Brown Ale Chicken Tacos with Cabbage-Apple Slaw

This is one tasty dish! I made these tacos for the first time a couple of months ago, and I immediately regretted not taking a picture for my blog. This has been on my list to make for the last two weeks, but kept getting pushed. Forgot to defrost the chicken one day. Was out of bacon the next. Oops, I forgot to buy an apple. Last night, however, I found myself in the kitchen with all the components. Score!

I typically like my tacos packed with as much flavor as possible. This equates to stuffing my tortilla with as many ingredients as I can cram in there. When I stumbled on this recipe,  I first thought, "What? Only two things in a taco? No cheese? What's that about?". I'm glad I went against my initial dismissal of the recipe. For a taco with only two filling items, it's got tons of flavor. A little bitter, from the brown ale. Sweet from the apple in the cabbage slaw. Salty from the bacon in the slaw. Chewy from the chicken, and crunchy from the slaw.

The hubby is always up for something adventurous from the culinary world, so he loved the tacos. If you have a pickier mate, well, this might be one for you to skip :)

Ingredients:

1 lb chicken breasts, cooked, chopped
2 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1 cup green apple, julienned
4 pieces bacon, chopped
2 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 (12 oz) bottle good quality brown ale (I used Costco's, surprisingly tasty)
3/4 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp sugar
4 soft taco size flour tortillas, warmed

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine cabbage and apple.
2. In a large skillet, cook bacon until crispy and fat is rendered. Remove bacon from pan with a slotted spoon. Drain on a paper towel, then add bacon bits to cabbage and apple.
3. Reserve 1 tbsp bacon grease to a medium bowl. Discard the remainder of the bacon fat. Add cider vinegar through dijon mustard. Whisk to combine. Drizzle dressing over cabbage mixture. Toss well. Set slaw aside.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together beer, flour, and sugar until smooth. Heat in the skillet, until boiling. Turn temperature down to a simmer, and reduce sauce until it's halved and thickened. Add chicken to the pan, toss to coat.
5. Spoon chicken mixture into center of a warm tortilla. Top with cabbage slaw, and serve immediately.

*Recipe adapted from Cooking Light*