Mango Pineapple Crockpot Chicken Tacos

The wall came down. Rafael and his crew came on Monday morning with sledgehammers and dust masks and the sound of demolition filled the house for two days. The wall between the kitchen and the dining room — the wall that has separated cooking from eating for twenty-three years — is gone. In its place: space. Enormous, beautiful, terrifying space. The kitchen is twice the size. The light is different. The acoustics are different. My voice carries differently in the new space, which means my cooking directions carry further, which means I can now critique Eduardo dishwashing technique from the other side of the room without raising my voice, which I consider a quality-of-life improvement.

Mami came to see the renovation on Wednesday. She stood at the entrance — or where the entrance used to be, because the entrance is everywhere now — and she looked at the open space and she said, This is a kitchen. Not this is a nice kitchen or this is a big kitchen. This is A kitchen. Meaning: the previous space was a room with a stove. This is a KITCHEN. The capital-K kind. The kind that Abuela Consuelo would have recognized as worthy. The kind that says this woman means business and the business is love.

I spent the rest of the week organizing the new space. Where the pots go. Where the sofrito station is. Where Mami chair goes — because Mami has a spot, a specific spot, close enough to the stove to smell but far enough to not get splattered. I placed her chair. I put a small table next to it for her cafe. I put a cushion on the seat because eighty-two-year-old women deserve cushions. The spot is ready. Her spot. In my new kitchen. The biggest room in the house. The center of the world.

Made arroz con pollo in the new kitchen for the first time tonight. The stove is the same. The pots are the same. The sofrito is the same. But the space — the space changes the cooking the way a concert hall changes the music. More room to move. More room to breathe. More room for the food to exist in the air before it reaches the plate. I stood at my stove in my new kitchen and I cooked and I felt — happy-happy. Eduardo word. The right word. Happy-happy. The kitchen is here. The kitchen is big. The kitchen is mine. Wepa.

After four days of demolition dust and the absolute euphoria of watching Mami approve my new kitchen with a single declarative sentence, I needed a recipe that felt as bright and as celebratory as the room itself. Arroz con pollo was for the first quiet night — the reverent inauguration. But the following weekend, with the family coming over and Mami settled into her cushioned chair by the stove, I wanted something that said fiesta: the Mango Pineapple Crockpot Chicken Tacos I’d been saving for a moment worthy of them. Let the slow cooker do its work while we all stood around the new open kitchen together — no wall between us, no wall between any of us, ever again.

Prep Time: 15 minutes | Cook Time: 6 hours | Total Time: 6 hours 15 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken thighs
1 cup fresh or frozen mango chunks
1 cup fresh or canned pineapple chunks, drained
1 medium red onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 jalapeño, seeded and finely diced
1/4 cup fresh lime juice (about 2 limes)
2 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
12 small corn or flour tortillas, warmed
For serving: fresh cilantro, sliced avocado, sour cream, lime wedges

Instructions

Layer the base. Place the chicken thighs in the bottom of a 6-quart slow cooker in a single layer. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Add the fruit and aromatics. Scatter the mango chunks, pineapple, red onion, garlic, and jalapeño evenly over the chicken.
Mix the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the lime juice, honey, cumin, chili powder, smoked paprika, salt, and pepper. Pour the sauce over the chicken and fruit.
Slow cook. Cover and cook on LOW for 6–8 hours, or on HIGH for 3–4 hours, until the chicken is very tender and pulls apart easily with a fork.
Shred the chicken. Using two forks, shred the chicken directly in the slow cooker, stirring it into the mango-pineapple juices. Taste and adjust seasoning with additional lime juice or salt as needed.
Warm the tortillas. Heat tortillas in a dry skillet over medium heat for about 30 seconds per side, or wrap in a damp paper towel and microwave for 45 seconds.
Assemble and serve. Spoon the shredded chicken mixture onto warmed tortillas. Top with fresh cilantro, avocado slices, a dollop of sour cream, and a squeeze of lime. Serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Mango Pineapple Crockpot Chicken Tacos — A New Kitchen Deserves a Party on Every Plate