Our family’s smash burger tacos recipe, complete with our favorite homemade burger sauce! We’ve fallen hard for these, and we think yours will, too.

Last year, we shared our favorite smash burger recipe—and while that’s still a staple in our kitchen, we’ve recently fallen hard for the smash burger taco. After first spotting them going viral on social media, we had to try them for ourselves. One bite in, we were hooked.

After making them at home, we’ve picked up a few tricks that make the process go smoothly. Plus, we’re including our homemade burger sauce, which really takes these over the top!

Key Ingredients

• Ground Beef: Just like our classic smash burgers, we recommend using ground beef with a bit of fat. Aim for 15% to 20% fat (85/15 or 80/20). While leaner beef can work, the higher fat content keeps the meat juicy and helps it adhere properly to the tortilla without crumbling. These also work with ground chicken and ground turkey, but keep that fat content in mind (the more the better with these).
• Tortillas: After testing these in our kitchen, we’ve found flour tortillas work best. They are quite a bit more pliable than corn, which helps prevent cracking. As a bonus, the meat adheres much better to the surface. That said, feel free to use whichever variety you love most.
• Cheese: While this is always optional, we love adding a slice of cheese to these. My preference is melty American cheese, but anything goes here. Cheddar, provolone, mozzarella, pepper jack, anything!
• Sauce: You can certainly stick to basic ketchup, mustard, and mayo, but our easy burger sauce really takes these over the top. We think it’s a must!
• Toppings: These are completely up to you. We like to keep things simple with a classic combination: finely chopped onion, fresh tomato, shredded lettuce, and a few dill pickles, all finished with a generous drizzle of our sauce.

Find the full recipe with measurements below.

How to Make Smash Burger Tacos

Tip 1: Choose flour tortillas: After testing both, we find flour tortillas work best for smash tacos. They are more pliable than corn, and the meat adheres better to the surface as it cooks.

Tip 2: Spread the meat, don’t smash it: I know this sounds counterintuitive, but we’ve found that spreading the raw ground beef directly onto the tortilla before it hits the pan is the secret to success. It guarantees an even layer of meat, requires less “elbow grease” on the stove, and speeds up the cooking process a bit. If you’d like to make these as you would traditional smash burgers where you start with a ball and press down with a heavy spatula, you can, but we really have found that the spreading technique keeps this recipe easy.

Tip 3: Use a metal spatula. These cook quickly, but the meat can occasionally stick to the pan. Keep a thin metal spatula (a flexible fish spatula works beautifully) on hand to gently wiggle underneath the meat before flipping. It also helps press the taco and meat into the pan to get a really good sear.

Tip 4: Toast the other side of the tortilla. When you flip the taco to cook the meat side, the underside of the tortilla will crisp up in the rendered beef fat. We highly recommend adding a slice of cheese right after the flip to get that perfect melt, but even if you’re skipping the cheese, leave it in the pan for an extra minute to get the perfect crispy, golden exterior.

Serving Suggestions

We make these for dinner quite a bit, but they are also fantastic for crowds (especially if you have a large flattop grill!). At home, we usually keep things simple and serve a veggie on the side like baked French fries, sweet potato fries, roasted potatoes, sautéed broccoli, or corn salad.

If you are making these for a crowd, serve them alongside one of our potluck-friendly sides, such as potato salad, red potato salad, creamy pasta salad, orzo pasta salad, or creamy coleslaw! (Here’s even more summer potluck recipes for inspiration.)

More Burger Recipes

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Chicken Caesar Salad, But Fold It Up And Dunk It!

In other words, my dream come true.

I’ve seen a few videos for this method, and I felt like I needed to give it a try, and I WAS CORRECT. What a genius little dinner invention for people who love chicken caesar salad and want to eat it in every available form (it’s me)!

These are crispy taco-like handhelds, golden and crispy outsides that kind of shatter when you bite into them, with seasoned ground chicken and shreddy Caesar salad + pepperoncini smashed inside?!

Dunked in a Caesar sauce?!?!

Holy smokes! They are so yummy. And so easy.

These fall in the same family as the black bean crispies or the pizza burgers – quick little hitters that require very little from you but actually end up being some of the meals you look forward to most.

Hope you love them!

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Green Chile Chicken Tacos are a perfect family-friendly dinner, and you can make the chicken in the Instant Pot or the slow cooker. These tacos will be low in carbs when you use low-carb tortillas, or eat the slightly-spicy green chile chicken in lettuce wraps for an option that’s Keto or gluten-free!

PIN Green Chile Chicken Tacos to try them later!

These Green Chile Chicken Tacos are going to be perfect for Cinco de Mayo, and Kara and I really enjoyed this when we worked on the recipe! We loved the spicy green chile chicken, the slightly-spicy slaw with chopped Poblano peppers, and the squeeze of lime we added at the table. And when Kara took leftovers home, her family devoured the tacos too.

And I’m happy to have both an Instant Pot and a Slow Cooker version of this recipe. The tacos were originally inspired by my love of Hatch Green Chile Enchilada Sauce, something I’ve used often since I first tried it. Any recipe with that sauce is going to be something I’ll enjoy! And recently I discovered that my original nutrition calculator sometimes was not accurate for low-carb tortillas, and I’m happy to say these tacos are even lower in carbs than I thought, see more below about that.

Either version of Green Chile Chicken Tacos will be tasty, and even the slow cooker method only takes a little over three hours to cook. So this is pretty easy for a chicken taco dinner no matter which method you choose! I hope you enjoy trying it.

What ingredients do you need for this recipe?

(This is only a list of ingredients; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

What are Poblano Chile Peppers?

Poblano chile peppers are large dark green peppers that are mild but have a really delicious flavor. In U.S. grocery stores they are sometimes called Pasilla Peppers.

Making Green Chile Tacos for Weekend Food Prep:

If you’re making this for Weekend Food Prep and planning on leftovers to eat later, it would be best to only put dressing on half the slaw if you want it to stay crisp. Refrigerate slaw ingredients and taco meat separately, then heat the chicken and tortillas and add dressing to the rest of the slaw right before you eat the rest of the tacos.

Which method did we like best for Green Chile Chicken Tacos?

For the slow cooker version we recommend reducing the sauce so the finished result isn’t too watery, and using the Instant Pot made it super-easy to reduce the sauce after the chicken had cooked. So for that feature only I’d say I liked the Instant Pot method a bit better.

What Instant Pot or Slow Cooker Did I Use?

I use a 6 Quart Instant Pot (affiliate link) for all my Instant Pot Recipes! For the slow cooker version I used my favorite 3.5 Quart Slow Cooker (affiliate link) but any size that’s close to that will work.

How low in carbs are the Green Chile Chicken Tacos?

With the Mission Carb Balance Low-Carb Tortillas (affiliate link) I used, these tacos have only 7 net carbs each, with 13 grams of protein.

How to Make Instant Pot Green Chile Chicken Tacos:

(This is only a summary of the steps for the recipe; please scroll down for complete printable recipe. Or if you use the JUMP TO RECIPE link at the top of the page, it will take you directly to the complete recipe.)

1. Trim chicken, put in Instant Pot, and season with salt and pepper. 
2. Pour Hatch Green Chile Enchilada Sauce (affiliate link) over the chicken, along with diced green chiles (affiliate link) if using.
3. Lock lid on the Instant Pot and set to MANUAL, HIGH, 10 MINUTES. 
4. When time is up let pressure release naturally for 20 minutes, then release remaining pressure.
5. Remove chicken to cutting board and shred, leaving sauce in the Instant Pot.
6. Turn Instant Pot to SAUTE, MEDIUM and reduce the sauce for about 10 minutes while you shred the chicken apart.
7. Then put shredded chicken back in the Instant Pot to keep warm and let chicken absorb the sauce.
8. While chicken cooks, chop the poblanos, green onions, and cilantro.
9. Whisk together mayo, lime juice, and Green Tabasco Sauce (affiliate link) to make the dressing.
10. Chop up green and red cabbage, and mix in the chopped poblano, green onion, and cilantro (if using).
11. Then toss slaw with dressing until it’s a wet as you prefer.
12. We used Mission Carb Balance Low-Carb Tortillas (affiliate link) with 4 carbs each. (The package has changed.)
13. We heated each tortilla in a hot dry pan, just about 10-15 seconds per side.
14. Fill each taco shell with 1/8 of the spicy chicken and 1/8 of the slaw, and serve right away.
15. We loved this with a squeeze of lime to add at the table!

How to Make Slow Cooker Green Chile Chicken Tacos:

(This is only a summary; scroll down for complete printable recipe.)

1. Simmer Hatch Green Chile Enchilada Sauce (affiliate link) until it’s reduced to 3/4 cup, about 45 minutes. 
2. While sauce reduces, trim chicken breasts, cut in half lengthwise, put in slow cooker, and season with salt and pepper.
3. Put the reduced sauce (and 1 can additional diced green chiles if desired) over the chicken. 
4. Cook on high in slow cooker for about 2 1/2 hours.  
5. When the chicken is tender and starting to fall apart, remove to a cutting board and shred, leaving the sauce in the slow cooker.
6. Put the shredded chicken back in the slow cooker and turn to low to keep warm and let the chicken absorb the sauce.
7. I used Mission Carb Balance Whole Wheat Fajita Shells with 3 carbs each for this version, and heated the foil-wrapped tortillas in a toaster oven.
8. Mix together ingredients to make dressing for the spicy slaw.
9. Chop poblanos, green onions, cabbage, and cilantro and make the spicy slaw right before you’re ready to eat the tacos.
10. To serve, fill each taco shell with 1/8 of the spicy chicken and 1/8 of the slaw.
11. The original version was served with Cotija cheese. (Through the years I’ve made these tacos more often without it, but it’s tasty if you have some.)

Make it a Low-Carb Meal:

Here are some tasty things to serve with the Green Chile Chicken Tacos:

More Low-Carb Mexican Dinners:

Check out my collections of Keto Mexican Food Dinners and Low-Carb Mexican Food Favorites for more ideas to satisfy that craving for Mexican food! And if want more recipes using low-carb tortillas, here are my favorite recipes with low-carb tortillas.

Low-Carb Diet / Low-Glycemic Diet / South Beach Diet Suggestions:
The small low-carb flour tortillas used in these Green Chile Chicken Tacos have only 2 – 4 net carbs each (depending on which brand you choose), making them a good choice for low-carb diet plans. If you’re following the original South Beach diet choose a low-carb tortilla that fits that plan and look for Green Chile Enchilada Sauce with the lowest amount of carbs you can find. You can eat the Green Chile Chicken inside lettuce wraps for an option that’s Keto or gluten-free.

Find More Recipes Like This One:
Use Slow Cooker Recipes or Instant Pot Recipes to find more recipes like this one. Use the Diet Type Index to find recipes suitable for a specific eating plan. You might also like to follow Kalyn’s Kitchen on Pinterest, on Facebook, on Instagram, on TikTok, or on YouTube to see all the good recipes I’m sharing there.

Historical Notes for this Recipe:
The Green Chile Tacos were first posted in 2014, and I’ve made this recipe many times since then. The post was last updated with more information and corrected nutritional information in 2026.

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