Chipotle Chicken Tacos with Honey-Lime Slaw

How To Make Chipotle Chicken Tacos

How To Prepare the Chipotle Chicken

Prepare the spice mix in a bowl by mixing the chipotle chili powder, garlic powder, onion powder, granulated sugar, and salt. Don’t forget to give it a quick mix using a fork or spoon to ensure the chicken breasts can get all the flavors from the spice mix. Put the sliced chicken breasts in a separate bowl, then drizzle some oil and the spice mix. Toss everything together until all chicken slices are fully coated. Although marinating the chicken longer is ideal, you can let it sit while you prepare the slaw

How To Prepare the Honey-Lime Slaw

Make the honey-lime dressing in a separate bowl to easily adjust the taste before tossing it with the coleslaw mix. You can quickly get a bag of coleslaw mix from the store, but you can also use your leftover cabbage and carrots. Simply shred them with a mandolin or vegetable peeler or cut them into thin strips using a knife. You can toss your coleslaw with a fork, tongs, or even by hand; keep tossing it until fully coated. 

How To Assemble Chipotle Chicken Tacos With Honey-Lime Slaw

Once you have all your components prepared, set up your station and get ready to assemble with these quick steps:

1. On your serving plate, place your corn tortilla. You can warm it up in a skillet or a microwave too.


2. Top your tortilla with some coleslaw and spread it a little bit from the middle but just enough to still fold it later


3. Depending on the size of your cooked chicken pieces, you can put 1-3 pieces or just enough to have chicken with every bite. 


4. You can finish it off with some fresh cilantro and a drizzle of hot sauce.

Ingredients & Substitutions

• Chicken Breasts - this chicken part makes prep easier and is also ideal for taco recipes. You can also use boneless chicken thighs.
• Chipotle Chili Powder - smoky, earthy, and mildly spicy that will give depth to the flavor of your chicken. The heat of chipotle will complement the sweetness of the slaw.
• Garlic and Onion Powder - adding these spices will give your dish more flavorful undertones. They are common umami boosters. 
• Coleslaw Mix - can easily be found in grocery stores and can cut time from your prep. But if you have some leftover cabbage in your refrigerator, you can also make your own coleslaw mix.
• Greek Yogurt - used as the base for the slaw dressing, greek yogurt is tarty, tangy, and creamy. You can also use sour cream as a substitute.
• Mayonnaise - a pantry staple that adds creaminess and body to the slaw dressing. You can easily whip your own mayonnaise using this recipe: Classic Mayonnaise.
• Lime Juice - fresh lime juice gives a vibrant flavor, cutting through the creaminess with its acidic and slightly sweet flavor. 
• balance all the flavors in this tangy, creamy slaw dressing. 
• Ground Cumin - adds warm and earthy notes to the honey-lime dressing making it even more flavorful.
• Corn Tortilla - you can use a store-bought tortilla, but making corn tortillas from scratch is super easy and only requires three ingredients. Here is a simple and easy recipe you can use: Homemade Corn Tortillas.

Tips & Suggestions

• If you want a smoky and charred flavor, you can also grill your chicken
• You can be as straightforward or as creative when it comes to your coleslaw dressings. If you’re looking to do something a bit more special with the coleslaw, you should try these recipes to add to your chicken tacos: Mango Tropical Rainbow Coleslaw, Mexican Summer Coleslaw

Frequently Asked Questions

How to prevent coleslaw from becoming watery?

Like all vegetables, cabbage has high water content; that’s why coleslaw tends to become watery after some time. A great trick is to toss the shredded cabbage or coleslaw with some salt first; this will help draw the water out. Pour out the water, and now you can proceed with dressing it.

Can this Chipotle Chicken Tacos with Honey-Lime Slaw be made ahead?

• You can definitely prepare the Chipotle Chicken in advance. In fact, if you can marinate the chicken longer, it’s even better. 


• For the slaw, you can make the honey-lime dressing ahead of time. Just don’t toss it with your coleslaw to keep it fresh and crunchy. Keep the slaw and the dressing separate, and only mix when you’re ready to assemble the tacos.

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