Chicken Tinga Tostadas

Chicken tinga is really just shredded chicken in a tomato, chipotle sauce with onions. It doesn’t get much simpler or better than this! This Chicken tinga totally rocks!

Chicken Tinga Tostadas are not the recipe I’d expect to find in a book about bread. And even though I did find it in a book about bread, it is not one I expected to like so much. But I adored these chicken tinga tostadas and I know you will love this chicken tinga recipe. That is why I’m posting two Mexican recipes in a row. You don’t mind, do you? Well, Manservant didn’t either!

What is chicken tinga made of?

Chicken tingas are made of simmered shredded chicken and then simmered again with onions, and a smoky tomato sauce made with chipotles. Chipotles are smoked and dried jalapenos and they are what gives chicken tinga its characteristic taste. Making the chicken is easy. Just throw it in a pot and let it simmer, just like you were making chicken soup. If you have an InstaPot this would work great also. This is a simple dish to make!

So the chicken tingas? A hit in our house. Really a home run. We used the leftovers on a quesadilla but they would have also been great in a bowl with rice, beans, and avocado. Dry it out a bit and they are the perfect taco! Chicken tinga would also be great in a burrito or as a filling for enchiladas.

Hot Bread Kitchen

I received the book, “Hot Bread Kitchen ” from the Blogging for Books program in exchange for this review. The cover of the book will catch your eye if you like looking at spectacular photos of bread. Winter is the perfect time to bake-especially bread-as my kitchen has no air conditioning- and baking bread requires a warm spot. Not only that, but this book by Jessamyn Waldman Rodriguez of Hot Bread Kitchen fame in East Harlem, leaves a warm spot in my heart.

Jessamyn is the bright mind behind the social enterprise that provides a life-changing education for low income minority women. Bakery trainees are taught skills that allow them to get management track positions in the food industry or even start their own businesses. How cool is that? Each loaf of bread sold helps pay for this mission. The bread that is baked every day is inspired by the women that are trained there, and the book reflects this.

Chapters such as unleavened flatbreads and then leavened flatbreads, leads to tortillas and challah, and filled breads and sweet breads, and quick breads and what to do with leftover bread. Yes, that’s a lot of bread. And the fun part is that there are breads in this book that I’ve never heard of. Breads such as M’smen  and Nan-E-Barbari and Momos all make an appearance. Though I don’t consider this a book for novice bakers, it certainly is one to peruse for numerous ideas in bread baking. Additionally, it includes recipes besides bread, that this group of international women cook for their families.

Hence the chicken tingas, that is perfect with Hot Bread Kitchen tortillas and the chopped liver that works well with the recipe for matzoh. Yes, there are definitely recipes in here that may show up on my Passover table. I had the opportunity to try several of their creations and though I didn’t feel all were perfect, I did pick up a few new tricks.

Jessamyn’s challah is a bit salty for my taste but her recipe made a gorgeous loaf. Jessamyn employs a technique using pate fermentee  which is a pre-ferment dough, like levain, but it doesn’t impart a sour flavor to the final recipe. It also allows one to use less yeast in the dough and helps extend the shelf life of the final product. I have made many challahs, but none that used this technique. It does require an added step, which means planning 8-24 hours ahead, so that the pate fermentee can later be mixed into the challah bread dough.

Did it extend the life of the challah?  I do believe it did, but this loaf also had a lot of salt and that may have helped, too. Jessamyn also brushes her challah with an egg wash during the second rising and then again before it goes into the oven. What emerges is truly a spectacular bread. Her braiding instructions were too tough for me to follow, so I relied on my tried and true method. I’ll do a post about challah soon, I promise.

Banana bread was also on my radar screen, as the low and slow method of baking intrigued me. Can’t say I was overly impressed by the flavor, but maybe my bananas were lacking.  Currently I’m working on Jessamyn’s  bialy recipe as she uses Mimi Sheraton’s recipe, which I have also interpreted. They seem to be pretty good, but I haven’t tried toasting them yet!

All in all, Hot Bread Kitchen is a joy to read. Though the recipes may need to be tweaked for a home baker, I am not adverse to trying more. The photos are drool worthy and I love reading the notes and stories behind each recipe. This is a book meant to be read and lingered over and I am glad it is now part of my collection.

So there you have it. Chicken Tingas and a new cookbook to be on the watch for. Like I said I never expected to find a recipe for chicken tingas in a bread cookbook. But you can bet that I’m glad I did!

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Past March Recipes:

Pasta with Roasted Cauliflower, Pine Nuts and Raisins
Guinness Irish Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Bacon
Pickapeppa Shrimp
Hamantaschen