Better Than Chipotle Chicken Tacos Recipe

Chipotle chicken tacos are good… but these are better. And I’m going to show you exactly how to make our chipotle chicken tacos recipe at home on the grill. And spoiler alert: it’s better and cheaper than takeout.

Quick Links to the products mentioned in this post:

• Chipotle peppers in adobo sauce
• Mexican Oregano
• Smoked Paprika
• 2-gallon zip-top bags
• Silicone basting brush
• instant-read thermometer
• grill tongs
• Grill Rescue Brush
• Grilla outdoor kitchen (code: BBQLAB)
• Taco stand (code: BBQLAB)
• no-cut glove
• nitrile gloves

In this article, I’m going to show you everything, from the marinade to the grill to the final taco, so you can make better-than-Chipotle chicken at home. It all starts with the marinade, and here’s how to make it.

Chipotle Chicken Marinade

I like to assemble this in a food processor, but you could easily chop these ingredients manually and mix them as well.

This batch is for 3 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. You could use breasts, but thighs are better in this recipe, in my opinion, and they’re always what I use.

• Start with a 7-ounce can of chipotle peppers in adobo sauce. You should be able to find them at your local grocery store in the international aisle. I’m adding half a can here, but if you like more heat, you can always add the whole can to raise the spice level.
• To balance the heat, we add a half cup of honey. This adds some sweetness, but will also help our char when we get to the grill.
• Next is a half cup of olive oil, followed by one-third cup of apple cider vinegar and a quarter cup of water.
• For garlic, I want about 2 Tablespoons of minced garlic, so that’s around 6 garlic cloves if you’re starting from fresh.
• Now the spices. I like to add 1 tablespoon of cumin, 1 tablespoon of chili powder, and 1 tablespoon of paprika. Regular paprika is fine, but you could use Hungarian, Spanish, or smoked. Smoked is actually my favorite, but any of them will work. Also, add 2 teaspoons of granulated onion (onion powder works as well; it’s just a different consistency, but in this recipe it’s fine), 2 teaspoons of salt as well, and then 2 teaspoons of oregano. I recommend Mexican oregano. It’s a completely different flavor from the Italian oregano I have in the cupboard, and it really brings the flavor in this marinade. The last ingredient is 1 teaspoon of black pepper, and it’s time to blend.
• I blend this on high for about a minute, making sure that all of the chipotle peppers are minced as finely as we can get them, and it’s ready.

Before you let this marinade touch chicken, pour 1/3 of it into a bowl for basting the chicken on the grill, and place it in the fridge for later. Place the chicken thighs in a zip-top bag or a container for marinating and pour the remaining marinade on top. I like a 2 gallon zip-top bag because then I can mix it around and make sure that everything is covered. This can now sit in the fridge for 30 minutes or overnight. I personally like overnight, but not every weeknight dinner has that kind of time with kids in football and musicals in our family.

Chipotle Chicken on the Grill

For grilling, I like to preheat my grill on medium-high heat. That’s around 400-450 degrees Fahrenheit.

I take the chicken thighs straight out of the marinade and place them on the grill. I leave them alone for about 4 minutes to let them develop some color on the first side.

After a few minutes, I flip the chicken and start basting. I’ll spoon it over the top or transfer it to a squirt bottle for easy distribution, and then paint it in gently with a silicone basting brush. A few minutes later, flip the chipotle chicken back to the first side and baste more marinade on top. Use an instant-read thermometer to check the internal temperature, and once it has reached about 170°, remove the chipotle chicken thighs from the grill so they can rest; carryover cooking will take it the rest of the way.

Chipotle Chicken Tacos

After a quick cleaning of the grill grates with my Grill Rescue Brush, I like to soften the tortillas by giving them a couple of seconds on the grill. Just a couple of seconds per side is all it takes.

After the grilled chicken has rested for about 10 minutes, I slip a no-cut glove and a nitrile glove on my left hand and get to chopping with my right hand. I like to cut them into bite-size pieces, perfect for filling tacos.

Then I load the tortillas up with chicken, and since we’re the ones serving and not a uniformed employee, we can go double protein like we mean it. Fresh pico is always my go-to, with all of its tomatoey goodness, and a sprinkle of Mexican cheese blend goes on next. Lastly, I like to add some creamy chipotle sauce on top to bring out more of the chipotle flavor and tame the heat a bit for the kids.

Creamy Chipotle Sauce Recipe

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons chipotle in adobo, (minced)
• 1 tablespoon lime juice
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1 teaspoon granulated garlic
• salt and pepper to taste

Scaling for a crowd

We actually made this recipe for 350 hungry teens this week. Planning for 2 tacos per student, we were looking at 700 chipotle tacos made using this recipe, and it took a whole team of volunteers to pull it off.

I taught the chipotle chicken tacos recipe to a group of guys in the outdoor kitchen at home last week before asking them to help me make it for hundreds more.

We had people inside making gallons of pico, fresh from scratch; other teams making the marinade and basting sauce; even more creating the creamy chipotle sauce; and guys on every grill we have available to us in the Grilla Grills outdoor kitchen.

We had the Primate gas grill, the Kong charcoal grill and even the Silverbac pellet grill fired up since we were cooking 160lbs of chicken for this crowd, so this chipotle chicken taco recipe can really be cooked on a variety of different grills.

This recipe scales really well for a large crowd, but is easy enough to make for your family at home.