Tinga

Shredded chicken in chipotle and tomato, with the onion sliced in long strips and cooked until it is sweet.

Chicken. Not vegetarian — contains cheese whose rennet the source does not name, chicken, lard.

Ingredients

• 1 kg chicken thighs, on the bone
• 2 large onions, sliced in long thin strips
• 4 chipotles in adobo, plus 2 tablespoons of their sauce
• 600 g tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 tablespoons oil
• salt
• tostadas, as on their own page, or corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve
• soured cream and sliced avocado, to serve

Method

1. THE ONION IS SLICED IN LONG STRIPS AND COOKED UNTIL IT IS SWEET, and both halves of that are load-bearing. Strips rather than dice, because in a shredded dish they lie alongside the strands of chicken and read as part of the same texture, where dice sit in it as separate lumps. And cooked slowly for twelve or fifteen minutes until they have collapsed and gone genuinely sweet, which is the only sweetness in the pan and the thing that balances a good deal of chipotle. Softened for three minutes and moved on from, they stay sharp and the dish tastes only of smoke and heat.
2. THE CHICKEN IS POACHED FIRST AND THE POACHING LIQUID IS THE SAUCE'S LIQUID. Thighs on the bone, in water with a little salt, for thirty-five minutes. The meat shreds and the broth is then used to let the tomato sauce down -- which means every bit of liquid in the finished dish tastes of chicken. Water instead, and the sauce is thinner in every sense.
3. THE CHIPOTLES COME FROM A TIN IN ADOBO AND THE ADOBO IS USED. The sauce in the tin is vinegar, tomato and spice that the chillies have sat in, and two tablespoons of it give the dish the faint sourness it needs. Dried chipotles soaked in water are a different ingredient and the result tastes flatter, which is worth saying rather than treating them as the same thing.
4. IT IS COOKED DOWN UNTIL IT IS ALMOST DRY. Tinga goes on a tostada, and anything loose soaks straight through it and it collapses. The pan is cooked on past the point where it looks like a good stew, until a spoon leaves a channel and the mixture holds a heap. Fifteen or twenty minutes beyond the obvious stopping point.
5. IT IS BETTER THE NEXT DAY AND THAT IS NOT A PLATITUDE HERE. The chipotle heat is sharp and uneven on the day it is made and spreads evenly through the chicken overnight. If there is a choice, it is made the day before and warmed through with a splash of the reserved broth.
6. The chicken thighs poached in salted water 35 MINUTES. Lifted out, the BROTH KEPT, and the meat shredded off the bone.
7. The tomatoes charred on a dry griddle 10 minutes until blackened in patches, then blended UNPEELED with the garlic, the chipotles and their adobo.
8. The oil heated in a wide pan over a medium-low heat and the ONION STRIPS added.
9. Cooked 12 to 15 MINUTES, stirred now and then, until completely collapsed and tasting SWEET. Not browned.
10. The blended tomato and chipotle poured in with the oregano and bay, and cooked 10 minutes until darkened.
11. The shredded chicken stirred in with 200 ml of the reserved broth.
12. Simmered 15 to 20 MINUTES, stirred, until ALMOST DRY -- a spoon should leave a channel and the mixture should hold a heap.
13. The bay leaves removed. Tasted and salted.
14. Served piled on tostadas or in tortillas, with soured cream and avocado.
15. Better made the day before and warmed through with a splash of the broth.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes