Smoky Mexican Pulled Chicken

I absolutely love this smoky mexican pulled chicken from bowl of delicious. The first time I made this, I popped it in a tortilla and made a bit of wrap of it.  But this chicken is so tasty that I thought its flavours were wasted on a wrap.  Second time around I popped it in a bowl with some Mexican flavoured rice (recipe to come later) and some lovely fresh corn.  It was just divine with these simple side dishes – they allowed the chicken flavours to shine through.

This pulled chicken recipe is also one of those recipes that proves you don’t need lots of ingredients nor fancy techniques to make a delicious meal.   The spices used are ones that I have all the time in the house – partly because I used smoked paprika in this smoky cannellini and chorizo recipe – one of my go to recipes when I want something quick and easy but hearty.

I don’t normally cook something that is going to last more than two meals but with this chicken I can see why Elizabeth from bowl of delicious suggests making a batch on the weekend and using it for the rest of the week.  Elizabeth from bowl of delicious has published a recipe that uses the chicken in an enchilada.  The enchilada looks way better than my wrap so I will be giving this recipe a try.

To make this for one I used the following ingredients:

• 130g skinless chicken breast
• 1 tsp smoked paprika
• ¼ tsp ground coriander
• ¼ tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp minced garlic (equal to one clove)
• Salt and pepper to taste
• ¾ tbs of olive oil
• 1 tbs of lime juice

I followed the recipe pretty much as given. The chicken needs marinating for at least 20 minutes.  I marinated mine overnight so it is a recipe that needs do some planning.  But once the chicken is marinated it takes about 10 minutes of cooking and shredding time depending on how quickly your stove top heats up.  Mine is a bit slow.   To preparation time is about 5 minutes excluding the marinating.  I found it easier to mix it all up in a bowl rather than a bag.  Also more environmentally friendly as I threw the bag out after one use.  I wouldn’t have been confident about getting the plastic bag properly cleaned after being in contact with raw chicken.

The chicken has about 310 calories in it.