Pulled buffalo chicken tacos

Two crowd pleasers – hot wings and tacos – come together here in these grilled tacos, filled with a spicy chicken mix. It's a great way to use up a bottle of hot sauce if you have some lurking in the cupboard.

Pulled buffalo chicken tacos. Credit: Mary Makes It Easy / Geoff George

• serves

  6

• prep

  20 minutes

• cook

  50 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

Chicken and garnish

• 6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 1 onion, thinly sliced
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• ½ tsp ground cumin
• 1 cup cayenne pepper hot sauce
• ½ cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 12 corn tortillas
• 2-3 cups grated nacho cheese blend (see Note)
• 1 avocado, diced
• 2 green onions, thinly sliced

To serve

• ¾ cup sour cream
• 1 stalk celery, thinly sliced
• 50–60 g crumbled blue cheese
• ½ lemon, juiced
• Kosher salt
• Freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

1. In a saucepan or slow cooker, stir together the chicken thighs, onion, paprika, cumin, cayenne pepper hot sauce and chicken broth. If using a saucepan, place over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Cover with a tight-fitting lid and reduce the heat to low. Cook for 20 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and, keeping the lid on, set aside for 15 minutes. At this point, the chicken should be cooked through and easily pulled apart with two forks. If using a slow cooker, cook on high for 3 hours or on low for 5 to 6 hours.
2. When the chicken is tender, transfer it and the onions to a large bowl, reserving the cooking liquid. Use 2 forks to shred the chicken, ladle a few scoops of the spicy cooking liquid overtop, and stir to combine.
3. Arrange your oven rack to the centre position and heat your grill (broiler) to high. Lay the tortillas out onto two sheet pans, scatter over the grated cheese, and divide over the pulled chicken and onions. Working with one pan at a time, transfer to the oven to grill for 3 to 5 minutes until the edges of the tortillas are lightly toasted, the cheese is melted, and the chicken is lightly crisp on top.
4. Remove the tacos from the oven, scatter over the avocado and green onions, and fold over into little tacos.
5. For serving, stir together the sour cream, celery, blue cheese, and lemon juice and season with salt and pepper. Serve the tacos with the blue cheese sour cream on the side and the remaining spicy cooking liquid as a dunk.

Note

Nacho cheese blend is usually a mixture of several cheeses, such as cheddar, Red American, pizza-style mozzarella or Monterey Jack, with some chilli bite. Mary says, when making this in Mary Makes It Easy, that any kind of Tex-Mex style grated cheese can be used. You will find various grated cheese blends at supermarkets.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.