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Weeknight-style Crispy Cider Braised White Chili Chicken Tacos. Slow-cooked with hard cider (or try using your favorite beer), spices, salsa verde, and hot sauce. Then mix with cheese, stuff into hard tortillas, and oven-bake. Each chicken taco is crunchy on the outside, and spicy, saucy, and cheesy inside. Serve with a creamy whipped honey garlic avocado crema on top. These come together easily and are so delicious. The perfect crispy taco that everyone will love!
When I go too long without making tacos the family begins to notice. And slowly the requests for tacos start to roll in. I know I speak about them all the time, but my dad’s tacos are the favorite of the bunch. So much so that we included them on our Home Chef menu.
What we love about them is the crispy hard shells and melty cheese. More often than not, people enjoy tacos in soft flour tortillas with no melty cheese. There’s nothing wrong with those, but we just love a crispy cheesy taco more than anything.
They’re SO YUMMY! To this day, they’re still one of our favorite dinners.
We also love to switch up taco night, and I switch it up often. I swap out flavors and meats, but I always keep the crispiness. It really is essential.
These tacos are braised in sweet, tangy cider, or sometimes I’ll use beer. There’s also plenty of spices, salsa verde, and even an avocado crema on top. I kept the recipe easy and simple and mixed everything all together at once on the stove.
Here are details
Step 1: make the chicken
For this recipe, I love to use skinless chicken thighs with chicken breasts mix. I find chicken thighs to be much more tender when braised versus chicken breasts. Mixing the two together is a nice balance.
Simmer the chicken with an onion and your favorite bottle of cider. I use a hard cider, but using a non-alcoholic cider works just about the same. Or use your favorite beer, pumpkin is especially nice this time of year.
Add your spices, I like using chili powder, chipotle, and smoked paprika. Then season well with salt. Simmer until the sauce has thickened and the chicken is deeply browned and shreds easily.
Step 2: mix in the remaining ingredients
Now add a can of diced-up green chiles, salsa verde, and a couple tablespoons of hot sauce.
If you prefer a less spicy taco, go ahead and skip using the hot sauce.
Step 3: shred the chicken and assemble
Grab two forks and shred the braised chicken. Then toss the shredded chicken in with the sauce.
Next, stuff the taco filling into a hard taco shell and top with cheese, I use a mix of cheddar and pepper jack.
If you can spare an extra few minutes, you can make homemade crispy shells. Instead of using store-bought taco shells, take corn tortillas and stuff them with the braised chicken and cheese. Then put them into the oven to bake until the tortillas are crispy.
We love the crispy oven “fried” shells and melty cheese. It’s the best when some of the cheese melts out onto the pan and gets crispy too.
Step 4: the avocado crema
I know that making homemade crema is just another step, but it really is worth it. And it’s easier than running to the market to pick up sauce.
For this crema, you can add everything to a blender – the avocado, honey, garlic, lime, and salt. Then blend until whipped and creamy. If the crema is not thin enough, continue to add lime juice until it is right.
Top each taco with cilantro, green onions, and lime, and finish with a dollop of avocado.
Simple to make, but so yummy and fun for fall nights. My family loved these crunchy, crispy tacos! I think you will too!!
Looking for more simple weeknight recipes? Here are a few favorites:
Crispy Jalapeño Cream Cheese Buffalo Chicken Taquitos
Sheet Pan Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Slow Cooker Chipotle Chicken Tortilla Soup with Salty Lime Chips
Healthier Homemade Crunchwrap Supreme
Crispy Chipotle Chicken Tacos with Cilantro Lime Ranch
Crockpot Crispy Buffalo Chicken Tacos
Lastly, if you make these Crispy Cider Braised White Chili Chicken Tacos, be sure to leave a comment and/or give this recipe a rating! Above all, I love to hear from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every comment. And of course, if you do make this recipe, don’t forget to tag me on Instagram! Looking through the photos of recipes you all have made is my favorite!
Crispy Cider Braised White Chili Chicken Tacos
Servings: 6
Calories Per Serving: 580 kcal
Nutritional information is only an estimate. The accuracy of the nutritional information for any recipe on this site is not guaranteed.
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 yellow onion, chopped
- 1 1/2 pounds boneless skinless chicken breasts or thighs can also do a mix
- 2 cloves garlic, chopped
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 2 teaspoons chipotle chili powder
- 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 can (4 ounce) diced green chilies
- 1 can or bottle (12 ounce) cider or beer
- 1/2 cup salsa verde
- 1/4 cup hot sauce
- 12 hard shell tacos (see notes for homemade)
- 2 cups shredded cheddar/pepper jack cheese
Salted Lime Avocado Crema
- 2 ripe avocados, chopped
- 2 teaspoons honey
- 1 clove garlic or 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
- 2 tablespoons lime juice
- sea salt (to taste)
Instructions
- 1. Preheat the oven to 425. In a large skillet with sides, add the olive oil, onion, and chicken, cook until fragrant, about 5 minutes. Stir in the garlic, chili powder, chipotle chili powder, paprika, and a pinch each of salt and pepper. Pour over the cider(or beer). Partially cover and simmer over medium-low heat for 20 minutes, until the chicken is cooked through.2. Mix in the green chiles, salsa verde, and hot sauce. Remove from the heat, shred the chicken using two forks.3. Line the taco shells up in a 9×13 inch baking dish. Transfer to the oven and bake for 5 minutes. Stuff the chicken into each taco shell and top with cheese. Bake for 10 minutes, until the cheese has melted and the tortillas are crisp.4. Meanwhile, make the Salted Lime Avocado Crema. Combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth and creamy. Season with salt.5. Serve the tacos topped with avocado, lettuce, green onion, crumbled feta, limes, and any other desired toppings.
Notes
For Easy Homemade Hard Shells: Warm 8-12 corn tortillas for 30 seconds to 1 minute in the microwave, until pliable. On a baking sheet, rub the tortillas with olive oil. Lay each tortilla flat, then layer evenly with cheese and chicken. Fold the other half of the tortilla over the filling, gently pushing to adhere (see above photo). Transfer to the oven and bake for 5-8 minutes, then flip and cook another 5 minutes more, or until the cheese has melted and the tortillas are crisp.
The flavor was excellent. Loved the sweetness from the cider. The only problem I had is that the sauce did not thicken so the meat was soupy which made the taco shells mushy and not crispy at all. I even made the chicken ahead of time and strained the meat out of the residual sauce before putting in the shells. Not sure what I could do different.
Thank you so so much Tracy! xT
Delicious easy to make
Thank you so so much Tara! 🙂 xT
If I wanted to use rotisserie chicken, would I make the sauce and simmer before mixing in the chicken?
Yes, that should work great! xT
This was very tasty! We thought it would be good on nachos or even a rice bowl too!
Would be super good on nachos! xT
One of my absolute favorite HBH dishes. The flavors are so good! I tried using both store bought shells and using my own corn tortillas and the store bought always seem to work better for me. And the avocado crema pairs so well with it! I could eat it by the spoonful.
Hey Megan,
Amazing!! So glad to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for making it:) xT
Could I do these in the slow cooker?? And what time and high or low would you recommend
Hi Tanya,
You could cook the meat in the slow cooker, obviously the tacos will need to go into the oven. I would do 4-6 hours on low. I hope you love this recipe! xT
Great! I just wanted to set the meat and forget it. Thanks so much!
These were so good! I doubled the recipe used one beer and 12oz of cider and a mix of breasts and thighs. I was done so quickly that I moved them to my slow cooker (on low) and then shredded them when I was ready to make the tacos. My whole family loved them!!
Hey Leah,
Happy Monday!! Love to hear that this recipe turned out well for you, thanks for trying and your feedback! xT
Ok. It’s official. I’m starting a new series in my home “Tacos with Tieghan” Tieghan, your taco recipes are always phenomenal. This one is my personal favorite yet. I used hard cider and the hint of sweetness was what took it over the top. The only change I made was I didn’t finish the tortillas/tacos in the oven. I charred the tortillas and then added the chicken and toppings. I’ve already sent this recipe to friends saying “you need to make these!”
Wow thank you SO much! Soo happy to hear you’re loving these tacos!! xT
Any idea how flour tortillas would work with the oven method?
Those should work just fine! 🙂 xT
oh my goodness gracious. I made these for dinner and my boyfriend couldn’t stop “mmmmmm’ing” the entire time . So delicious! I made with non alcoholic apple cider… will definitely rotate this recipe . Thanks so much Tieghan !
Haha yayyy love to hear this Chantelle! Thank you! xT
Did the apple cider make the dish extra sweet?
Really don’t care what you call these tacos, they were a huge hit at our house! They were delicious and everyone said they would want them again.
Thank you so much for trying out the recipe! Have an awesome weekend! xT
Very excited to try. Any recommendations for making ahead of time?
Hi there! You could totally make the meat ahead and then add it to the tacos when you’re ready to serve! xT
This recipe was a hit for my husband and I! I used cider and it brought out a nice spice with the chicken. My only thing was that I didn’t think these were ‘white chicken chili’ tacos at all. They were just cider braised chicken tacos.
Thanks so much for giving the recipe a try! I appreciate you leaving a comment! 🙂 xT
I love this recipe! I am curious – what makes this recipe “White” chili chicken? Where does the white come from? Thank you, love it Tieghan!!
Hi there! It’s a white chicken chili instead of a traditional chili which has more of a tomato base! xT
AMAZING! My family loved them! Living in AZ we often make Mexican food. These tacos were unique and as Tieghan would say, “So Delicious!” After reading the comments, I adjusted one thing. I did use 1 bottle of hard cider which did create enough flavorful liquid to braise the chicken properly. When shredding the chicken, I removed it from the pan. Then I reduced the liquid to a sauce consistency before adding the shredded chicken back to the pan. It was the perfect, not too juicy to make tortillas soggy. We loved the crispy oven fried corn totillas! Yum! Thank you for jazzing up our dinner!
Thank you so so much Karen! xT