Tinga refers to the seasoned, saucy meat preparation at the heart of the dish — traditionally made with chicken, though La Tingeria also offers an eight-hour braised brisket version. Chicken breast is poached for one and a half to two hours in a house-made stock, then shredded and combined with deeply caramelized yellow onions and a blended chipotle sauce before being piled onto a hard tostada shell, which is used specifically because the dish is very saucy. It is finished with lettuce, queso fresco, and crema.
Falls Church VA
La Tingeria
Tostada de Tinga
Chicken breast / Chicken stock / Yellow onions / Chipotle sauce / Hard tostada shell / Lettuce / Queso fresco / Crema
Signature Dish
From Prep to Plate
Seth visits La Tingeria in Falls Church, VA, where Chef David Peña prepares the restaurant’s namesake dish: tostada de tinga. He starts with slow-poached chicken, deeply caramelized onions, and a rich house-made broth. The sauce is blended and combined with shredded chicken to create a filling. The tostada comes together on a crisp shell layered with tinga, lettuce, queso fresco, and crema.
I ordered tacos packed with Peña’s chicken tinga, this juicy mass of shredded breast meat held together with a guisado-like mixture of tomatoes, onions, chipotle peppers and more. The tinga had a decided chile pepper bite, but it was augmented with the most tantalizing sweetness, the kind that lingers just beneath the principal flavors, unobtrusive but essential.
Tim Carman, The Washington Post
