Best Healthy Street Tacos: A Low Calorie Family Dinner

We love Mexican food – especially in the summertime out on our back deck! These chicken street tacos are a healthy dinner that you and your family will love!

What’s a Street Taco?

An authentic street taco is traditionally meat served on a small, soft corn tortilla with a variety of toppings including salsa, beans, cilantro, and lime juice.

Are street tacos healthy?

Depending on the tortilla and toppings, street tacos are pretty healthy and low in calories. A serving is usually 2 small corn tortillas with a combination of meat, vegetables, beans and toppings like cilantro, avocado, and lime.

Are you looking for a keto taco recipe?

If you’re looking for a low carb or keto option, you will love our crockpot tacos or our one pan keto taco pie!

Creating Your Own Healthy Street Tacos at Home

We love making these are home! You can throw the chicken in a marinade the night before, and then it’s such a quick and easy dinner to throw together.

Plus, if you have picky eaters they can pick and choose their toppings.

For the meat, you’ll need:

• • boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • white corn tortillas
  • salsa
  • fresh, chopped cilantro
  • lime juice

For the Marinade you’ll need:

• apple cider vinegar
• lime juice
• olive oil
• garlic, minced
• jalapeno, diced
• salt
• black pepper
• avocado oil

Honestly, making your marinade is the hardest part. You probably could find something similar at the store.

If you’re looking for an eat-clean option though, it’s best to make it yourself. A lot of the store-bought marinades have added sugars and preservatives. 

For the salsa, you’ll need:

• onion, diced
• tomato diced
• garlic, minced
• jalapeno, diced (or a green pepper for a milder flavor)
• lime juice
• salt
• black pepper

Again, you could probably find a store-bought salsa or pico de gallo. With that said, you can’t beat a homemade, fresh salsa!

Making Your Street Tacos

Either the night before or in the morning, make your marinade. Then, place your chicken in it either in a covered bowl or ziplock bag. You’ll want it to sit in your refrigerator for at least 6 hours.

Once you’re ready to cook your chicken, you’ll want to heat a large skillet on medium high and add your avocado oil. Then, turn the heat down to low and add your chicken. You can also choose to grill your chicken.

If you’re cooking it on the stovetop, you will want it on medium heat and to cook each side for about 8-10 minutes until the chicken is cooked through.

Then, as your chicken cools – you can make your salsa.

Tip on Your Tortillas

I also like to place my corn tortillas on a baking sheet and place them in the oven either for 5-7 minutes at about 325 or on broil for 1-2 minutes.

If you do the broil option – keep an eye on them! It won’t take long!

Before putting them in the oven, I like to drizzle a little olive oil and salt on them to make them a little crispy.

Then, you’re ready to serve your street tacos! Each serving is 2 small tortillas with 2 tablespoons of meat and topped with whatever you’d like!

Continue to Content

Yield: 4 people

Mexican Healthy Street Tacos with Chicken

Print

This chicken street taco recipe always is a family favorite!

I marinate the chicken the night before, and it makes cooking dinner a breeze!

Street tacos are usually a little smaller and served on corn tortillas, and each person can customize their toppings.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Marinade 6 hours

Total Time 6 hours 25 minutes

Ingredients

For the Meat

• 1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts
• 10 white corn tortillas , warmed in the oven
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro , chopped
• 1 tsp fresh lime juice
• sour cream , optional
• cheddar cheese, optional

For the Marinade:

• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1.5 tbsp lime juice
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic , minced
• 1 jalapeno, diced
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp avocado oil

Salsa

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1 medium tomato, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 jalapeno, diced (can also use green pepper to lessen heat of dish overall)
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper

Instructions

1. Make the marinade by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl.
2. Add chicken to marinade, cover bowl and allow to sit in fridge for 6-8 hours, or overnight. You can also store in a ziplock bag to marinade.
3. Remove from marinade and heat a large skillet on medium high heat. Add avocado oil to hot skillet.
4. Heat oven to lowest temperature.
5. Place chicken in the hot oil, turn heat to medium and cook on each side for 8-10 minutes, until thoroughly cooked.
6. Allow chicken to fully rest on a plate while you make the salsa and heat the tortillas.
7. While chicken is resting, after you make the salsa, place the corn tortillas on a baking sheet and place in the oven for 5-7 minutes until fully warm and pliable.
8. Add 2 Tablespoons chicken to each tortilla, and top with cilantro, salsa, sour cream and cheese as desired.

Notes

1 Taco would be 1 yellow, 1/2 red, and 1/2 green on the 21 Day Fix Meal Plan.

Nutrition Information:

Yield:

4

Serving Size:

1 grams
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 486Total Fat: 25gSaturated Fat: 4gUnsaturated Fat: 0gCholesterol: 73mgSodium: 1038mgCarbohydrates: 37gFiber: 6gSugar: 3gProtein: 29g

Love this recipe?

Please leave a comment on the blog or share a photo on Instagram