Chicken Tacos — The Week the Work Went Where It Was Supposed to Go

May and the fire escape tomato plants have their first real leaves. I check them every morning when I bring my coffee to the window and Liam checks them too, from the inside with his face pressed to the glass, which leaves nose-prints I don't clean up with any urgency. "Mato," he says. He's decided that's the word. "Mato." I say tomato and he says mato and we have arrived at a negotiated pronunciation.

Work has been good this week in the way that oncology is sometimes specifically good—not that anything went perfectly, but that the work felt like it was going where it was supposed to go. I have a new patient who arrived on Tuesday, a fifty-eight-year-old woman named Diane who has been a teacher for thirty years and who approached the diagnosis and the floor with the practical briskness of someone who has managed classrooms. She asked excellent questions, wrote the answers in a small notebook, and on day three brought me a crossword puzzle clipping because Margaret had apparently mentioned me before she was discharged last month. Margaret made a referral. I find this very moving.

Cinco de Mayo was Sunday and I made pozole—the red kind, from scratch, with dried guajillo chiles I had to go to the market on Cambridge Street to find. It took three hours. Sean ate it for three days. Liam had the hominy, separately, with cheese, which he called "mine" and pointed at enthusiastically. It was his. He kept it.

The pozole took three hours and it was worth every minute, but by Wednesday I wanted all the same flavors — the warmth, the lime, the sense of a meal that means something — without committing to an afternoon at the stove. These chicken tacos are what I made. Diane had a better day, Liam ate approximately forty percent of a corn tortilla with great enthusiasm, and Sean said they were better than anything we’d ordered out in months, which is exactly the kind of weeknight win I needed.

Chicken Tacos

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 15 min | Total Time: 30 min | Servings: 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• Juice of 1 lime
• 8 small corn or flour tortillas, warmed
• 1/2 cup white onion, finely diced
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, roughly chopped
• 1 avocado, sliced
• Lime wedges, for serving
• Salsa or hot sauce, for serving

Instructions

1. Season the chicken. Pat chicken thighs dry. In a small bowl combine chili powder, cumin, garlic powder, smoked paprika, oregano, salt, and pepper. Rub the spice mixture evenly over both sides of the chicken.
2. Cook the chicken. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and cook 5–6 minutes per side, until cooked through and the internal temperature reaches 165°F. Let rest 5 minutes.
3. Slice and finish. Slice or chop chicken into bite-sized pieces. Toss with lime juice and any resting juices from the cutting board.
4. Warm the tortillas. Warm tortillas in a dry skillet over medium heat for 30 seconds per side, or wrap in a damp paper towel and microwave for 45 seconds.
5. Assemble. Fill each tortilla with chicken, diced onion, cilantro, and avocado slices. Serve immediately with lime wedges and salsa.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 420 | Protein: 34g | Fat: 18g | Carbs: 32g | Fiber: 5g | Sodium: 480mg