No matter what you’re doing with it, marinating often-bland chicken in a salty, acidic sauce is one of the best ways to boost flavor. The problem? Marinades take time to do their work, making them no-gos for 30-minute recipes — unless you use them to cook. Sure, simmering chicken in what amounts to a brine isn’t exactly marinating, but it is getting those flavor-boosting ingredients into the meat, where they belong.
In the recipe below, I’ve used pickled Vidalia onions, along with their brine and a spoonful of spicy chipotles in adobo, to cook slivered boneless, skinless chicken thighs to use as taco filling, but you could adapt this strategy to work with other briny, pickle-y liquids. Classic bread-and-butter pickles, pickled okra, or even olives and their brine would all make fine pairs for chicken served every which way.
You’ll likely want to thin the brine out with water before adding the chicken, and finish with a hit of something creamy and rich to balance out all that tang. Below, I’ve used sour cream, but a small glug of heavy cream or a spoonful of creme fraiche would also work well.
For serving these admittedly untraditional tacos, I like to use flour tortillas, along with a smattering of fresh cilantro, a few extra pickled onion slices, and a squeeze of lime.
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