I love tacos when I’m cooking for a crowd because they’re usually so much easier to pull together than a sit-down dinner with multiple courses, and they can be easily individualized depending on the toppings.

Any protein made with tinga, a spicy-ish sauce crafted from fire-roasted tomatoes, chili peppers and spices, is always at the top of my go-to list because it’s so flavorful and can be prepared fairly quickly — a blessing when you’re pinched for time in a crowded kitchen full of hungry people.

I was just that during a recent weekend, when four of my five kids (plus two daughters-in-law and two grandkids) came for a weekend visit. Taking everyone out to dinner would have cost the proverbial arm and a leg, along with the patience required to dine with active toddlers. And ordering pizza just seemed so … predictable.

But tacos? Kids especially love crunchy handheld foods and the grown-ups appreciated the casual eat what you want, when you want it taco bar I set up on the kitchen counter.

There are probably as many recipes for chicken tinga as there are home cooks, but a few pantry ingredients are essential: tomatoes, white onion and garlic, chipotle peppers in adobo and Mexican oregano, which is a bit more floral than the Italian variety used in pasta sauces.

I also like to add a little cumin to the sauce. Mexican cookbook author Rick Bayless, whose recipe I’ve adapted over the years, also recommends a dash or two of vinegar for extra tang.

This recipe is doubled for a crowd, but can easily be cut in half for smaller gatherings. If you like, you can cook the chicken thighs whole and shred them in the pan with two forks just before serving, or you can start with thin slices or bite sized pieces. It all depends on how chunky you like your tacos.

Similarly, if you prefer a tamer dish, cut down on the amount of chipotles and adobo sauce you add.

Serve with a salty, crumbly cheese such as queso fresco or feta and lots of chopped cilantro.

Chicken Tinga Tacos

INGREDIENTS

Vegetable or olive oil to coat the pan
1 large white onion, sliced a little less than 1/2 inch thick
2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs
5 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
2 (15-ounce) cans diced fire-roasted tomatoes
1 (7-ounce) can chipotle chiles in adobo sauce, or to taste
2 teaspoons Mexican oregano
2 teaspoons cumin
A little additional vinegar, if you think the dish needs it
1 ripe avocado, sliced
1 cup Mexican queso fresco or other fresh cheese like farmers cheese, mild feta or fresh goat cheese
A handful of cilantro leaves for garnish
Chopped red onion, for garnish
24 hard taco shells or soft taco-sized flour tortillas, warmed

DIRECTIONS

Prepare chicken. Set a very large (12-inch) skillet over medium-high heat and drizzle the bottom liberally with oil. When the pan is hot, add onions.
Stir onions until they soften and start to brown, about 4 minutes, then snuggle the chicken in the pan in a single layer on the bottom. Cook until everything is nicely browned, about 5-6 minutes. Stir in the garlic and cook a minute or so longer.
In a blender or food processor, blend the tomatoes and their juice to a very coarse puree.
Remove chipotle peppers from sauce and chop into small pieces — start with 3 or 4, you can always add more.
Add puree to the browned chicken in the skillet, along with the chopped chiles, half the adobo sauce from can and oregano and cumin. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the chicken is tender and the mixture is thick, about 4 minutes.
Taste and add a little more adobo sauce or chopped chiles if it’s not spicy enough. Season with 2 teaspoons of salt and a couple dashes of white or red vinegar, if you would like it a little more tangy. Stir to combine.
When ready to serve, place some chicken tinga in warmed hard taco shells or on warmed soft tortillas. Top with sliced avocado, a sprinkling of fresh cheese, chopped onion and leaves of cilantro.

Serves 8.

— Gretchen McKay, Post-Gazette

Related Articles

Fast, flexible and flavorful weeknight dinners, from pasta to frittata

Recipe: Chicken shawarma in a bowl is a tasty, healthy meal

Salmonella cases, including four in Minnesota, linked to organic basil sold at Trader Joe’s

Yes, you can wash cast iron: 5 big kitchen myths, debunked

Gretchen’s table: Chicken shawarma in a bowl is a tasty, healthy meal

Jaden McDaniels was not available to the Timberwolves this time last year. He punched a wall out of frustration in the final game of the regular season, breaking his hand in the process, and ensuring Minnesota would be without its best perimeter defender heading into the playoffs.

That loss proved to be insurmountable for the Timberwolves as they simply didn’t have the personnel needed to compete with the eventual NBA champion Denver Nuggets.

Perhaps the performance the Timberwolves got from McDaniels in Game 2 against the Phoenix Suns was his way of making up for lost time.

He dominated on both ends of the floor on Tuesday night at Target Center en route to a 105-93 win. He was a force on offense, leading the team with 25 points, and a demon on defense, using his length to shut down the trio of Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal on the other end.

“Not playing last year I was kind of antsy,” McDaniels said. “Just being in this environment, and being in the playoffs, it feels like a dream come true for me.”

It should also feel like a nightmare to the rest of the league.

Frankly, if McDaniels continues to play like he did in Game 2, the Timberwolves are going to be nearly impossible to beat moving forward.

If anything is clear about McDaniels at this point in his career, it’s that he’s always going to bring it on defense. He takes pride in erasing the opposing team’s best player.

“It feels great,” McDaniels said. “You can hear them get louder and louder each possession.”

Now it seems the offense is catching up for McDaniels.

“It’s always been there,” head coach Chris Finch said. “There’s things that he can do and at times we might need to put the ball in his hands a little bit more. He’s just making the right play off the ball all the time. That’s important for the way that we’re playing and the attention that our other guys are drawing.”

This is a group already equipped with a pair of dynamic scoring options in Anthony Edwards and Karl-Anthony Towns, a security blanket of Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert running the pick and roll, and a bench unit that includes Naz Reid and Nickeil Alexander-Walker.

It’s not a fair fight if McDaniels is also contributing at a high level on offense.

It wasn’t so much that McDaniels scored 25 points for the Timberwolves against the Suns as it was the ways in which he got his buckets. He slashed his way to the hoop to get himself going. He hit a few midrange jumpers to keep the defense honest. He knocked down a couple of corner three pointers for good measure.

“He’s a person who can live up to these moments, offensively and defensively,” Reid said. “We’ve been friends since I started with this team, so it’s good I get to see him embrace these moments against big time players and get a chance to go out there and compete.”

This is the guy the Timberwolves thought they were getting when the inked McDaniels to a 5-year, $136 million extension.

Now the biggest problem with McDaniels has always been consistency. He can pop off for 20 points with ease, then ghost his teammates for 48 minutes a few games later. The key for the Timberwolves in the playoffs will be making sure McDaniels can harness this type of performance with regularity moving forward.

Asked if he thought this was the best game he has ever played in the NBA, McDaniels replied, “It’s close.”

He paused.

“I mean, 25 points in the playoffs,” McDaniels said. “There’s nothing more I could ask for.”

There’s nothing more the Timberwolves could ask for either.

Related Articles

Timberwolves force Phoenix into submission in Game 2 blowout to take 2-0 series lead

Timberwolves dispute between Taylor and Lore, Rodriguez over ownership moves to mediation

Suns not panicked after Game 1; Timberwolves know desperation and discipline must carry forward

Jace Frederick: By defending Kevin Durant, Karl-Anthony Towns sacrifices to benefit Timberwolves

Hard work transformed Timberwolves’ Nickeil Alexander-Walker from benchwarmer to one of NBA’s elite 3-and-D wings

The Twins seemed to have the ingredients in place for a win on Tuesday — they had their ace, Pablo López, on the mound and were facing the team with Major League Baseball’s worst record — but sometimes it takes a few extra ingredients to perfect a recipe.

In this case, it was a sprinkle of power and some clutch hitting.

Byron Buxton’s first home run of the season came at the most opportune time for the Twins, tying the game in the ninth inning. Alex Kirilloff followed that up with a walk-off single to right after a tough night in which he had struck out four times, sending the Twins to a 6-5 win over the Chicago White Sox on Tuesday night at Target Field.

The late-inning drama came after Trevor Larnach delivered a mammoth tow-run home run — 433 feet — an inning earlier, cutting into Chicago’s three-run lead. Larnach was also involved in the Twins’ first run of the game, doubling in the first inning and scoring on Max Kepler’s single.

That lead was short-lived, though.

While López seemed, on paper, to be a great matchup against the White Sox (3-20), the starter saw his velocity dip dramatically during his start, leaving after throwing 38 pitches in the fourth.

Though López finished off the inning by collecting three strikeouts, the final pitch of his outing was a four-seam fastball at 91.9 miles per hour, a big drop from his average velocity on the pitch, which was at 94.8 mph entering the game.

One of the pitches he threw in the laborious inning was a curveball hammered by Eloy Jiménez out to left that stayed just fair. The White Sox designated hitter now has three home runs in his eight career at-bats against López, and this one made a big difference for much of the game while the offense was being held quiet by starter Erick Fedde.

Fedde allowed just three hits in his six innings of work and fanned 11. But after his departure, the Twins finally broke through, scoring in the seventh, eighth and finally the ninth.

You could feel it happening at some point in the third quarter Tuesday — a near carbon copy of Saturday’s occurrence — Phoenix submitted.

After fighting, scratching and clawing for 30 minutes to hang with the stronger, more physical Wolves, the Suns eventually toss in the towel. Such was the case in Game 2 on Tuesday, where Minnesota utilized a 10-0 run — a span in which the Suns were scoreless for four minutes — to turn a three-point deficit into a seven-point lead.

Minnesota led by six early in the fourth, before an 11-0 run essentially closed the contest as the Wolves pulled away for a 105-93 victory.

After a pair of blowout victories, Minnesota leads the series 2-0 with Game 3 scheduled for Friday for the first of a pair of weekend contests in Phoenix.

At this point, who knows if a Game 5 back at Target Center will be necessary.

A “Wolves in 4” chant

The Suns either can’t or won’t box Minnesota for 48 minutes, and it’s likely a combination of the two. After being routed in three regular-season bouts with Phoenix, the Wolves have turned the first two playoff games into a street fight.

And the Suns can only take so many punches.

Minnesota’s defensive physicality has clearly worn the Suns down. They make silly turnovers — 20 giveaways Tuesday led to 31 Minnesota points — and, by game’s end, they’re too tired to run in transition or compete on the defensive end.

The Wolves simply wear you out.

They do so with an army of talented players that runs as deep as any roster in the NBA. In Game 1, Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Naz Reid and Anthony Edwards led the charge.

On Tuesday, Mike Conley and Rudy Gobert were brilliant in the first half while Minnesota struggled to find its way offensively. Conley had 14 of his 18 points in the first half.

Gobert tallied 18 points and nine rebounds. and the star of the night was Jaden McDaniels, the two-way wing who has struggled at times with his offense this season. But he was effectively aggressive Tuesday to the tune of 25 points and eight rebounds while hounding Phoenix’s star perimeter players on the other end.

Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Brad Beal all logged more than 40 minutes in what felt like a last-gasp effort for Phoenix. Frankly, they have to play big minutes given Phoenix’s thin rotation that lost a key contributor in the third quarter when Grayson Allen left with another ankle injury.

But Phoenix’s “Big 3” certainly don’t seem to fit that moniker at the moment. None of the three ever were able to truly take charge of the game. There was no rhythm established. The Suns played like a desperate team in the first half, like they knew they needed to win that game.

They stuck to their defensive principles. They were much more competitive on the glass. They ran a number of actions designed to get their best players some separation.

None of it mattered. Minnesota withstood it all. Beal, Durant and Booker all looked incredibly ordinary.

It doesn’t feel like the Wolves’ best game is required to beat Phoenix. Because as long as the Wolves play with the requisite effort and intensity they figure to deliver every time they step onto the floor for a playoff contest, they’ll simply outlast the Suns.

They have too much ammo for this fight. Too many bodies to send at you. Too much effort and physicality to contend with.

As a result, this fight is quickly devolving into a “no contest.”

Related Articles

Timberwolves dispute between Taylor and Lore, Rodriguez over ownership moves to mediation

Suns not panicked after Game 1; Timberwolves know desperation and discipline must carry forward

Jace Frederick: By defending Kevin Durant, Karl-Anthony Towns sacrifices to benefit Timberwolves

Hard work transformed Timberwolves’ Nickeil Alexander-Walker from benchwarmer to one of NBA’s elite 3-and-D wings

Making adjustments, getting in shape and building the fire: How the Timberwolves used their week off to perfection