Tips to Making this Grilled Chicken Tacos Recipe for Tacos de Pollo Asado
Terence’s easy Mexican grilled chicken tacos recipe is so easy that we have very few tips for this making these tacos de pollo asado.
If you are using a griddle pan, we recommend having some long tongs handy. Even if you’re not grilling over an open fire or coals, things can still get hot.
Try to source soft corn tortillas for authentic Mexican tacos, although wheat flour tortillas will work if you can’t.
While we love corn salsa sprinkled on top, guacamole is also delicious, spread on the taco or served on the side, as are refried beans and Terence’s spicy red tomato salsa.
I also like to pop some pickles on top and will serve dishes of our homemade pickled jalapeños, pickled purple shallots, pickled purple cabbage, and Mexican pickled vegetables.
Mexican crema is a must, otherwise some sour cream. I also like to crumble a little cotija (Mexican white cheese) on top. When it comes to hot sauces, we like Tapatio and Cholula.
If you have any leftover chicken, you could sandwich it with the corn salsa between soft tortillas to make some quesadillas or roll it all up to make burritos, or sprinkle the chicken and corn salsa onto tortilla chips to make nachos. Whatever you do with it, make sure to wash it all down with margaritas or micheladas.
Grilled Chicken Tacos Recipe for Tacos de Pollo Asado
Ingredients
To Marinate
- 400 g chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tsp chilli powder
- 1 tbsp chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground paprika
- 2 tbsp lime juice
The Tacos
- 8 corn tortillas - fresh
- 1 cup corn salsa
- 1 tbsp coriander leaves - chopped
- 2 tbsp crema
Instructions
- Mix together the ingredients for the marinade in a large bowl. Add the chicken breasts and marinate for at least 30 minutes. If longer, cover and transfer the bowl to the fridge. You can marinate for up to 2 hours.
- If the chicken has been refrigerated, let it com up to room temperature before grilling.
- Heat a griddle pan over medium heat and add the chicken. Brush the chicken with the excess marinade.
- Depending on the thickness of the fillets, it should take around 4 minutes a side to cook. You want to get a good smoky crust on the outside of the fillets. Check for doneness with a meat thermometer, 74°C (165°F).
- While the chicken is resting, warm the tortillas.
- Shred the chicken by pressing down on the fillets and tearing apart where the natural fibres of the fillets separate.
- Place the salsa in the warm tortillas and add some chicken strips. Squeeze on some lime juice, squirt on some crema, sprinkle on some coriander (cilantro) and perhaps a squeeze of your favourite Mexican hot sauce.
Nutrition
Please do let us know if you make our grilled chicken tacos recipe for tacos de pollo asado in the comments below as we’d love to know how the recipe turned out for you.
