coronation chicken tacos

I love a good Royal Wedding and the upcoming nuptials of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are no exception. Pulling together the best bits of California and Britain is something I’m pretty adept at, so to help you celebrate the big day, I’ve created a party menu with recipes that bring together the best of California and Britain – to reflect both their (and my) homelands. Get all the other recipes and my time plan for a stress-free Royal Wedding party here.

Coronation chicken is a classic English party piece and was first created for Harry’s grandma. By serving it in tacos, not only do you bring Meghan’s Californian side in, you make it easier to eat. Adding avocado, lime and pink pickled radishes makes this a dream. If you’re not feeling the taco thing, just serve the coronation chicken with a green salad and toasted pitta bread.

Prep ahead

The chicken mixture can be made the day before and finished off just before serving. The pickled radish can be made a week before so all you need to do on the day is heat tortillas and either let people assemble their own or make them up just before you eat.

Coronation Chicken Tacos Ingredients

Serves 4 as a main or makes around 16 tacos which will serve 6-8 people alongside the rest of the party menu

Spice mix

• 1 tablespoon olive, rapeseed or coconut oil
• 3 spring/green onions, green and white parts sliced thinly
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger – around 2 inches peeled then grated with a coarse Microplane
• 1 clove of garlic, peeled and sliced
• 1 teaspoon garam masala
• 1 teaspoon whole cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds

Coronation chicken

• The above spice mix plus:
• Around 250g (2 cups) cooked chicken – either freshly cooked small chunks of chicken breast or the shredded meat from a rotisserie chicken
• 200g (7 oz) plain full fat yoghurt
• 1-2 teaspoons mango chutney
• 20g (1 oz) coriander (cilantro), leaves and stems finely chopped
• 1 lime, juice and zest
• a pinch of sea salt and chilli flakes to taste

To serve

16 small tortillas. I made my own corn tortillas but I know that may be a push. So buy them – in the US you’ll have no problem. In the UK it is easier to find flour tortillas but you can find corn tortillas online. Read my guide to buying tortillas here.

• Make – Speedy pickled radish or pink onion
• 3-4 avocados
• 1 large red chilli
• 4 limes
• 20g (1 oz) coriander (cilantro)

Equipment

You can now buy the equipment I use in this recipe through my shop. I’ve spent years testing my favourite bits of equipment so rest-assured that whatever I recommend is the best tool for the job and will give you great results without cluttering your kitchen with unused tools. I receive a small affiliate fee from Amazon if you buy via my link. The products don’t cost you any more. These small fees help me keep creating all the free content I share.

• large frying pan
• chef knife
• chopping board
• silicone spatula
• coarse Microplane
• Microplane zester
• large bowl
• 2 clean tea towels

To make:

1. Make the spice mix – Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan on a medium heat and add the sliced onions, garam masala, cumin and fennel seeds and cook for 3 minutes until the onions are soft and the spices smell fragrant. Use a coarse Microplane to grate the ginger and garlic into the pan and cook for 2 minutes.
2. Put all the remaining coronation chicken ingredients into a bowl and add the cooked spice mix.

4. Mix the coronation chicken ingredients together. Taste and add chilli, salt and more chutney as needed. Set aside.
5. Heat the tortillas in a dry frying pan, cooking them for around 3 minutes each side until they start to puff slightly and colour. You’ll need to do this in batches, keeping the warm tortillas in a clean tea towel as you heat the rest.
6. Assemble the rest of the taco ingredients – thinly slice a red chilli, cut the limes into quarters and pick leaves from the coriander. Slice the avocado.
7. Assemble each taco by squishing a slice of avocado along the middle of the warmed tortilla. Top with a heaped dessert spoon of the coronation chicken, a couple of pieces of pickled radish or onion and finish with a scatter of chilli, coriander leaves and a squeeze of lime. Eat immediately.

Get more recipes like this

Find more recipes for the Royal Wedding, tacos and chicken here.