Easy Bacon Chicken Tacos Recipe
Serve these smoky tacos topped with your favorite toppings. We love something bright and fresh like lime, onion, and cilantro. We've given a list of suggested toppings, but add what you love.
Serve these smoky tacos topped with your favorite toppings. We love something bright and fresh like lime, onion, and cilantro. We've given a list of suggested toppings, but add what you love.
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1/4 teaspoon ground coriander
- 3 slices bacon
- salt and fresh ground pepper to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
- juice of half a lime
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken thighs
- 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder see our homemade chili powder recipe
- 1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper or more to taste
- 1/4 cup chicken stock vegetable stock or water, see our homemade stock recipe
- tortillas warmed
- optional taco toppings: onions pickled red onions, cheese, sour cream or crema, avocado or gua
- Carbohydrate 259.862468364747 g
- Cholesterol 113.749948422127 mg
- Fat 28.4833968649818 g
- Fiber 36.6531636055331 g
- Protein 75.5634349950245 g
- Saturated Fat 6.42397200560136 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (805g)
- Sodium 631.207837566586 mg
- Sugar 223.209304759214 g
- Trans Fat 3.30272402203665 g
- Calories 1556 calories
Step-by-step
- Cook bacon in a large skillet over medium heat, turning as necessary until fat has rendered and bacon is crispy, about 8 minutes. Drain bacon on paper towels and set aside for later. Discard all but 2 tablespoons of bacon fat.
- Season both sides of the chicken with salt and pepper. Add oil to hot pot. Add chicken to the skillet with bacon fat and cook, turning occasionally, until chicken is well browned on all sides, about 8 minutes. Turn heat to low then transfer chicken to a cutting board and cut into small pieces. (It may not be fully cooked).
- Add the chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, coriander, and garlic to the pan. Cook, while stirring, for 1 minute.
- Add the chopped chicken back to the pan. Pour stock over chicken then use a wooden spoon to scrape up any brown bits stuck to the bottom of the pan. Cook until stock has thickened and coated the chicken. Stir in lime juice.
- Serve chicken next to warm tortillas and your favorite taco toppings. Don’t forget to crumble the bacon from earlier and add to the tops of the tacos.
Swapping chicken breasts for boneless, skinless thighs changes the moisture profile of the filling entirely, preventing the meat from drying out during the simmering phase. Thigh meat contains higher amounts of connective tissue and intramuscular fat, which translates to a more resilient protein when subjected to high heat in a skillet. Maintaining a medium heat level while rendering the bacon ensures the fat releases cleanly without burning the milk solids left behind in the pan. Retaining precisely two tablespoons of that rendered fat provides the optimal medium for browning the chicken and blooming the ground spices. Because spices are fat-soluble, exposing chili powder, cumin, smoked paprika, coriander, and minced garlic to the hot fat for exactly sixty seconds releases their essential oils into the pan before the stock is added. Deglazing the skillet with chicken stock dissolves the caramelized fond stuck to the bottom, incorporating those concentrated proteins back into the sauce as it reduces. If swapping the chicken stock for water, add an extra pinch of salt to compensate for the missing sodium and umami depth. Once the stock thickens and coats the diced chicken, finishing the mixture with fresh lime juice provides an acid contrast that cuts through the richness of the pork fat and thigh meat. Crumbling the reserved crispy bacon over the assembled tacos right before eating adds textural contrast against the soft tortillas and tender meat.
