BBQ Chicken Tacos
This recipe using leftover BBQ chicken is an easy dinner any day of the week! These BBQ Chicken Tacos are topped with avocado, carrots, cabbage, red onion, cilantro, with salsa and BBQ sauce.
If you love making organic tacos as much as I do, be sure to check out some of my other favorites like Chili Lime Ahi Fish Tacos, Sweet Chili Chicken Soft Tacos, Slow Cooker Pulled Pork Street Tacos, Garlic Lime Chicken Taco Salad With Avocado Dressing, or Garlic Lime Chicken Street Tacos.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: BBQ Chicken Tacos
- Ready In: 10 minutes
- Makes: 4 tacos
- Main Ingredients: BBQ chicken, purple cabbage, carrot, avocado, corn tortilla
- Flavor Profile: light, sweet with a little spice and creamy avocado
- Dietary Info: gluten free, eggless, no seed oils
- Difficulty: Easy!
- Why You’ll Love It: use up leftover BBQ chicken for an easy lunch!
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Uses Leftover Chicken: You will love this secret for using leftover BBQ chicken. If you have any kind of leftover BBQ chicken – breasts, thighs, drumsticks, any of them will work!
- Naturally Gluten Free: I use corn tortillas, add in the leftover BBQ chicken, shredded carrots, cabbage, red onion, avocado, and I top these with a little salsa and a drizzle of BBQ sauce. So, these are naturally gluten free because I use corn tortillas. But, you can use flour tortillas if you prefer as well.
- Sweet & Spicy: These BBQ Chicken Tacos have both salsa and BBQ sauce, making them the best of both worlds. These tacos are sweet, a little spicy, and an amazing way to use up leftovers!
Ingredients
- BBQ Chicken: BBQ Chicken: I originally created this recipe using leftover BBQ chicken from the grill, making it perfect for after a weekend of grilling when you have leftover chicken but maybe no sides. So, instead of traditional taco spices like cumin, paprika, and chili powder, the chicken is tossed in a sweet and mild BBQ sauce. But, you can use any kind of shredded chicken here (even if it's just plain). You can use plain chicken breasts, thighs, or drumsticks. You can even use a rotisserie chicken too for ease as we're coating it in a little more BBQ sauce here anyways!
- Barbecue Sauce: I use Homemade BBQ Sauce with Bone Broth, but you can use your favorite BBQ sauce. I use this to coat the chicken more for a bit more flavor and especially if you are using plain chicken, you'll need this.
- Cabbage: I use organic purple cabbage, but green also works. This provides a nice crunch to these tacos.
- Tortillas: I use organic yellow corn tortillas here as I really like the flavor with the sweet BBQ sauce. This also makes these tacos naturally gluten free. But, you can really use any kind of tortilla you like, white corn, flour, or even a spinach tortilla would work!
- Salsa: I use red salsa, Organic Homemade Salsa With Fresh Tomatoes. I think the red salsa is a nice balance with the sweet tang of the BBQ sauce.
- Cilantro: Fresh cilantro is used for topping!
*For a full list of ingredients and measurements, visit the recipe card below.
Easy Substitutions
- Any kind of shredded chicken works, it doesn't have to be BBQ as you will toss it with BBQ sauce anyways. Plain chicken is fine, rotisserie chicken works, and you can use breasts, chicken thighs or drumsticks.
- You can use other similar vegetables in the tacos if you prefer, such as green cabbage, white or yellow onion. Bell peppers are also a great addition as they have a nice flavor with this and some crunch.
- If you want to add toppings like cheese, sour cream, lettuce, black beans, jalapeño, or a squeeze of lime, go for it!
- If you prefer hard shell tacos, you can use store bought taco shells. Or, you could even fry up the yellow corn tortillas in some olive oil to make your own homemade hard taco shells too.
- This flavor profile makes great nachos too! So, if you want to turn these into nachos instead of tacos you can do that by assembling chips on a baking sheet. Add shredded cheese (I really like Pepper Jack for this!), add the chicken and heat in the oven at 350°F to 400°F for 10 minutes or until cheese is melty. Then, top with the cabbage, carrots, onions, avocado and salsa!
How to Make BBQ Chicken Tacos
- Prep the veggies and toppings by chopping cilantro, cabbage and red onion. Grate the carrot. Cut the avocado into cubes.
- Cut the chicken into cubes. Warm it up in a microwave safe bowl. Then add a little BBQ sauce to the chicken to toss to coat it completely.
- In a small skillet, add the warm tortillas and warm.
- To assemble the tacos: Add the chicken onto the tortillas. Top with shredded carrots, red onion, purple cabbage, avocado, and cilantro. Top with salsa.
BBQ Chicken Tacos FAQ's
You can use any kind of leftover BBQ chicken, it can be thighs, drumsticks, breasts. They will all work and be delicious in this leftover BBQ chicken recipe!
Any kind of leftover BBQ chicken will work, thighs, drumsticks, breasts, they are all fine. You'll just want to remove chicken from bones (if needed) and chop into small pieces. You can even use plain chicken breasts that you may have if you meal prep as well!
Yes, you can definitely use a rotisserie chicken. This is perfect if you are making these to serve a crowd and it makes it quick and easy prep still.
Since we're re-heating leftover chicken, just don't heat it too high for too long as that can dry it out. I also like to add a little extra BBQ sauce into the warmed chicken, this helps give it more flavor and also make it moist.
I top these BBQ Chicken Tacos with purple cabbage for crunch, grated carrots, red onion, avocado and red salsa.
Yes, if you have slaw you can totally add it on top it would be delicious with these!
Yes, this recipe is gluten free as I use corn tortillas. But, you can use any kind of tortilla you want and if you're not gluten free, you can use flour tortillas.
Yes! I used corn in this recipe, but feel free to use wheat if you prefer. I've made them both ways and they are both equally delicious!
No, tacos are not great when you make them ahead of time as they can become soggy. You can prep and chop veggies ahead of time and also chop the chicken. Then store in an airtight container in the fridge. This will help for meal prepping. I don't recommend cutting avocado ahead of time though as it can brown. Then, you can just chop the avocado and warm up the tortillas and reheat the chicken. Remove the prepped veggies from the refrigerator and assemble the tacos, making this a quick and easy dinner!
Serving Ideas
- I love serving these with chips and 3 Ingredient Mango Guacamole.
- Try them with a side of Best Homemade Kale Chips With Nutritional Yeast or Garlic Ranch Pretzels With White Cheddar for something besides traditional chips.
- My husband always asks me to make Bone Broth Queso Dip as it's his absolute favorite and it goes so well with these tacos!
- These are delicious with a side of slaw, or you could even add it on top if you want!
More Chicken Dinner Recipes
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BBQ Chicken Tacos
Equipment
- Box Grater
- Cutting Board
- Knife
- Large Skillet
Ingredients
- 4 ounces BBQ chicken
- 4 corn tortillas
- 1 large carrot (grated)
- ½ cup chopped purple cabbage
- 2 slices red onion (diced)
- 1 avocado (diced)
- salsa
- BBQ sauce
- cilantro (chopped)
Instructions
- Prep the veggies and toppings by chopping cilantro, cabbage and red onion. Grate the carrot. Cut the avocado into cubes.
- Cut the chicken into cubes. Warm it up in a microwave safe bowl. Then add a little BBQ sauce to the chicken to toss to coat it completely.
- In a small skillet, add the warm tortillas and warm.
- To assemble the tacos: Add the chicken onto the tortillas. Top with shredded carrots, red onion, purple cabbage, avocado, and cilantro. Top with salsa.
Video
Notes
- Any kind of shredded chicken works, it doesn't have to be BBQ as you will toss it with BBQ sauce anyways. Plain chicken is fine, rotisserie chicken works, and you can use breasts, chicken thighs or drumsticks.
- You can use other similar vegetables in the tacos if you prefer, such as green cabbage, white or yellow onion. Bell peppers are also a great addition as they have a nice flavor with this and some crunch.
- If you want to add toppings like cheese, sour cream, lettuce, black beans, jalapeño, or a squeeze of lime, go for it!
- If you prefer hard shell tacos, you can use store bought taco shells. Or, you could even fry up the yellow corn tortillas in some olive oil to make your own homemade hard taco shells too.
- This flavor profile makes great nachos too! So, if you want to turn these into nachos instead of tacos you can do that by assembling chips on a baking sheet. Add shredded cheese (I really like Pepper Jack for this!), add the chicken and heat in the oven at 350°F to 400°F for 10 minutes or until cheese is melty. Then, top with the cabbage, carrots, onions, avocado and salsa!
- High Altitude – Follow the recipe as noted.
Nutrition
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Love this recipe that uses leftovers!