20 Minute Ground Chicken Tacos
This 20-minute ground chicken taco recipe is made with poblano peppers and flavorful seasonings. This recipe is chef-tested and taste-tester-approved, so you can be assured you’ll love this recipe! Whether you’re prepping it as a family-friendly weeknight dinner recipe or a festive Taco Tuesday, you’ll want to keep this recipe in your back pocket!
Table of contents
Why You’ll Love This Chicken Tacos Recipe
- These easy chicken tacos only take 20 minutes to make! That’s right, this is a healthy meal that the whole family will love, and it’ll be on the table in less than a half hour.
- Made with simple good-for-you ingredients and seasonings you probably already have on hand or can be found in a regular grocery store. No additives or hard to pronounce preservatives here!
- Uses lean ground chicken meat instead of beef- so they’re healthy too! Try our ground turkey tacos next!
Ingredients For Chicken Tacos
Full measurements and instructions can be found below in the recipe card. Here are some helpful tips about the ingredients, purchasing tips, and substitutions.
- Corn Tortillas: We like soft corn tortillas, but if you prefer the crunch of a crispy corn tortilla taco shells, go ahead and use them instead. Follow the heating instructions on the package. You can also use flour tortillas. Keep in mind a flour tortilla is larger than corn tortillas so look for taco size or Fajita size.
- Cooking Oil: Choose whichever neutral-flavored cooking oil you prefer. I like avocado oil or organic canola oil but olive oil is fine too.
- Fresh Veggies: To bulk up the serving size and add nutrients (and low calorie volume) I added a blend of chopped onions, garlic and Poblano peppers. Poblano peppers are relatively mild chili peppers and add great mild spice to this recipe. Sub in one green pepper for mild spice. If you’re short on time you can use a little garlic powder and onion powder and mix it in with the other dry spices.
- Ground Chicken: I adore cooking with ground chicken and really love the tender texture. It is easier than boneless skinless chicken breasts because there is no cutting! If you cannot find it you can use ground turkey instead.
- Taco Spices: The best spices for chicken tacos are cumin, chili powder, ground chipotle, salt and pepper. If you don’t like heat, skip the chipotle. If you prefer to take a shortcut, you can substitute 2 tablespoons of Taco seasoning or Mexican seasoning plus salt to taste.
- Tomato Paste and Water: This helps to create the sauce for the taco filling. You can freeze any leftover tomato paste in 1 tablespoon portions in an ice cube tray.
- Optional Garnishes: Lime, Salsa, Lettuce, Cabbage, and Avocado: I skip the high-calorie cheese and sour cream and use the above healthy garnishes, but if you like to add in dairy, go for it! Feel free to improvise with your favorite toppings for tacos.
How To Make This Ground Chicken Taco Recipe
Full instructions and the printable recipe are available below in the recipe card.
Step 1: Preheat Oven and Warm Tortillas
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F and wrap your tortillas in foil stacked in two packages of four. Place the tortillas in the hot oven to warm.
Step 2: Cook Ground Chicken, Poblano Peppers and Onions
Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and add poblano, onion, and garlic, and cook. Stir often until the vegetables are softened and begin to brown, which should be 5 to 8 minutes. Add chicken, and cook, breaking it up into small pieces as it becomes opaque and until the chicken is completely cooked. This should take 4 to 6 minutes.
Step 3: Add Chicken Taco Seasonings
Sprinkle the vegetable and chicken mixture with chili powder, cumin, salt, and chipotle, and stir to coat it evenly and until fragrant, 30 to 90 seconds. Add the tomato paste and water and then stir until the tomato paste is dissolved into the water and it forms a sauce to coat the chicken mixture.
Step 4: Serve and Enjoy!
Finally, once the chicken mixture is cooked you’re ready to assemble your chicken tacos. Fill each tortilla or taco shell with some of the chicken mixture, and top with your favorite chicken taco toppings. Serve immediately!
Best Toppings For Chicken Tacos
You can top your ground chicken tacos with any combination from the below list or use your favorite taco toppings.
- I like healthy colorful toppings like purple cabbage, salsa, lettuce, and avocado.
- A little acidity also is great with them so I add on a squeeze of lime juice and salsa or diced tomatoes are a milder option.
- Or simply serve with the lime wedges, pico de gallo, and guacamole on the side or set up as a topping bar so everyone can customize with their favorite toppings!
- Use shredded monterey jack, colby jack or pepper jack cheese and sour cream for classic taco taste
What Goes With Ground Chicken Tacos?
- These ground Chicken Tacos would be delicious with my Mexican Coleslaw and this Mexican Quinoa Salad.
- Canned refried beans or slow cooker pinto beans are an easy option.
- Or you could make this Mexican Bean Salad or this Mexican Corn Salad to serve alongside this chicken taco recipe.
- I like corn with Mexican Food, so I think this succotash recipe or these corn muffins would also be good.
Make ahead, Leftovers, Storage and Reheating
Make Ahead: This filling can be meal prepped ahead up to four days. Chop the toppings and keep separately in air tight containers.
Storage: Keep leftover cooked ground chicken in an airtight container up to four days.
Reheating: To reheat, heat the leftover chicken taco meat until it’s steaming hot in the microwave. Alternatively, rewarm the ground chicken taco filling with a couple of tablespoons of water or broth in a medium skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often until steaming hot.
More Taco Recipes
- My new Veggie Tacos with Black Beans are hearty and filling and nobody will miss the meat!
- These Cod Fish Tacos are amazingly delicious and super speedy too. The avocado crema is the best!
- These Maple Chipotle Flank Steak tacos are a little sweet and spicy and will rock your world.
- This meal prep Beef Barbacoa Taco recipe is made in the slow cooker and has a delicious corn salsa that goes with it.
- This Picadillo Taco recipe can be made with beef, venison or bison.
At Healthy Seasonal Recipes, we specialize in cooking with fresh veggies and creating weeknight meals. Sign up HERE to get more produce-forward dinner ideas for FREE! If you make this recipe, please come back and leave a star rating and review. I would love to hear what you thought! Happy Cooking! ~Katie
I originally shared this recipe on July 13th, 2017.
Print
20 Minute Ground Chicken Taco Recipe
- Total Time: 20 minutes
- Yield: 4 servings 1x
Description
This 20 minute recipe for ground chicken tacos with poblano peppers is a healthy alternative to beef tacos, made with extra veggies and lean ground chicken meat.
Ingredients
- 8 corn tortillas
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil or organic canola oil
- 1 poblano chili pepper or green bell pepper, seeded and diced
- 1 cup finely chopped onion
- 1 tablespoon minced garlic
- 1 pound ground chicken
- 1 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 teaspoon ground chipotle, or to taste
- 2 tablespoons tomato paste
- 1/4 cup water
- limes, salsa, lettuce, cabbage and avocado for serving
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Wrap tortillas in foil stacked in two packages of four. Place tortillas in hot oven to warm.
- Meanwhile, heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add poblano, onion and garlic, and cook, stirring often until the vegetables are softened and beginning to brown, 5 to 8 minutes. Add chicken, and cook, breaking up into small pieces as it becomes opaque, until the chicken is completely cooked, 4 to 6 minutes.
- Sprinkle with chili powder, cumin, salt and chipotle, and stir to coat until fragrant, 30 to 90 seconds. Add tomato paste and water and stir until the tomato paste is dissolved into the water and it forms a sauce to coat the chicken mixture.
- Serve the chicken in the warm tortillas and top with desired toppings.
Notes
To Meal Prep This Recipe
This filling can be meal prepped ahead up to four days. To reheat, heat until steaming hot in the microwave. Alternatively, rewarm with a couple tablespoons of water in a medium skillet over medium high heat, stirring often until steaming hot.
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Cook Time: 12 minutes
- Category: entree
- Method: stove top
- Cuisine: Mexican
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 2 tacos each
- Calories: 333
- Sugar: 5 g
- Sodium: 487 mg
- Fat: 15 g
- Saturated Fat: 3 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 28 g
- Fiber: 5 g
- Protein: 25 g
- Cholesterol: 105 mg
I would like the ground chicken taco recipe sent to my e-mail. Thank you.
Very good. Didn’t use the tomato paste but did use chicken broth to simmer instead of water. Didn’t miss it at all.