Shredded Chicken Tacos

Fall and winter are the best season's for soups and for braising. The one thing I really look forward to about the colder seasons is leaving a big pot simmering all day!!

My inspiration here was my friend Traci telling me about her brother's recipe for tacos. My mouth was salivating as she described what he makes with chicken and also with london broil.  I only tried the chicken, but I will do the london broil recipe somewhere down the line.  So thanks to Jehovah Joe for this yummy recipe.  She didn't actually ever provide me with his recipe but I was able to figure it out by her synopsis and then I saw something very similar in Food & Wine magazine.

 In a Dutch oven, heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil.  Salt & pepper two packages of boneless chicken thighs.  Lightly brown the chicken on each side and then remove from the pan.  Add in an additional tablespoon of olive oil and one sliced onion.  Lightly brown the onion and then add in 3 minced garlic cloves and 1 cup finely chopped carrots.

Add in 1-28 oz. can crushed tomatoes, one cup of chicken broth and 2 roughly chopped chipotles in adobo along with some extra adobo liquid (maybe 1 teaspoon).  Cook this mixture for about 20 minutes.  Turn the heat to low, add back the chicken thighs and continue to cook on 3 hours.

Take the chicken out of the pot and put in to a bowl and shred it all up. 

 Mix one tablespoon of cornstarch with 3 tablespoons of cold water and slowly add to the hot liquid to thicken it up then add the chicken back in.  Let simmer while you get the fixings ready.  In my case, I had shredded cheddar for the kids, crumbled Queso Fresco, lime wedges and diced avocado.

I served this with soft tortillas, so that you could make a wrap BUT I will definitely buy the crunchy, flat corn tortillas the next time.