Chicken Tacos in Tomato-Chipotle Sauce

By sadams1001

To save time, use store-bought rotisserie chicken. A little trick: Reheating the chicken in the sauce keeps the meat tender and adds a depth of flavor to the sauce—a sort of instant chicken stock. However, if you want more control over the spiciness quotient, keep the chicken separate and spoon the sauce over the meat when you assemble the taco.

To make the dish wine friendly, dial down the heat. Add just one minced chile pepper to start. After the sauce has reduced, add more, 1 teaspoon at a time, until it has the sort of kick you’re in the market for. For simplicity, keep the toppings to the essentials: Sliced avocado will help to counter the acidity of the tomatoes and heat from the peppers.

The good news about wine pairing: More of the wines we tried with this dish turned out well than not. There’s a lot of room to play around. The fruity notes in an off-dry German Riesling were nicely brought out by the spice in the dish. A deep pink Spanish rosado also held up well, but the acidity in the tomatoes left an odd bubblegum-like flavor on the finish. In the end, a Rioja Crianza took the night. The dark smoky flavors from the chipotle resonated with the smoky notes in the wine, and the tannins were smooth enough not to get tripped up by the spice.

Ingredients

• 2 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes
• Can of chipotle chiles in adobo; 1 chipotle, finely chopped, to start
• 1 rotisserie chicken, meat coarsely shredded
• 2 limes, cut into wedges
• 12 corn tortillas
• 1/2 cup chopped cilantro
• 1 avocado, sliced

Preparation

Step 1

1. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, toast the unpeeled garlic cloves over medium-high heat until the skin begins to brown, around 5 minutes. Peel the garlic. Puree the tomatoes, garlic and chipotle chile in a food processor until smooth.

2. Pour the mixture into a heavy-bottomed saucepan and cook over high heat until the mixture boils. Reduce the heat to a simmer, add the shredded chicken and the juice from one lime. Let this mixture cook until the sauce has thickened, around 20 minutes.

3. Toast the corn tortillas over an open flame on a gas burner until the tortillas develop a nice char, flipping once. (Alternatively, wrap the tortillas in damp cloth towels and microwave on high until warmed through, around 3 minutes.)

4. Adjust the seasoning of the chicken with salt to taste, and add more minced chiles, 1 teaspoon at a time, if needed. Assemble the tacos with the chicken, avocado, cilantro and a wedge of lime. Serves 4.

Note: You can easily substitute mushrooms, sliced steak or lamb in this recipe.