Fresh and Easy Mexican Lime and Paprika Chicken Soft Tacos

What I love about this recipe is that it’s crazy easy and you can make a big batch of the ingredients to take for lunches and enjoying all week long. It’s also a crowd pleaser when we contribute it to a shared table or barbecue with its crunchiness and limey, zingy flavour. In fact, it’s written up here by request after I took it to Mum’s for her birthday dinner, and was a big hit.

The Soft Tacos

We are very fortunate to live close to a butcher that sells a high quality tortilla. They’re small and fresh and seem almost home made. It’s good to get fresh as possible tortillas from a good supplier if you can as they’re a large part of the recipe base.

The Olive Oil

Virgin Olive Oil brings healthy fats, bio-active antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory properties into the body which in turn provide multi-faceted benefits from anti-ageing effects to helping prevent heart disease, strokes and weight gain, Type 2 Diabetes and even the Big C (to name just a few).

Other Ingredients

Some of these ingredients I almost always have in my fridge or pantry. I made up the dressing using just whatever I had on hand and you can afford to do the same. If this feels a little outside your comfort zone, try small amounts in a little dish then just x5 the quantities in a jar or bottle for when you serve.

Carrots are a staple that I always have hanging around or growing in the kitchen garden. Silverbeet and even various lettuces are relatively easy to grow in your garden also if you have the inclination – even in pots from their ends when you cut them off in the kitchen. They all have multiple benefits and eating them cut up finely but raw is not only delicious but the best way to get the nutrients they provide.

Add any other vegetables you have on hand, you can finely chop raw broccoli florets into a kind of powdery consistency. Celery, green beans or capsicum can also work well. Use up whatever is lying around – but it all lasts best in the fridge for lunches if you use the harder vegetables as opposed to, say, tomato which has a shorter shelf life once chopped up.

I recommend keeping all the odds and ends and peelings in a tub in the freezer. Once the tub is full you can use them to make broth. Click here for the broth recipe. If not that, then at least compost them.

Here’s a link to an article on how to compost.

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Mexican Lime and Paprika Chicken Soft Tacos

Ingredients

8 Soft tacos or tortillas for serving

FILLING
2 chicken breasts
1 cup shredded lettuce
1 small cucumber
2 ripe avocados, green flesh sliced roughly
1 small bunch coriander, leaves pulled off stems (freeze stems and roots for another recipe)
1 small bunch parsley, leaves pulled off stems (keep stems in freezer for later use)
10 small cherry, truss or grape tomatoes sliced in halves or quarters
1/2 spanish onion, diced finely
1/2 red capsicum, seeds removed and sliced finely
1 lebanese cucumber, in thin slices
Any other crunchy vegetables you have on hand, finely chopped, to taste 

SAUCE
1/4 cup of Virgin Olive Oil
1 tablespoon of mayonnaise
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)
1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar glaze
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste
1-2 Limes cut in quarter for serving and squeezing on finished tacos

OPTIONAL
Grated cheese, creme fraiche or sour cream for serving
Sauerkraut or pickles go beautifully with this also.

Method

1. Rinse and dry all fresh ingredients
2. Boil some water and place it with the chicken breast in a saucepan. Once partially cooked (around 3-4 minutes) pull it out and shred it with a fork, then set aside. Don’t worry if it’s not entirely cooked through as we will return it to boiling and reheat it just before serving.
3. Whilst chicken is cooking make the sauce – combine all ingredients in a salad dressing bottle or jar and taste as you go, adjusting proportions to desired sweetness or punchiness.
4. You can heat or toast the soft tortillas but they’re fine without any prep if they are good quality.
5. Return chicken to hot water and completely cook through, now that it’s shredded.
6. Lay all the tacos out across boards or platters and drop a little of each of the fresh ingredients on each one.
7. Spread the shredded chicken evenly out amongst the servings, then sparingly add sauce and generously garnish with herb leaves.
8. Squeeze lime over them all and serve with the rest of the lime quarters.

Enjoy!

Photo by The Nix Company on Unsplash