Crispy Chicken Tacos with Avocado Lime Crema

These crispy chicken tacos with avocado lime crema are easy to make, and jam packed with flavor. Perfect as a quick weeknight meal, your entire family will love this recipe. Top these tasty tacos with a simple avocado lime crema, diced jalapeños, fresh cilantro and fresh squeezed lime juice. This delicious combo is hard to beat.

Serve these tacos up any day of the week. However, if you’re feeling festive, or hosting a party you can pair these tacos alongside my street corn guacamole or my easy homemade queso dip. Be sure to buzz up some of the delicious frozen watermelon margaritas too! Your guests are guaranteed to love all these tasty recipes.

Ingredients Needed for Crispy Chicken Tacos with Avocado Lime Crema

Chicken Tenderloins – For this recipe I use Smart Chicken’s chicken tenderloins. They are juicy, tender and easy to shred.

Garlic – You’ll need about 2 teaspoons of minced garlic for this recipe. About two cloves.

Sweet Onions – Dice up one large or two medium sweet onions. You’ll need about 1 cup in total.

Olive oil – Sauté the onions and garlic in some olive oil.

Salt / Pepper –Season the chicken tenderloins with salt and pepper.

Enchilada Sauce – You will need one 10-ounce can of red enchilada sauce for this recipe.

Shredded Cheese – You can use shredded cheddar or mozzarella for this recipe.

Tortillas – For this recipe, I used La Tortilla Factory’s corn and wheat tortillas. I like using these because they are flexible and flavorful. You will need 8 tortillas for this recipe.

Pro Tip: Cover the tortillas with paper towels, and warm them in the microwave for 30 seconds. Spray both sides with olive oil cooking spray and lay them flat on a baking tray. Add even amounts of shredded cheese and chicken filling. Place in the oven for 5 minutes, then fold the tortillas in half. This allows the tortilla to get crispy on the outside. Cook for another 5-10 minutes in the oven.

Avocado Lime Crema – Combine light sour cream, fresh cilantro, lime juice, jalapeno, ½ of an avocado, salt and garlic in a food processor. Buzz until smooth and creamy.

Quick tip: If you want to skip some calories here and make the sauce a little healthier, you can substitute the light sour cream with a plain Greek yogurt. If you haven’t tried Greek yogurt in place of sour cream before, you’re in for a treat! It adds a whole new range of complexity to the flavor.

Garnishes – fresh cilantro, diced jalapeno, fresh lime wedges and sliced avocado are great ways to add more flavor to this recipe.

Recipe: How to Make Crispy Chicken Tacos with Avocado Lime Crema

Preheat the oven 375 degrees.

Combine light sour cream, fresh cilantro, lime juice, jalapeno, avocado, salt and garlic in a food processor. Buzz until smooth, set aside.

Heat a sauté pan over medium heat. Add olive oil, diced onion and minced garlic.

Sauté for 5 minutes or until the onion is translucent and the garlic is fragrant.

Next, add the chicken tenderloins. Season with salt and black pepper.

Then, you’ll add a can of enchilada sauce.

Let everything simmer over medium low heat until the chicken is cooked through, and the sauce has reduced by half.

Then, using two forks, carefully shred the chicken into small pieces.

Wrap the tortillas with paper towels, and warm the tortillas in the microwave for 30 seconds. Lightly spray both sides with olive oil cooking spray and lay them flat on a baking tray.

Add even amounts of shredded cheese and shredded chicken filling.

Place in the oven for 5-6 minutes, then fold the tortillas in half. This allows the tortilla to get crispy on the outside.

Cook for another 5-10 minutes in the oven.

Remove, top with lime cream and garnishes. Enjoy hot.

The Perfect Chicken Taco Recipe: Storage

Store any leftovers in an airtight container in the refrigerator for three to four days. Reheat in the microwave until heated through. Store the avocado lime crema separately if possible. The lime cream will last for three to four days stored in the refrigerator.

Can I Air Fry Chicken Instead of Pan Fry for Crispy Chicken?

While we love a good air fryer meal, we don’t recommend using the air fryer here because it can be difficult to get all the flavors to blend well in an air fryer. For example, the chicken must cook while its in the enchilada sauce, onions, and garlic. If you cook the chicken separately, you’ll end up with a drier chicken that doesn’t quite mesh with the rest of the flavors on the plate.

What we do love about this recipe though, is that its just as easy to clean up as an air fryer meal, with most of the ingredients cooking in a single pan before you finish things up in the oven.

What if I Don’t Have Chicken Tenderloins?

 If you don’t have chicken tenderloins available, you can easily use another cut of chicken. Our favorite substitute is boneless, skinless chicken thighs because they are just as juicy and moist and will cook similarly to the tenderloins.

If you aren’t a fan of dark meat, then sub for your regular chicken breasts, just be sure to tenderize them a little bit if they are on the larger side. You want to make sure they can cook evenly and thoroughly while in the pan with the enchilada sauce!

Looking for Extra Crispy Tortillas for Tacos?

Here’s a quick tip if you’re a fan of the crunchy taco: instead of using flour tortillas, prepare corn tortillas in the same way.

Corn tortillas are traditionally a little smaller than the large flour tortillas which can make it difficult to serve larger portions, but the extra crunch and corn flavor really highlights the rest of this dish. Huge improvement to the crunch factor here!

How to Serve These Chicken Tacos

This is by far one of our most versatile and fun dinners that we have. We love serving these tacos standalone for dinner, but you can’t go wrong with a few veggies on the side for extra nutrition, as these tacos can contain a lot of chicken.

A fan-favorite is guacamole and chips or street corn. If you choose to serve these alongside guacamole and chips, tear up some of the tortillas leftover from making the meal and toss it in a pan with a little bit of olive or sunflower oil. Let these sit in the pan until crispy, flip and let them crisp again.

Before you know it, you’ll have your own homemade tortilla chips to enjoy with the rest of the meal, too. Nothing beats a homemade meal like this! Because of the small portion size, these tacos make a great grab-and-go food or sit-down dinner, and you’ll be surprised at how quickly they disappear at family events.