Chicken tinga tostadas are your new taco night favorite! Pile crispy fried tortillas with flavorful toppings like refried beans, veggies, cheese, and my quick 15-minute recipe for spicy, smokey chicken tinga that’s perfect for a fast, fresh dinner that everyone will love.
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I’ve been trying to document some of the recipes my family relies on for fast weeknight dinners. The ones I plan mid-week when I know I’ll be buried at work and want to avoid takeout. Tostadas are a family favorite that appear every few weeks, usually when I tell my husband he’s on dinner duty.
The beauty of tostadas is their versatility. You can swap shredded chicken for leftover pulled pork, some ground beef, chorizo, or, in this case, this easy chicken tinga. Plus, you can use leftover rotisserie chicken for extra convenience. Even my pickiest eater likes the idea of eating chips for dinner, and dips broken bits of tostada into refried beans and cheese and nibbles at avocados. Everyone else piles these high with all the fixings. The result is a kid-friendly, gluten-free dinner that you’ll want to make again and again.
Tinga Chicken Tostadas Ingredients
The Base
- Tostadas: Whether you’re using homemade or store bought tostadas, you’ll need some! Plan on 2-3 per adult. And 1-2 for children. If your kids are like mine, they might eat one assembled tostada but snack on 1 or 2 tostadas like chips.
- Refried beans: No matter the meat topping, we always use refried beans as the base layer. It helps the other ingredients stick, and is a great way to get a little more fiber and protein into your meal.
- Chicken tinga: This is the recipe I use for chicken tinga. Chicken tinga is chicken simmered in a chipotle tomato sauce, and it’s a great way to use up leftover rotisserie chicken. If you just want to make chicken tostadas, you don't have to simmer the shredded chicken in the chipotle tomato sauce. (You'll save yourself 15 minutes.)
Toppings
All of these are optional, and we always serve them as such on the table. Like our own little tostada bar, which makes this the ultimate kid-friendly meal or dinner party idea because everyone gets exactly what they want:
- Lettuce: We use shredded romaine lettuce for these, but you could swap for butter lettuce or spinach if that’s what you’ve got on hand.
- Cheese: Crumbled cheese like queso fresco or cotija are both classic options, but you could also use grated cheddar, colby jack, a ‘Mexican’ blend, mozzarella, or pepperjack.
- Sour cream or crema: For a cooling contrast to anything spicy you top your tostadas with.
- Salsa: Fresh or store bought. Red or green. It’s up to you.
- Fresh tomato: Diced roma tomatoes are ideal for this recipe as globe tomatoes or tomatoes on the vine will have a lot of extra juice. It all works though, if you’re using what you’ve got on hand.
- Diced onion: White onion or yellow onion, heck even red onions will work here. If you aren’t a fan of onion, sliced radish is also delicious.
- Pickled jalapenos or pickled red onion: Love the tang (and spice) that pickles bring to tostadas and highly recommend.
- Lime wedges: Fresh lime juice spritzed over the top of your tostada just to make it all pop!
How to Make Homemade Tostadas
If you’re here from my Easy Weeknight Dinner Solutions course, let’s be real: you’re not making these from scratch. Most of the time tostadas are a go-to in our house to get food on the table fast, but on the rare occasion we’re not, homemade tostadas just hit a little different. Consider giving them a try!
Baked Tostada Shells:
- Lightly spray both sides of corn tortillas (homemade or storebought) with an oil-based cooking spray.
- Arrange them in a single layer on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.
- Bake at 400°F for 5 minutes. Flip and bake for another 5–10 minutes, or until golden and crisp.
Fried Tostada Shells:
- Pour about ¼ - ½ inch of vegetable oil into a medium skillet and heat over medium-high.
- Once the oil is hot, carefully add one tortilla at a time. Fry until lightly golden, flipping halfway through.
- Transfer to a paper towel-lined plate to drain, then sprinkle with salt. Let cool before serving.
Easy Refried Beans
You can microwave refried beans with a tablespoon of butter or lard and some water for a couple of minutes, stirring after the first minute and every 30 seconds after that until warmed through. Before serving, season with salt to taste (it won’t take much if you are using canned beans). How much water you add will depend on the consistency you like your beans. For this recipe, I keep it to a couple of tablespoons so that the beans are spreadable but not runny.
Assemble Your Tinga Tostadas
- Create a base layer.
- Add the chicken tinga.
- Pile with toppings to your heart’s desire. I usually start with a big handful of lettuce, a drizzle of crema or a few dollops of sour cream, salsa, crumbled queso fresco, diced tomatoes, diced onions or radish slices, and cilantro.
📖 Recipe
Chicken Tinga Tostadas (Tostadas de Tinga)
Ingredients
Tostadas
- 1 package tostadas
- 1 can refried beans prepared
- 1 recipe chicken tinga or just 3 cups shredded rotisserie chicken for chicken tostadas
Optional Toppings
- Lettuce shredded
- 1-2 Roma Tomatoes diced
- Avocado ¼-½ per person
- ½ white onion diced
- ¼-½ cup chopped cilantro
- Sour cream or crema
- Crumbled cheese cotija or queso fresco
- Salsa homemade or store-bought
- Lime wedges
- Pickled jalapenos or pickled red onion
Instructions
- Create a base layer, spreading a spoonful or two of refried beans over the top of the tostada shell.
- Add the chicken tinga.
- Pile with toppings to your heart’s desire. I usually start with a big handful of lettuce, a drizzle of crema or a few dollops of sour cream, salsa, crumbled queso fresco, diced tomatoes, diced onions or radish slices, and cilantro.
Notes
Looking for more Mexican meal ideas? Try these:
- Entomatadas: Like an enchilada but prepared on the stovetop.
- Salsa Verde Chicken: A classic Mexican dish made with a punchy, bright salsa verde and given a slight twist with nopales, or cactus paddles.
