Thai Chicken Tacos

Thai cuisine is extremely full of flavor. For a well-balanced dish, there must be 5 distinct flavor profiles: salty, sweet, bitter, sour, and spicy. It is also very rare to use salt in dishes to achieve a salty flavor, so instead they use fish sauce. When making these taco I tried to keep all of those flavors in mind. I did my best to include as many different levels of flavor as possible. They received high ratings from my boyfriend, so that means they must be tasty!

When I eat a taco, I absolutely love it when there are different textures and also different temperatures. So I made a cold slaw to go on top of the hot chicken mixture. My recipe is not very exact or precise. So feel free to play around with it and do what you think will taste the best! For example, if you love the flavors the lime juice brings and wish there was more, add more. cooking is always up for interpretation. Don't be afraid to stray from what is written!

Here's how I did it!

The Cabbage Slaw:

Red Cabbage.
Carrots.
Radishes.
Cilantro.
2 Tablespoons of Soy Sauce.
3 Tablespoons of Rice Vinegar.
1 Tablespoon of Fresh Lime Juice.
Cut your cabbage, radishes, and carrots into similar sizes so that they are uniform. Try not to cut them too small to where you can't taste them, but if they are too big it will be hard to eat. I didn't put exact measurements on this recipe because it really is not an exact science. Cut up as much as you think you need for the number of tacos you are making. The general rule of thumb for this though is to have a bit more cabbage than carrots and radishes, but you can change that depending on your tastes. Once you have all of your veggies cut up and mixed together, give the cilantro a rough chop. The cilantro is really just to taste. I like a lot of cilantro, so I added about 1/3 cup. I made enough slaw for 4 tacos, so if you are making more than 4 you will want to increase the amount of lime juice, soy sauce, and lime juice you add in. So add those into your slaw and mix together. Cover it and put it into the refrigerator while you work on the chicken filling.

The Chicken Filling:

Thinly sliced chicken breasts (about one per person or one per every 2 tacos).
1 1/2 teaspoons of minced garlic.
Half of a small onion.
1 tablespoon of finely chopped cilantro.
Siracha to taste.
Soy sauce.
Rice vinegar.
3 teaspoons of fresh lime juice.
Tortillas.
Sour Cream.
Cut your chicken into small pieces. Dice up the onion and add that and your garlic to the chicken in a bowl. Chop and add your cilantro. For the siracha, I said to taste because it really depends on how much spice you like. Now for the soy sauce and rice vinegar, simply add enough to just coat the entire mixture. Also, add your lime juice. Add some olive oil to a skillet and cook the chicken mixture over medium heat until the chicken is cooked through and the onions are clear. While you have that cooking, heat your tortillas and give them a swipe of cold sour cream.

Plating:

When you have your tortillas ready to go, add in some of the chicken mixture. Put the cold slaw on top of that. For an added kick of flavor get a lime, chili powder, and salt. Remove the rind from the lime and cut out the individual segments into a bowl. Sprinkle on a little bit of chili powder and salt and toss them. Just add a few to the top of each taco, and they will add massive amounts of flavor.

Finished product.

I hope you really love these tacos. I realize the recipe may be a little difficult to follow. This meal was something I just threw together one night, so it was a little difficult coming up with very exact measurements. But they tasted so good that I just had share! Besides, cooking is more fun when you are winging it. That is when the real creativity comes out. So feel free to use this recipe as a something to grow and expand on! Feel free to ask me any questions about it! Enjoy!

-Emily