Easily make flavorful pulled chicken for tacos in your crockpot in only a few hours! Use this versatile Mexican seasoned chicken to make taco night a breeze, but don't hesitate to use it to make burritos, quesadillas, taquitos, rice bowls and more!
Table Of Contents
This delicious crockpot chicken for tacos is flavorful, tender and easy to make. It's totally hands off- just dump the seasonings, chicken and a little bit of water into your slow cooker and let it do the work for you! In no time at all you'll have the base for a hearty and delicious taco dinner ready to go. You can find the recipe for just the taco seasoning here, and use it for other meals too.
Once you have your shredded taco chicken cooked, stuff it into crispy or soft tortilla shells, then complete the taco assembly with your favorite toppings. You can have this meal ready to serve in only about 4 hours. You can do the same to make ground beef for tacos.
I use my crockpot taco chicken not just for tacos, but for chicken burritos, meal prep burrito rice bowls, in breakfast chilaquiles and homemade taquitos. You can shred it or dice it when it's done slow cooking, it's really just a matter of the texture you like your chicken tacos. This recipe is so versatile, so use it in your favorite Mexican meals that call for a rotisserie chicken or Mexican-seasoned chicken too.
Shredded Chicken Taco Ingredients
This recipe uses simple pantry staple ingredients:
- Chicken tenders
- Seasonings: chili powder, ground cumin, Spanish paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, crushed red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt. Use fresh seasonings if you'd prefer but increase the quantity by three times.
- Optional: corn or flour tortillas and choice of taco toppings (suggestions below). On our taco nights we use a combination of soft tortilla shells and hard taco shells.
How To Make Shredded Taco Chicken In The Slow Cooker
- Add the chicken tenders, water, chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt to the slow cooker.
- Set to LOW for 4 hours or HIGH for 2 hours. With 30 minutes left, dice or shred the chicken and return to the crockpot. Mix well and cook for the remaining time.
- Remove shredded chicken from the crockpot and serve inside taco shells with your favorite toppings. Alternatively, use as the stuffing for burritos, burrito and rice bowls, enchiladas, quesadillas and on tostadas.
Tip From The Chef
Depending on your preferences for flavor and spiciness, add diced jalapeรฑos, habaรฑeros, or other chile peppers to the chicken while it's slow cooking.
Substitute the chicken tenders with thicker cut chicken breasts, but increase the cook time, as chicken tenders are thinner and cook quicker. The internal temperature of the chicken when fully cooked will be 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
Chicken Taco Toppings
There are many different toppings that you can add to chicken tacos to enhance their flavor and texture. Aside from the most popular choice of salsa roja, shredded lettuce, cheese, diced tomatoes and sliced jalapeรฑos, you make like:
- salsa verde, mango habanero salsa or chile de arbol salsa for an extra kick
- sour cream or Mexican crema
- guacamole or sliced avocado
- mango pico de gallo or pineapple mango salsa
- corn salsa
- black beans
- chopped onions
- queso fresco
- torn cilantro
- a squeeze of lime
What To Serve With Chicken Tacos
We love our chicken tacos with a side of Spanish rice and Mexican-style black beans. Cheesy jalapeรฑo poppers, tortilla chips and salsa, roasted vegetables like asparagus, black bean salad, corn salad and Mexican street corn are other delicious choices.
Recipe FAQs
There are so many uses for taco chicken. Some include on top of a roasted sweet potato with beans and cheese, as a substitute for the beef in loaded sheet pan nachos, in slow cooker chicken taco soup or air fried chicken taquitos,
Store in the fridge for up to one week in a covered container. Taco chicken can be frozen for up to 6 months in freezer safe storage bags. Thaw in the refrigerator overnight.
Recipe
Crockpot Chicken Tacos
Equipment
- slow cooker
Ingredients
- 1.5 lbs chicken tenders
- ยฝ cup water or chicken broth
- 2 tablespoon chili powder
- 1 tablespoon cumin
- 2 teaspoon Spanish paprika
- 2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- ยฝ teaspoon onion powder
- ยฝ teaspoon dried oregano
- ยฝ teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 16 corn or flour tortillas optional
- toppings: cheese, lettuce, salsa, diced tomatoes, etc. optional
Instructions
- Add the chicken tenders, water, chili powder, cumin, paprika, garlic powder, onion powder, oregano, red pepper flakes, black pepper and salt to the slow cooker.
- Set to LOW for 4 hours or HIGH for 2 hours. With 30 minutes left, dice or shred the chicken and return to the crockpot. Mix well and cook for the remaining time.
- Remove shredded chicken from the crockpot and serve inside taco shells with your favorite toppings. Alternatively, use as the stuffing for burritos, burrito and rice bowls, enchiladas, quesadillas and on tostadas.
Debbie
These crockpot chicken tacos are so easy and so good. They quick to throw together and has easy to follow directions . This is something I will be making over and over again .
Mikayla
Really tasty chicken, we made burritos with it and loved every bite!
Kathryn
My favorite Taco Tuesday recipe!! These are so easy, delicious and love how quick they are to make! I have to make them again asap ๐
Alexandra
These chicken tacos are such a delicious recipe. My whole family enjoyed them as they were so tasty. Best of all, I was able to let the crockpot do the bulk of the work!
Vicky
Pulled Chicken Tacos are one of our favorites, so I'm looking forward to this yummy recipe!!
Cathleen
These tacos sound fantastic! I am definitely going to give it a go next week for Taco Tuesday, thank you so much for sharing ๐
Eric
So flavorful! Great take on my favorite dish ever, tacos!
Dennis
I made your chicken tacos over the weekend and my family loved them! Thanks for another great recipe!