Tinga Time!!

I made Tinga de Pollo last night!!
I don't know if it's a legit South American dish or not...All I know is that it is delicious!
It's basically a stew/soup that you spoon over tortilla chips! 
It's pretty easy.
The first step is to boil 2 chicken breasts.  
Fill a large saucepot with water, add some cumin, oregano, smooshed garlic, a five-finger pinch of salt, cracked black pepper, and a bay leaf. Medium boil all of that until the chicken is cooked.  Pull out the breasts, and save the liquid.  Don't forget to toss the bay leaf...They're not really edible.
While the chicken is cooking, cut an onion in half and thinly slice both respective halves.  Put them in another pan (I used my cast-iron skillet), with a few cloves of chopped garlic and a little bit of oil.  

Cook over medium until the onions are translucent and kind of caramelized--about 15 minutes.

  
Once they're ready, Add a chopped up chipotle (from a can), and spoon some of its adobo sauce in as well.  You next have two options 


Option 1
3 tablespoons ketchup


Option 2
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar


Pick one of those options and mix that in with everything else.

Stir it up and then add what's left of the chicken liquid.  It's already seasoned, so it's essentially a flavored broth!.  
Let that simmer for about 20 minutes, you want to infuse the onions with all that flavor!

While that is simmering, here's a neat little trick for you to do.  If you have a stand mixer, put the chicken breasts into the bowl.  

Put on the mixer attachment, and turn it on med/low for about 15 -20 seconds.  

VOILA!!  Effortless, perfectly shredded chicken! (great if you're making a dip or enchiladas, or anything that requires shredded chicken!!)  
Now, when the liquid has been simmering for a while, taste it and make sure it has great flavor.  If you need to, add some more salt or pepper, or even more chipotle if you like it on the spicy side.  
The next thing you need to do is make a starch slurry. Equal parts potato starch (or cornstarch) and water.  Probably a tablespoon of each.  Mix those together, and then slowly add them to the simmering pot.  Keep stirring while you do this.  The point of this slurry is to thicken it up a little bit...We want it to keep together and be less runny.  The final step is adding the shredded chicken! Mix it all up, and boom, done!


To serve:


Tortilla chips
Shredded cheese
Diced Avocado
Sour cream


Crumble up some tortilla chips into a bowl and sprinkle shredded cheese over them.  Then add the avocado on that.  Spoon the Tinga over all of it (we want the heat to melt the cheese and make it all gooey) and top with sour cream!  

Enjoy!  It's super delicious and actually pretty easy to make.