Buffalo Chicken Tacos

Why This Buffalo Chicken Tacos Works

As the chicken cooks in the skillet, the outside browns and firms up while the inside stays juicy. That browning gives the chicken a bit of chew and keeps it from falling apart into mush when it is shredded. Once it is pulled apart with forks, all those little shreds have rough edges and tiny gaps. Buffalo sauce can slide into those gaps and cling to the meat instead of just sitting on the surface, so every bite tastes the same all the way through.

While the tortillas warm in the oven, they soften and become more flexible. That makes them easier to fold around the filling without cracking. Coleslaw mix stays crunchy because it never goes on the heat, so it gives a fresh bite against the soft chicken. Ranch and blue cheese coat the slaw and sink into the warm chicken a bit, while cilantro and lime sit on top and cut through the richness. Everything holds together in the tortilla, so the tacos are easy to pick up and eat.

Mistakes To Avoid

Letting the chicken cook too long in the skillet dries it out before it ever meets the buffalo sauce. Once it’s overcooked, the meat shreds into tough, stringy pieces that don’t soak up the sauce well, so the tacos end up with dry, chewy chicken and a puddle of sauce at the bottom of the tortilla.

Cutting the chicken into very thick pieces or leaving the breast whole when it’s extra large can cause the outside to brown while the center stays undercooked. When it’s shredded, some pieces are still slightly raw in the middle, which is unsafe and also gives an uneven texture in every bite.

Skipping the step of warming the tortillas often leads to cracking and tearing as soon as the filling goes in. Cold tortillas stay stiff, so they split when folded, and the juicy buffalo chicken and slaw fall out onto the plate instead of holding together as a taco.

Drenching the coleslaw mix with too much ranch dressing turns it soggy. The cabbage loses its crunch, leaks liquid into the tortilla, and the tacos quickly get wet and floppy instead of staying crisp and easy to hold.