Instant Pot Chicken Tinga
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Here I’ve simplified my favorite chicken tinga recipe by using my Instant Pot, which not only turns the dish into a one-pot wonder but also allows it all to come together in just about 30 minutes. Use tinga as a taco, burrito, enchilada, or tostada filling. So easy and delicious.
Tinga, if you are unfamiliar, is a Mexican dish made with shredded chicken, chipotles in adobo sauce, tomatoes, onion, and cilantro.
A woman I worked with years ago at Fork taught me how to make it: poach a whole chicken, remove the meat and shred it; make a simple sauce, and simmer it with the chicken; shower with cilantro, and serve.
Most often it was served for family meal as part of a make-your-own-tostada buffet, the elements of which included crispy corn tortillas, shredded lettuce, crema, guacamole, crumbled cotija cheese, and pico de gallo. It was, as you can imagine, delicious.
Tinga is an incredibly simple dish, but there is one step — that first step — that I worry deters many people from giving it a go: poaching a whole chicken.
It’s not that plunging a chicken into boiling water is hard, it’s the aftermath: removing the meat. If the bird is still quite warm, the process can be painful, but even when the meat has cooled, removing it is time consuming and a test of patience, to boot.
Chicken Tinga, Simplified
I recently simplified the tinga-making process in three ways, and much to my delight, the streamlined method sacrificed zero flavor.
- In place of a whole chicken, I used boneless, skinless thighs. (You can use breasts if you prefer.)
- In place of chicken stock for the sauce, I used water.
- In place of poaching the chicken and making the sauce in two separate pots stovetop, I used my Instant Pot to make the whole thing.
I elaborate on the process below, but in short, to make tinga using your Instant Pot, first you use the sauté function to cook the onion and make the sauce. Then you add the chicken, close the lid, and use the high pressure setting.
Once the Instant Pot comes up to pressure, in just 10 minutes it creates that falling-off-the-bone texture in the meat. And while you do have to remove the meat and shred it, using the Instant Pot turns tinga into a one-pot job. Hooray!
You, of course, can serve tinga on its own or over rice, but the beauty of tinga is its ability to stretch: when used as a taco or enchilada filling, one batch of tinga can feed a lot of people or, more practically for today’s world, it can be stretched over many meals. It freezes well, too.
If you don’t have an Instant Pot, follow this recipe for classic chicken tinga.
Final note: When I posted this enchilada sauce recipe, I received a number of questions about where to get chipotles in adobo sauce. All of my local grocery stores carry it, and yours might, too — call ahead or ask if you can’t find it. Mexican groceries will definitely carry it or you can order it online: Goya Chipotles in Adobo Sauce.
5 Other Favorite Instant Pot Recipes
- Perfect Instant Pot Brown Rice (This is a staple.)
- The Instant Pot Miracle: One-Pot Pasta with Meat Sauce (Child approved!)
- Instant Pot Soft-Boiled Eggs (Peel like a dream!)
- Instant Pot Hard-Boiled Eggs (Peel like another dream!)
- Instant pot Moroccan Rice with Harissa and Dates (So much flavor here.)
How to Make Instant Pot Chicken Tinga
Step #1: Gather your ingredients.
Tinga requires just a handful of ingredients: onion, olive oil, chipotle in adobo sauce, canned tomatoes, chicken, and cilantro.
Step #2: Slice the onion.
Step #3: Sauté the onion.
Step #4: Add 1/4 cup of chipotle in adobo sauce.
Step #5: Add 1 cup crushed tomato and 1 cup water.
You absolutely can use fresh tomatoes here, especially if you are making this in the summer and early fall.
Step #6: Add 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs (or breasts).
Cover, and cook on high pressure for 10 minutes.
Step #7: Remove the chicken and shred with two forks.
Step #8: Return the chicken to the Instant Pot.
Step #9: Add about a cup of roughly chopped cilantro.
Step #10: Stir to combine. Season with salt to taste.
Step #10: Serve.
There are countless ways to eat tinga. You can serve it over rice. Or, you can serve it with soft tortillas, cheese, and lettuce and make tacos or crispy corn tortillas for tostadas. You can also make …
… enchiladas! (More on these soon!) Use this bean and cheese enchilada recipe as a guide, subbing in the tinga for the beans. This quick, fresh enchilada sauce has been a welcomed discovery this summer.
PrintInstant Pot Chicken Tinga
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: Serves 8 to 10
Description
This is a simplified version of this favorite recipe for classic chicken tinga.
This is the model Instant Pot I own.
If you can’t find chipotles in your local grocery store, you can try a Mexican grocery store or order it online: Goya Chipotles in Adobo Sauce
If you are making this in the summer or early fall, you can use fresh, chopped tomatoes in place of the canned.
Make it ahead: This tastes better by the day, so don’t be afraid to make it a day or two in advance.
This freezes well. Store in quart containers (or other) in the freezer for up to 3 months.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons olive oil
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- kosher salt
- 1/4 cup chipotles in adobo sauce, see notes above
- 1 cup crushed tomatoes, see notes above
- 1 cup water
- 2 lbs. boneless, skinless chicken thighs or breasts
- 1/2 to 1 cup roughly chopped cilantro
Instructions
- Warm up your Instant Pot by turning the sauté setting on. Once warm, add the 2 tablespoons olive oil. Add the sliced onion. Season with a pinch of salt and stir. Sauté for 5 to 7 minutes or util the onion begins to soften.
- Add the chipotles in adobo sauce, and cook for another minute.
- Add the tomatoes and water, and bring to a simmer.
- Add the chicken and season with a pinch of salt. Stir.
- Cover the Instant Pot, and lock it into place. Change the settings to manual, high pressure. Set the time for 10 minutes. Be sure to turn the valve to seal.
- When the 10 minutes are up, turn the valve to release the steam. When the steam has released, turn the lid, and carefully remove it.
- Remove the chicken from the Instant Pot, and shred it with two forks. Return the shredded chicken to the Instant Pot, and stir.
- Add cilantro to taste, and stir. I like to let the mixture hang out for a bit (10 minutes or so) before I season it with salt to taste. Taste. Add salt to taste. Note: This tastes better by the day, so don’t be afraid to make it a day or two in advance.
- Prep Time: 5 minutes
- Cook Time: 25 minutes
- Category: Chicken
- Method: Instant Pot
- Cuisine: Mexican
This post may contain affiliate links. Please read my disclosure policy.
36 Comments on “Instant Pot Chicken Tinga”
This looks great, and even better, I have all the ingredients on hand! Quick clarification – you’re using just the liquid from the chipotles in adobo, not the peppers themselves, right? Thanks!
Hi! Great question, and I’ll make a note in the recipe. You can use both the chipotles and the sauce — the chilies themselves essentially dissolve during the cooking time. So, just shoot to use a total amount of sauce + chilies that amounts to about 1/4 cup. If you use just sauce, that is fine, too. Hope this makes sense!
Whenever I open a can of chipotles in adobo sauce, I blend everything in a mini blender then freeze the paste in a little shallow container—That way, you can cut off out as little or as much as you like of the frozen paste to add into whatever you are cooking and I always have it on hand. We use it as a hot and smoky sauce for tacos as is… yum.
I love poaching a whole chicken with aromatics in the instant pot—makes delicious stock in 20 minutes (high pressure, 20 min then quick release)—so you can tinga half of it and use the rest for another meal.
This is a brilliant tip, Bri! Thanks so much for writing.
And thanks so much for sharing your IP method for poaching a whole chicken — so helpful!
Hey Ali! Can’t wait to make this. I bet it would make a great topping for some Mexican pizza with your pizza crust recipe. How spicy is this dish? If it is spicy, should I use just the sauce in chipotle pepper can? Use less?
Hi Sonia! It is on the spicy side but not unbearably so. BUT, if you are worried, I would advise starting with 2-3 tablespoons as opposed to the 1/4 cup. You can definitely add a tablespoon of sauce at the end if you find it needs a little more heat and smokey flavor. Hope you love it!
Can you follow these same instructions using a regular pressure cooker pot?
Hi Annette! Yes … but question: can you sauté with your pressure cooker? If not, I would advise sautéing the onion, and then adding the chipotle, tomatoes and water — essentially making the sauce — in a separate skillet; then adding it to the pressure cooker with the chicken and proceeding with the recipe.
Hello! Is there a reason not to shred the chicken right inside the pot? I do that with other InstantPot recipes.
No! Caroline, I can’t believe I never thought to go that… if it’s easy to shred the meat in the IP, go for it. I’ll try that next time. Thanks!
Hi Ali! Soooo…. I read the intro – whole chicken! yay! – but didn’t read far enough to see the fact you ACTUALLY used thighs. 😂 Whaddya think – I could cut up a whole chicken and make it happen, right?
Absolutely! You’ll just have to spend a bit more time removing the meat from the bones, but honestly, it will be all the more delicious starting with a whole chicken. Also, you can make stock with the leftover carcass. Yay! And hieeeeeee xoxoxox
Hi Alexandra, and if i were to use the whole chicken in the instant pot, what would be the cooking instructions? High pressure maybe 30 min? or still 10 min?
Hi Marina! That’s a good question, and to be honest, I don’t know because I haven’t tried. But I would imagine that 25-30 minutes is about right. Keep in mind, after you release the valve and remove the chicken, it will take much longer to cool down before you are able to handle it, so just be patient. You can wear rubber gloves, too, to protect your hands.
This was so delish and easy too! It’s going on the menu for next week as well. Thanks Ali!
So nice to hear this, Prudence!
Hi Ali,
Looks yummy and healthy. Can I prepare this recipes using a rice cooker?
You likely could! Though I wouldn’t know how to advise on the settings … may take some trial and error.
I made this last night. It was spectacular. Easy weeknight recipe. Amazing flavor, smoky and not too spicy. Count me among those who would rather not deal with a whole chicken if I can avoid it. I used chicken breasts and thighs and both came out tender and lovely. Great use of the Instant Pot! This recipe gave me confidence to cook chicken in the Instant Pot—it did not come out overcooked and dry. I recently discovered your website and have been enjoying your recipes and commentary. (We LOVE your Soft and Chewy Chocolate Chip cookie recipe!). Thank you!!
Oh Yay! Wonderful to hear this, Stacy! Thanks so much for writing and glad you found the blog 🙂 Yay for soft and chewy chocolate chip cookies!!
This is so insanely good and so easy. Think it would be a great jumping off point for a chicken tortilla soup…will have to experiment!
I can’t believe I’ve never thought about that! You are absolutely right. Thanks for the idea, and thank you for writing. So glad you liked this one.
this is my 4th time making this……obsessed. i make it with chicken breasts because for some reason my kids don’t like thighs (whatever). i like spice, so now i just throw in the whole can of chipotles in adobe. last two times i made your simple cabbage slaw to serve with this as tacos. thank you for a great instant pot recipe!
So great to hear this, Laura! And I hear you: my kids seem to prefer breasts as well… I think it’s a texture thing. Thanks for writing!
My husband and I independently texted this recipe to our respective families the day after we made it. SO GOOD. And I’m like down to cook something finicky 75% of the time! But this is so good, so easy, so healthy. Thank you, Ali!! We bought the cookbook as soon as it came out so if you issue another, we’ll get that too. You’ve fed me through college, now marriage 🙂
Awww, Laura, so nice to hear this 🙂 🙂 🙂 This makes me especially happy bc this recipe is near and dear to my heart bc I learned it when I was working in a kitchen (not the IP method, the original, but still). And thank you re book … I’m hoping to pitch another idea soon. Thanks for writing!
I’ve made this several times now and the whole family LOVES it. So easy and super flavorful. It makes so much and I always freeze half to use later. Last night I used my frozen batch in your enchilada recipe and my daughter could not get enough. We served along with your IP black beans which are THE best. My younger daughter was eating her bowl of beans like it was a bowl of cereal. Thanks Alexandra!
Awwww Jennie, this means the world! Thanks so much for writing 🙂 The chicken tinga in the enchiladas is my husband’s favorite, too … (mine, too, actually). So glad to hear all of this.
Love your site. Thank you! 🙂
Thank you, David 🙂
I love your cookbook Bread Toast Crumbs and this sounds yummy and I love the instant pot. Do you or will you be publishing a book with just instant pot recipes?
Hi Elise! And thank you 🙂 I will likely not be writing an Instant Pot book. I’m sorry!
So easy and super delicious. Used it with your easy enchilada sauce and tortillas. Family said it was in the top ten meals I’ve made!
Great to hear, Aditi! Thanks so much for writing 🙂 🙂 🙂
Delicious! I did half boneless chicken breasts and half bone-in legs, 2 onions, 7oz can La Costeña chipotles in adobo, 28oz can crushed tomatoes, and added 14oz can black beans while shredding the chicken. Very easy and tasty, and I love that it was adaptable to use full cans! I’m an Instant Pot newb so added probably an extra cup of water because I had the food burn warning and panicked. So good for leftovers on days 2 and 3 that I had to write this review.
Great to read all of this, Rachel! I so appreciate you writing and sharing your notes — so helpful for others! Love the idea of adding black beans, too. Yum.