Cajun Chicken Tacos

Cajun Chicken Tacos with an Avocado Jalapeño Crema

These cajun tacos are a super easy weeknight meal! This dish can be prepped and stored in advance for a quick dinner.

Ingredients:

1 chicken breast/ chickcen thigh

1 avocado

1 jalapeno

1 sweet or yellow onion

2 limes

1 bunch of cilantro

1 can of chiles de arbol

2 guajillo chiles

5 cloves garlic

1/2 cup sour cream

1/4 cup mayo

3 corn tortillas

cajun seasoning

adobo

salt

pepper

avocado oil

Instructions:

Marinade:

1. Start by cutting your onion in half and placing it in a pan on medium heat with a drizzle of oil. Cook on cut side down until the onion gets color or charred marks.

2. In a small pot, add water and wait until it reaches a boil. Then, add your dried guajillo chiles and rehydrate for about 10 minutes or until the skin tears easily. Reserve about 1/2 cup of the liquid.

3. Using a grill, open flame or sautee pan, char the jalapeno on all sides untilt the skin is completely black.

4. In a blender or food processor, add the charred onion, jalapeno and the guajillo chiles.

5. Add 3 cloves of garlic to the blender

6. Add the can of chiles de arbol

   ******This step can be done at anytime: Add 1 tbsp of cajun seasoning, 1/2 tsp of salt, pepper, adobo and any other seasonings you like into a a different small bowl and mix. Coat the chicken on all sides.

   ****** Note: if you don't have time to marinade all together, skip the marinade step and season the chicken only.

   
   

   Continuing with marinade:

7. Blend until smooth. If the mixture is too thick and resembling a paste, add the leftover liquid from the rehydrated chiles until it becomes more liquid.

8. Add to a bowl with your chicken and let it sit in the fridge for at least 1 hour, or ideally 24 hours.

9. This recipe is just for one serving but can be easily stretched for a larger quanity or meal prepping purposes. Additionally, this recipe is extremely flexible and is pretty hard to mess up, so adjusting ingreditants for quantity, flavor and spice level is totally fine.

   
   

Avocado and Jalapeno Crema

1. In a food processor or blender, add 1/2 an avocado, 1 lime, 1/2 cup sour cream, 1/4 cup mayo, 2 cloves of garlic, jalapeno and a sprinkling of salt and pepper

2. Blend until smooth

Notes:

• This crema recipe is also very flexible and I typically eyeball the sourcream: mayo ratio depending on my preferences.

• I taste and adjust salt as needed

• If you don't love spice, you can remove the seeds from the jalapeno by gently scraping them out with the edge of a knife before blending.

• This sauce stays good in the fridge stored in an air tight container for up to 2 weeks.

Prep

1. Using the other half of the avocado, dice or thinly slice for garnish

2. Using the other half of the onion, finely dice into small cubes and finely chop the cilantro and add to a bowl to combine. (Tip: if you're not very fond of the taste of raw onion, rinse in a strainer or bowl under cold water for a few seconds to get rid of that taste!)

   
   

Cook

1. In a pan, drizzle avocado oil or another high heat oil until the bottom of the pan is lightly coated. Grilling, airfrying or baking the chicken are other options but I would say sauteeing or grilling are most optimal.

2. Add the chicken to the pan and flip often on both sides until the internal temperature reaches about 160 degrees farenheight.

3. This is an extra step but one I highly reccomend: if you have the time, cook the chicken until 150 degrees internal temp and remove from the heat. Then, on a cutting board, dice the chicken into bite sized pieces or small cubes and add back into the pan for 3-4 minutes until finished cooking.

4. In a small pan, add 1 tsp of oil and lightly crisp both sides of the tortillas until warm and flexible but not hard and crispy (You can also use flour tortillas)

5. Add chicken to the tacos

6. Garnish with the onion/cilantro mixture, add the suace and avocado.

   
   

Optionally:

• You can follow this recipe and use it with different recipes (Example: chipotle bowl)

• Any type of tortilla or wrap can be used

• The same dry seasonings can be used on something like shrimp for a different meal

• Adding mexican blend cheese or your favorite kind is a delicious addition

• Although this recipe only uses 1 chicken breast, you can scale up for more people (My rule of thumb is typically 1 piece of chicken per person for 3 tacos).