Make the chicken first by seasoning the chicken thighs with 1 tablespoon of your favorite taco seasoning. Sear them in a large pan over medium-high heat with the olive oil, a couple minutes per side. Reduce the heat to medium-low and pour in a 12 ounce bottle of Modelo Especial®.

Add the remaining taco seasonings and simmer 30 minutes, until the liquid reduces and the chicken is nice and tender. Shred it up with a couple forks and set it aside.

Make the gorditas. Heat a pot of vegetable oil to 350 degrees F. You want just enough oil to cover the gorditas when ready.

Next, mix together 2 cups masa with 1.5 cups of water and a couple pinches of salt. Mix the masa by hand until you form a dough. The dough shouldn’t be sticky and should not be dry. It should stick together easily. If you need to add a bit more water, do so.

Form the dough into 8 equally sized balls.

Flatten each dough ball with a tortilla press, or you can do so by hand with a wide flat pan. Flatten them to about 1/8 inch thick, and about 4 inches in diameter.

Set them into the hot oil a couple at a time and cook them a couple minutes until they puff up.

Gently flip them and continue to fry them until they become golden brown.

Remove the gorditas carefully and set them onto paper towels to drain. When they are just warm enough to handle, use a knife and slit a pocket into each of them.

Finally, stuff them with your tender pulled chicken and whatever other goodness you desire, like refried beans, shredded white cheese, jalapeno peppers, tomatoes, avocado…whatever you wish!