Mild Instant Pot Chicken Tacos

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I Love Tacos

I insist on having tacos once a week because I love them, even the mild ones. Then I love the leftover taco meat for salads, quesadillas, and breakfast burritos. These mild chicken tacos in the instant pot are a super easy recipe to set it and forget it. It still has substantial flavor but is mild enough for a more sensitive pallet. It also pairs well with all the salsas and hot sauces I’ve tried if you like them spicier.

Spiciness

I love the heat, but my husband can’t take too much kick. If you can’t take the heat use a bell pepper and leave out the cayenne. If you use a deseeded jalapeno, you’ll still get the flavor, but you’ll need hot sauce to actually make it spicy. I’ve also tried this recipe with 3 serrano peppers and thought it had a pleasant kick. But it was a bit too much for my husband.

Substitutions

Onions

I tend to get either a white or a yellow onion depending on what looks best while I’m shopping. I wouldn’t try a red one with this recipe.

Peppers

There are a lot of many wonderful peppers out there. If you can’t take any heat whatsoever, you can use a sweet pepper, like a bell pepper. I like to use a larger deseeded jalapeno for flavor but without the spiciness. A poblano or Anaheim pepper will also give flavor, without too much heat if you can find them. I’ve tried this recipe with three serrano peppers, thinking that with two pounds of chicken, it wouldn’t be too spicy for my husband. He survived. But I’m not making that mistake again.

Chicken

I prefer the tenderloins for both taste and cholesterol reasons. My second favorite choice is chicken breasts, but it just doesn’t taste as tender. You can use boneless skinless chicken thighs, but I personally don’t think it’s worth it. They give a fattier taste that I don’t enjoy, but you will still get tacos. Which is a much better place, than dinner without tacos.

Chicken Stock

I’ve used both chicken stock and chicken broth. They both work. I like low-sodium if I can get it. If you don’t have either, just use some water. The important detail is that you have enough moisture, so it cooks correctly in the instant pot.

Fire Roasted Tomatoes with Garlic

The fire-roasted tomatoes with garlic are my favorite variety of canned tomato. The fire roasting really adds something to the overall flavor and color of every dish I’ve used it in. We are also big garlic fans, so more garlic in the tomatoes is a plus. You can use fire-roasted tomatoes without garlic and just add about 2 teaspoons of minced garlic for a very similar result.

If you can’t find the fire-roasted (which has happened to me) you can use diced tomatoes with the extra minced garlic. You won’t get the exact same flavor and color, but you will still have hot fresh taco meat.

Detailed Directions

I always recommend that you start every recipe by wiping down your counters and washing your hands, so you have a clean place to cook.

For the onion and pepper, I just chop them in my food processor until they are chopped finely. I want them to mix so well with the shredded chicken that eating around them doesn’t come to mind. Make sure to chop them at least bite-sized if you prefer a chunky texture. Next, measure out the rest of your ingredients and throw them into your instant pot.

Then set your instant pot to cook on high for 15 minutes. When it’s done allow for a natural release of 10 minutes, before carefully venting your pot. Finally, shred and eat!

Recipe Notes

If you want to halve the recipe, you will need to adjust the cooking time to 8 minutes. Keep the 10-minute natural release. If you depressurize too quickly, you’ll suck the water out of the chicken, and it will taste dry.

This taco meat keeps well in the fridge and makes for excellent leftovers. I think it still tastes good 5 days after cooking. Because it uses two pounds of meat, I make it with leftovers in mind.

What you can prepare ahead of time

1. Pre-chop your onion and pepper
2. Pre-portion your chicken in a ziplock
3. Pre-mix all spices and put in a container
4. Then the night off, you just dump your chicken, veggies, spices, chicken stock, and can of tomatoes in and you only need to measure one thing, the chicken stock.