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I received the email for these last night and knew this had to be dinner tonight! Holy moly! So much flavor and so easy! I used fresh sweet corn and fried the tortillas too! Another hit!
Sarah
It’s been a little bit since we’ve written a love letter to tacos, though they are truly always on our minds. We really will take them in almost any variation but when they’re coming at us in warm, lightly pan-fried yellow corn tortillas bursting with a tender chicken and pinto bean red chile saucy sensation, piles of a quick creamy corn salsa…ish (can we call it salsa when mayo is involved? probably not), and tangy-crisp homemade pickled red onions rounding it out?
Well my oh my, there’s a new crush in town.
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SOS-Level, Made Fancy
There are so many delicious flavors going on with these chicken tacos, but the real highlight is that you don’t have to do very much work to accomplish any of them. The taco filling especially is so easy and pretty darn quick because all you’re doing is cooking up some chicken thighs, tossing in a can of pinto beans, and then opening up store-bought enchilada sauce, and letting that do all the work.
Boom. Bam. Lightly spiced, smoky, tomatoey, saucy goodness ready to stuff your tortillas so full they spill over onto your hands.
Then you get to just kind of fancify things. You’ll mix up a little corn situation with some major elote vibes that is also so easy but will be VERY DIFFICULT to hold off on eating until taco assembly. Just a taste to adjust the lime juice? Okay. Twenty more bites and oops it’s gone? It happens. Luckily, it’s easy to remake.
You’re going to make some quick pickled red onions because really you’re just throwing some things in a jar, giving it a shake, and then, look at you, all set with the most delicious little taco topper ever! Next thing you know, you have one gem of a taco happening.
How To Make These Red Chile Chicken Tacos
Again, pretty quick and easy, which is how we like it. Let’s get each of the elements together.
- The pickled onions: Let’s pickle, bb! Jam your red onion slices into a jar and add your vinegar, water, salt, and sugar. Shake, fridge, donezo.
- The saucy filling: Cook up the chicken thighs in a skillet until cooked through. Then, shred/cut it up and add enchilada sauce and pinto beans. Simmer, thicken, donezo.
- The creamy corn: Mix all the delicious bits together in a small bowl. Taste, adjust, donezo.
- The perfect taco: We like to lightly pan fry the tortillas for added deliciousness and have your chopped fresh cilantro at the ready. Stuff, top, donezo!
That’s it! See?! Now you’re in taco business, which is the best business there is.
What Makes These SO GOOD
The red chile chicken side of this taco business is particularly successful. It’s just all so good. Smoky, creamy, fresh, briney-bitey-crunch. What an absolute dream.
You could probably play around with the filling a little since that enchilada sauce is bringing all the major flavors, but we love the juiciness of chicken thighs and the creaminess of pinto beans. But play around if something suits you better. Flour tortillas work too, of course, but we love the added flavor of the corn ones to complement the smokiness of the filling and the richness of the topping.
That creamy corn topping is such a treat since you’re getting the fresh sweet crunch texture of like a roasted corn salsa but with your cheese/sour cream-type dairy needs all mixed in. And you just can’t go wrong with pickled red onions. Ever. Truly a taco’s best friend.
And the general ease of it all carries this one all the way to the top of our Weeknight Yums list. Checking every ding dang box.
We just kinda want to eat them all the time, you know? Taco Tuesday rolls into Taco Wednesday and also Taco Thursday and whoooops, how did we get to Taco Friday, well here we are at the weekend, so let’s just keep on going.
Red Chile Chicken Tacos: Frequently Asked Questions
Yes! See slow cooker and Instant Pot instructions below in the recipe notes.
Chicken breasts will work, but if you can find them, chicken thighs really are perfect here for the tenderness.
Love that idea! Yes, you can make these veg-friendly by omitting the chicken and added an extra can of pinto beans as needed.
For more easy and delicious chicken tacos, you need this recipe – my whole family is OBSESSED with them. House favorite!
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Red Chile Chicken Tacos with Creamy Corn
- Total Time: 45 minutes
- Yield: 6–8 tacos 1x
Description
These Red Chile Chicken Tacos are always on our minds! Lightly pan-fried corn tortillas stuffed with tender chicken and a pinto bean red chile saucy filling, piles of creamy corn salsa, and tangy homemade pickled red onions. YUM!
Ingredients
Red Chile Chicken Tacos
- 1 pound boneless skinless chicken thighs
- olive oil, salt, and pepper
- 8 oz. of red chile enchilada sauce (lately I’ve been using Siete Foods Red Enchilada Sauce as my usual Frontera Brand is no longer available!)
- one 14–ounce can pinto beans, rinsed and drained
Creamy Corn
- 1/4 cup mayo
- 2 tablespoons cream cheese
- 2 cups frozen or fresh sweet corn
- 1 clove garlic, grated
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- lime juice to taste
Pickled Onions
- 1 red onion, thinly sliced
- 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
Extras
- 8 corn tortillas (I like to quickly pan-fry mine in a shallow skillet of hot oil to make them extra soft)
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil for frying (optional)
- 1/4 cup cilantro
Instructions
- For the pickled onions: Transfer red onion slices to a jar. Add red wine vinegar and water. Add your salt and sugar. Shake a few times and set in the fridge while you make everything else.
- For the chicken: Heat a skillet over medium-high heat. Add olive oil. Add the chicken and season with salt and pepper. Sauté for 7-10 minutes, or until cooked through. Remove from the heat and shred or cut into smaller pieces. Add chicken pieces back to the pan with the sauce and the beans. Simmer gently until sauce has thickened and it looks ready to be taco filling.
- For the corn: Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Taste and adjust.
- For the tacos: Fill tortillas with the chicken mixture. Top with the creamy corn and pickled red onions. Finish with cilantro. Mwah.
Notes
Instant Pot Instructions: Add the chicken thighs, salt, pepper, and enchilada sauce directly to the Instant Pot. Cook on high pressure for 10 minutes. Release the pressure, shred the chicken directly in the pot, and stir in the canned pinto beans. Prepare the other pickled onions and creamy corn according to recipe instructions.
Slow Cooker Instructions: Add the chicken thighs, salt, pepper, and enchilada sauce directly to the slow cooker. Cook on high for 2-3 hours or cook on low for 4-5 hours. Shred the chicken directly in the slow cooker and stir in the canned pinto beans and cook until warmed through. Prepare the pickled onions and creamy corn according to recipe instructions.
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Category: Tacos
- Method: Sauté
- Cuisine: Mexican-Inspired
Keywords: chicken tacos, red chile chicken tacos, red chile recipe
More Incredible Taco Recipes
- Caramelized Pork Tacos with Pineapple Salsa (topped with sriracha mayo, obvi!)
- Best Easy Fish Tacos (easy to make and packed with flavor)
- Instant Pot Hawaiian Chicken Tacos with Jalapeño Ranch Slaw (these tacos are out of this WORLD)
Yum! Will definitely make again. Followed the instant pot instructions which was nice because I could pull everything else together while that cooked 🙌🏻
What brand of small blender do
You use?
One of your green sauce recipes ( with chicken tacos) you used a small blender. White. Had a beveled looking carafe or whatever you call container? What brand was that?
Thank you
That was our Beast Blender!
We make these so often! Our little spin is to get bone in, skin on chicken thighs. We remove the skins ourselves to save them and crisp them up in the air fryer, then cut them up and sprinkle on top. It adds a nice crunch and schmaltzy-ness!
Made this tonight and at first thought maybe it was too many ingredients to really pull off quickly. I was wrong – so fast, so easy and – most importantly- SO delicious! All the flavors and textures worked so well together. The spice from the corn was perfect with the little bite from the onion and the saucy chicken – yum! Definitely going on repeat! The only thing I’ll say is that this makes ALOT of food (maybe my pack of chicken thighs was a little on the large side) but that’s not really a bad thing because I’m already looking forward to leftovers tomorrow!
The la fontera brand is hard for me to find. I’m in the SW and use the Las Palmas brand of sauces. The enchilada sauce is very good as well as the chili Colorado ( thinner but great flavor). Thanks for another great recipe it really helps to have different recipes.
My favorite taco recipe! The flavor is incredible, especially for an easy week night meal.
Soooo yummy! I did refried beans which makes it a little less SOS but still easy. Great combo of flavors.
Can the mayo be substituted with high protein Greek Yogurt?
Amazing recipe! So easy yet so tasty and spicy! I will try!
This dish looks so delicious.. i’m not to sure about the creamy corn tho but everything looks 10/10
This one’s an uncharacteristic swing and a miss. If you’re interested in this, might I recommend her INCREDIBLE chicken tinga instead? At the very least, maybe recommend not adding cumin & garlic to the corn….they do not yield the promised “elote vibes”…it skews more Indian in profile (which I LOVE when seeking Indian).
Make the tinga instead. Use the Frontera sauce for the red chile tostada w/ egg (another major winner!)
This is a go to recipe for when I need something quick and I always have the ingredients on hand! The whole family loves it, and we make quesadillas a lot with it too. I put in less chili powder in the cornfor the kids !
I love this recipe- the flavors are wonderful and it is so easy! I use the crockpot as suggested to make it even more hands off and perfect to have ready after a busy workday. The leftovers are also amazing!
Quick question…your pan fry of the tortillas is only to soften and not make crunchy?
Thanks!
K
They’ll get a little crunchy from pan-frying them.
Thanks for another winner of a recipe. Made them last night in the crockpot and was blown away by the flavor profile. I ended up not pan frying the tortillas but just put them on the griddle for a bit to char.
K
Side note to how good these were, I also charred my corn first. Hella good.
These are a new favorite in our house! I made the chicken in the crockpot (and used chicken breast because we had some to use up) which makes it so easy! Last time I also used the fire roasted frozen corn from Trader Joes which was so yummy. My husband would have these on the menu every week I think! Thanks!
Such an easy and tasty weeknight meal! I added some minced jalapeños to the corn and then used smoked leftover chicken instead of cooking the meat .
These are so good!! I’ve had my eye on this recipe for a while. Finally made it happen and I’m so glad I did. I made the chicken from frozen in the crockpot. Used canned corn (OMG the creamy corn) Don’t skimp on the lime. We don’t eat a lot of red onion so I used store bought pickled onions but will make them myself someday!
Omggggggg!!! My husband and I picked this recipe on a whim and holy cannoli it might be the best recipe we have made from poy. The combination of flavors is just incredible!
Awesome recipe! I did not have the red Chile sauce so I used the green Chile sauce (tomatillos ) ! It was super easy and delicious
I took this to the full on SOS level and used shredded chicken that I had in the freezer (along with pinto beans and enchilada sauce that I had stashed in there as well) and the Aldi corn dip that inspired the creamy corn salsa. I forgot about the onions, but everything came together so quickly they wouldn’t have pickled much anyway. Perfect Friday night meal for this tired teacher.
You brought joy to our tastebuds once again! My partner said, “THIS IS SO DELICIOUS” like 5 times.
The touch of heat, the tart, the sweet, the texture! I wasn’t sure about the pinto beans and I know all your recipes deliver so I trusted you. I was not wrong to do so. Thank you again for making my meal night a highlight.
I love these and they’re easy too! I cook only for myself so every time I make a recipe it lasts me several meals but, I was still sad when I finished these.
So glad you’ve been enjoying the tacos, Rachel! Thanks for the comment!
Such a good recipe. It’s seriously so easy to put these together & as other reviewers said, the pickled onion take it to the next level. I literally want a pile of them in every bite. I used the instant pot instructions which worked great. Added the beans and a little cornstarch and sautéed for a few minutes in the IP to thicken the sauce.
I love this recipe, next coming Sunday I am making it tacos, I share my review on this ok, thank you.