Chicken Tostadas

I grabbed all the essentials for making the perfect chicken tostada: crunchy tortillas, creamy refried beans, shredded chicken, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, avocados, and a few salsa choices.

However, you can totally customize these with your favorite proteins, toppings, and beans to make them your own! This is seriously the best 15 minute dinner.  It's my go-to meal when I don't want to cook dinner.

For quick and easy Mexican dinner ideas, we also love these Baked Crispy Chicken Tacos, Bean Tostadas, and Shrimp Tacos.

What You’ll Need for Chicken Tostadas

These tostadas are a perfect balance of crispy, fresh, and savory. Here's what you'll need:

• Corn Tortillas: The crispy base of your tostadas. Use fresh, high-quality tortillas for the best crunch or swap in store-bought tostada shells for an easy shortcut. 
• Cooked Boneless Skinless Chicken Breast: Shredded for a juicy and flavorful filling. Leftover chicken and rotisserie chicken work great! Swap in any cooked protein you like.
• Chicken seasoning: To add extra flavor to our cooked chicken, I like to add lime juice, cilantro, cumin, garlic powder, and chili powder. Swap in taco seasoning for an easy option. 
• Refried Beans: Use canned refried beans for convenience or these shortcut refried beans for a personal touch. We love these with both pinto beans and black beans.
• Toppings: Our favorite toppings for tostadas include lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, queso fresco (or any shredded cheese), avocado, and spicy salsa. 

How to Bake Tostadas

Here’s an easy to way to bake tostadas at home:

• To make your own tostadas at home, start by preheating the oven to 400 degrees. Then, you can place the corn tortillas on a baking sheet or directly on the oven rack.
• Bake for 4-5 minutes per side until they are nice and crispy. If you want to add some seasoning to your tostadas, you can spray the tortillas with cooking spray or brush them with olive oil before baking. Then sprinkle with cumin and garlic powder and then add a squeeze of fresh lime juice.

• Fried tostada shells: If you want the traditionally fried tostada shell, heat about 1/2 inch of vegetable oil in a heavy skillet. Add the tortilla and cook for 1-2 minutes per side until it is bubbly and crispy. You will know the tortilla is ready to flip once it doesn't bend at all when you pick it up with tongs. Flip and cook on the other side. Remove and set on paper towels to drain the excess grease. 

How do I prevent the tostada shells from getting soggy?

To keep your tostada shells crispy, layer the refried beans and chicken first, then top with fresh ingredients like lettuce, tomatoes, and avocado. Avoid adding too much liquid-based topping like salsa directly on the shell, as it can make the tortilla soggy.

How to Make Mexican Tostadas

Tostadas are one of those meals that can be made a hundred different ways, using various ingredients. You can switch out the beans, protein, veggies, cheese, and salsas/sauces to literally create endless combinations. However, every good tostada includes the following elements.

1. Crispy tortilla: A good tostada always starts with a crispy baked or fried tortilla for the base. We recommend baking your own tostadas in the oven using corn tortillas.
2. Add Beans: Next up is a layer of beans. We like to use refried or mashed beans so that they stick to the tortilla and aren't rolling off in every direction. There is no need to limit yourself to traditional pinto beans. Use black beans, white beans, cannellini beans, and even chickpeas. Simply mash them lightly with a fork before spreading them on the tortilla. If you like a really creamy bean, toss them into the blender first. If you don't want to include beans, I recommend adding a layer of guacamole so that your toppings have something to stick to.
3. Pick a Protein: Pretty much any protein is fair game when it comes to tostadas. You can use chicken, Mexican shredded chicken, ground turkey or beef, Carne Asada, Mexican Garlic Shrimp, fish, or Slow Cooker Garlic Cuban Pork. Cook it any way you like and chop it into smaller pieces so you can get some in every bite. You can use vegetarian meat products, Tofu Fajitas, or tempeh for a non-meat protein source. You can also leave out the meat completely.
4. Colorful Veggies: Traditionally, tostadas include lettuce, tomato, onion, cilantro, and avocado. Don't let this limit you. We love adding grilled veggies or some cooked onions and peppers to our tostadas. Nothing is off-limits here!
5. Everything Needs Cheese: Since we can't get enough cheese in our house, our tostadas always feature some queso. Traditionally, a crumbly queso fresco or cotija cheese is used for tostadas, but any cheese will work. Kiddos usually prefer shredded cheddar or jack cheese. If they like it melted, add it after the beans so the heat from the beans can melt the cheese.
6. Salsa and Guac: A Mexican meal isn't complete without some salsa and guacamole. You can use your favorite homemade or store-bought salsa or Pico de Gallo and either fresh avocado or Guacamole.
7. Heat: If you want a kick of heat, you can't go wrong with a dash or two of your favorite hot sauce on top! You can also dice up some jalapeños for even more heat.

Meal Prep Chicken Tostadas

If you know you have a busy week, tostadas with chicken are great for meal prep. Start by cooking the chicken or shredded a rotisserie chicken. Toss it with the lime juice, cilantro, and spices and store in the fridge. If you are making refried beans, make those and store them in another container.

Then, prep the veggies by chopping the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions. On the night of, you will heat the chicken tostada mix, and toast the tortillas in the oven while you warm up the chicken and beans. Slice the avocado, and then just set everything on the counter. Everyone can assemble their own.