Chicken Tacos
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Say hello to your new favorite tacos! These family-approved chicken tacos, made with bold spices and tender ground chicken, are a lighter spin on my old-school beef taco recipe — and they’re just as good, if not better.
When my kids were younger, I came up with a few weeknight traditions to make dinnertime feel special (kudos to past me—I was way more ambitious back then!). Taco Tuesday was always a favorite. Every Tuesday, the kids would come home from school all “Yay, it’s taco night!” We made everything from shrimp tacos to Baja fish tacos, but this chicken taco recipe was always a top pick. Even now, as young adults, they still request it! A lighter take on my traditional hard-shell beef taco recipe, these pack just as much flavor and always hit the spot.
Pair this chicken taco recipe with Mexican rice—and round it out with salsa and/or guacamole for a complete Tex-Mex meal.
“I love a delicious ground beef taco but I would choose this over ground beef any day!”
What You’ll Need To Make Chicken Tacos
- Olive oil – Used to cook the veggies and adds a little richness to the filling.
- Onions, bell peppers & garlic – These build the flavor base—sweet, savory, and with just a little bite.
- Ground chicken – The star of the filling. I recommend using ground chicken that includes both breast and thigh meat so it stays juicy and flavorful (super lean blends can dry out fast).
- Spices (paprika, ancho chili powder, cumin, oregano, cayenne pepper) – This mix brings warmth, smokiness, and a gentle kick—feel free to adjust the cayenne to suit your heat level.
- Tomato sauce – Helps bring everything together with a little tang and depth.
- Fresh cilantro – Brightens things up and adds color (feel free to skip it if you’re not a fan).
- Hard taco shells – Made from corn tortillas and baked until crisp—perfect for holding the flavorful filling.
- Toppings (shredded lettuce or cabbage, Mexican cheese blend, sour cream, avocado, a squeeze of lime juice, etc.) – Optional, but they add great texture and flavor.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
Step-by-Step Instructions
Step 1: Chop the vegetables. You can do this by hand, but a food processor makes it easier. I like to chop them really fine so my kids don’t notice—that way they eat their veggies without the usual fuss.
Pro Tip: If using a food processor, pulse in short bursts so the veggies don’t turn to mush—you want tiny pieces, not a puree.
Step 2: Cook the veggies. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium heat, then add the chopped vegetables and cook for 10 to 15 minutes, until very soft.
Step 3: Add the chicken and spices. Stir in the ground chicken and spices, breaking it up with a wooden spoon as it cooks. Adding the spices now helps bring out their full flavor.
Step 4: Brown the chicken. Raise the heat to high and keep breaking the meat into small clumps. Let it cook until partially done, about 5 minutes.
Step 5: Simmer with tomato sauce. Pour in the tomato sauce, lower the heat, and simmer gently for 10 to 15 minutes. Stir occasionally and keep breaking up the chicken as it cooks. Once it’s done, stir in some fresh cilantro and adjust the seasoning if needed.
Step 6: Heat the shells and serve. Warm the taco shells in the oven. Fill them with the chicken mixture and top with lettuce and cheese—or skip the shells and serve it with chips for scooping. If you have any remaining chicken, repurpose leftovers into bowls, quesadillas, or salads.
More Tex-Mex Recipes You May Like
Chicken Tacos
Ingredients
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 medium yellow onions, finely chopped
- 2 bell peppers, any color, finely chopped
- 4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
- 2 pounds ground chicken (not extra-lean all breast meat)
- 1 tablespoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons ancho chili powder
- 1½ teaspoons ground cumin
- ½ teaspoon dried oregano
- ⅛ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
- 1¾ teaspoons salt
- 1 (8-oz) can tomato sauce
- ½ cup chopped fresh cilantro (see note)
- 12 hard taco shells
- 2 cups shredded lettuce or red cabbage (optional), for topping
- 2 cups shredded Mexican cheese blend (optional), for topping
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 325°F (165°C) and set an oven rack in the middle position
- Heat the olive oil in large sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onions, bell peppers, and garlic and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and just starting to brown, 10 to 15 minutes.
- Add the chicken, paprika, ancho chili powder, cumin, oregano, cayenne (if using), and salt. Increase the heat to high; use a wooden spoon to stir and break the chicken into small clumps. Cook until the chicken is partially cooked, about 5 minutes. Stir in the tomato sauce, then reduce the heat to low. Simmer, stirring occasionally and breaking chicken into smaller clumps, until chicken is cooked through, 12 to 15 minutes. Sprinkle with fresh chopped cilantro. Taste and adjust seasoning if necessary.
- Meanwhile, remove the taco shells from the package and lay sideways on baking sheet. Pull the stack apart, overlapping the edges slightly. Bake for 6 to 7 minutes, or until crisp. Spoon the chicken into the shells and serve with toppings.
Notes
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Fantastic flavor! So much better than the taco seasoning packets I grew up on. I can easily get 3 dinners out of this (feeding only 2 people). I do tacos for the first couple of nights then we switch to taco salads or nachos on day 3. Thanks Jenn for another amazing recipe 🙂
I have made this many times and continue to go back to it as a super quick, easily and family friendly recipe to make on a weeknight. Most recently I paired with a cilantro/lime rice, diced tomatoes and sliced avocado. I’ve also made it with tofu as we are trying to eat less meat and it turned out great (fools my husband!). For the tofu, I cooked the veggies separately and cooked the tofu by crumbling it up. Add it to a pan heated on med-high with some neutral oil, flatten it and let it crisp up for about 5 min, flip and break it up and continue cooking until it it all browned. Then add the veggies and follow the recipe as it.
I get soooo frustrated!!!!! I am a single, retired female who loves good food but gets so upset b/c all the recipes are for large families!!!!! I am dairy-intolerant, which is easier to deal with than trying to reduce all the recipes from 8-12 servings to fit ME! I ALWAYS WANT TO HAVE AT LEAST 2-3 SERVINGS so that I have leftovers.
However, trying to reduce recipes from 8-12 servings is very difficult. A lot easier to enlarge recipes from 4-6 than that.
Can anyone help me???? Not nice to kick us to the curb!
Hi Dale, I know it’s got to be very frustrating to see so many recipes that are intended for a number of people. I’ve considered adding a scalable feature to the blog but have come across too many technical roadblocks to make it feasible. Regarding this particular recipe, it’s intended to serve 6 people (2 tacos per serving) so you could always cut the recipe in half.
Also, I have a section of freezer-friendly recipes that you may want to check out. That way you can make a full meal and then portion it into smaller containers to freeze for future dinners. Hope that helps at least a bit!
I cut this in half pretty easily for my family of 3 with some fudge factor on the spice measurements. I had a serving of it left over for work lunch which I always appreciate! I think you could also freeze any leftovers from this if you weren’t going to use them within a few days.
Hi Dale, I am also single and don’t like to make recipes intended for 4 – 6 servings. I use an app called AnyList to store and scale my recipes. AnyList can import the recipe ingredients and instructions so you can save it to categories. Then you just “scale” the recipe by 1/2, 1/3 or whatever you choose. I hope you find it useful.
Hi Carmen, thanks so much for sharing that info! I just recently heard about AnyList and it sounds like a great tool!
Hi Dale,
I hear you, it’s just my wife and I so we frequently half recipes. The absolute BEST tool for this, in my opinion, is an app called AnyList. It’s an amazing shopping list manager with outstanding recipe functionality. You can just click a button on (almost) any recipe page (they need to be coded the right way, 95%+ are, including Jenn’s).
Once it’s imported, it’s as easy as clicking a button to scale to whatever size you like. There is a free version but I’ve paid for years because it is literally one of the most useful programs I own!
No need to get angry. There are plenty of recipes online for cooking for 1-2 people. I have also seen cook books available in the book stores for recipes specific for two people.
Great recipe! I substitute salsa for the tomato sauce to spice it up a little more. Bomb tacos!!!!
Could you use chicken breasts ? Thanks Margo
Hi Margo, if you’re referring to ground chicken breasts, while it would work, I think this is much better with ground chicken that has a bit of fat in it. If you’re referring to sliced whole chicken breasts, unfortunately, that won’t work.
Absolutely excellent! Thank you for the delicious recipe! Can this be vacuum sealed, frozen, and re-heated?
Glad you liked them! Assuming you mean the chicken mixture, yes, that’s perfectly fine. 🙂
Excellent recipe! I used a poblano pepper instead of green or yellow pepper, along with a red pepper. We ate ours on lettuce cups. They were the best tacos we’ve ever had. Thank you for the great recipe!
So much better than packaged seasoning kits! This was delicious! Thanks again for a spot on recipe!
Hi Jenn – I’m not a fan of paprika and would like to skip it. Will it have a significant impact on end product? Should I replace it with something else? Many thanks! Your blog is THE BEST!
Hi Monica, You can omit it; they will still have plenty of flavor. Enjoy!
BRAVO! These are the best I have ever made! I used ground turkey and no one….not even the picky eaters….could tell it was turkey! I’m throwing out those packages of taco seasoning mix!!
Thank you, Chef Jenn….your recipes are wonderful!