These Grilled Chicken Tacos with Cilantro Crema make a quick, healthy, and allergy-friendly weeknight meal if you use leftover grilled chicken! These are gluten free, dairy free, and nut free, simple, and AMAZING!
It’s time for another recipe, my friends! I’m sharing another healthy main dish recipe (so amazing!), so if you’re missing the desserts don’t worry, I’ll be posing some more of those soon. Spring and Easter are right around the corner and I have some really good ideas, I get hungry just thinking about them 🙂
Right now, it’s Recipe Redux time, and his month’s theme is tacos. Which is totally awesome since who doesn’t love tacos. I for one LOVE tacos. Here’s our recipe challenge:
Taco Tuesday: February 21 is a Tuesday. So show us your healthy, creative take on the taco. (Of course, this recipe can also be posted on February 22).
Recipe Redux recipes get posted on either on the 21st or 22nd of the month, and this month it happened to fall on Tuesday and Wednesday this month. I didn’t post this yesterday due to my schedule, so my #tacotuesday post is actually going up on Wednesday, so it’s now officially a #tacowednesday post!
Crema is a Mexican soured dairy cream (a bit thinner than regular sour cream) that is used in Mexican cooking. Since my kids and I can’t have dairy, I decided to make some of my own “crema” with a kick of cilantro and lime. It tastes amazing on these tacos!! I think I’ll add it to every taco I make at home from now on.
We made these tacos super quick by using leftover grilled chicken from the night before. We cooked up a big batch up chicken breasts on the grill sprinkled with cajun spice, garlic powder, and slathered with some spicy garlic barbecue sauce. The flavors went perfectly with the tacos!
We like grilling up big batches of chicken so there’s plenty left over for lunches, salads, and tacos.
You can grill your chicken however you like them best, and you can even use leftover cooked chicken thighs for this recipe. If you are really pinched for time and don’t have leftovers, you can even use rotisserie chicken for these, though there might not be as much flavor in the tacos vs. using grilled chicken.
Grilled Chicken Tacos with Cilantro Crema (dairy free)
Ingredients
Cilantro Crema
- ¼ cup loose cilantro leaves
- ¼ cup light canned coconut milk
- ¼ medium ripe avocado diced
- 1 Tablespoon fresh lime juice
- 1 Tablespoon egg-free & soy-free mayo
- Salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste
For the Tacos:
- 2 to 3 grilled chicken breasts
- 4 to 6 gluten-free corn tortillas
- Olive oil
- Your choice of toppings: avocado purple cabbage, tomatoes, etc.
Instructions
- Prepare the Cilantro Crema: combine all crema ingredients in a small blender and process until smooth. Makes about 1/2 cup sauce
- Prepare the leftover grilled chicken breast by slicing and either warming in the microwave or warming it in a pan. You can always use rotisserie chicken if you don’t have leftover grilled chicken on hand. Set aside
- Warm the tortillas: brush a little olive oil on the corn tortillas and heat them up on a skillet or griddle for about 1 minute on each side until they are warm and flexible.
- Top the corn tortillas with sliced grilled chicken, purple cabbage, diced tomatoes, and the Cilantro Crema
- Enjoy immediately while warm!
Video
Notes
Nutrition
Sarah Jane Parker is the founder, recipe creator, and photographer behind The Fit Cookie. She’s a food allergy mom and allergy friendly food blogger of 12 years based in Wyoming. Sarah is also an ACSM Certified Personal Trainer, ACE Certified Health Coach, Revolution Running certified running coach, and an ACE Certified Fitness Nutrition Specialist
Will the cilantro crema sauce last throughout the week?
Hi Meagan! Because this crema has avocado in it, it will only be good for 1-2 days.
Thank you! I guess I’ll have to plan a few batches for the week. 🙂
The tacos look so good! It’s Friday today but I feel that Taco Fridays should definitely be a thing. And the cilantro crema looks soooooo good and creamy! I can’t believe it’s dairy free
Thank you Julia! I love the cilantro crema, it’s so delicious and simple to make 🙂
I would almost drink the cilantro crema like a smoothie! Sounds like a recipe that would be in our weekly rotation frequently!
Thank you Melissa! The cilantro crema is my favorite part about this recipe 🙂
I’m not sure what I did wrong but the cilantro crema came out horribly wrong. ?
Did you use a blender? If you don’t use a blender or your avocado isn’t ripe, it probably won’t turn out properly (it’s just like making a smoothie). Can you tell me what was wrong with the sauce?
Can you tell me what spicy BBQ sauce you like to use on your grilled chicken?
Hi Jenn! It’s been a little while, but if I remember right, I made this with a Sriracha barbecue sauce we got from a local restaurant. Any of your favorite spicy barbecue sauce would work in this recipe. We usually season chicken with spices, grill it for about 3-4 minutes on each side, then add the sauce and grill for about 2 minutes on each side to set the sauce.
These look so good. I love chicken tacos!
Thanks Arlene, they were fantastic!!
Some of my favorite ingredients on here. Cilantro!! Avocado! and Corn Tortilla.. Yum. I bet it tasted delish..
These were so amazing!! The cilantro crema really put these over the top 🙂
Tacos are our go to “fun food”…sometimes I will even make the shell from scratch. Perfect for the weekend when you just want to chill…and have some fun in the kitchen and grill.
Making taco shells from scratch sounds like fun!