Chicken Tinga Tostadas

Tinga tostadas are a delicious dinner or snack idea! Combine the smoky heat from the tinga sauce with time-saving rotisserie chicken topped with your favorite ingredients and you've got an amazing meal!  We make this healthy by baking our tortillas!

Jump to:

• 🎥 Recipe Video
• You'll ❤️ Tostadas de Tinga
• 🥘 Ingredients
• 🍽 Equipment
• 🔪 Instructions
• 🥗 How To Serve
• 📖 Variations
• 💭 Top Tips
• ❓ FAQs
• ✔️ More Mexican Recipes
• ⭐ Let's Connect
• 📋 Recipe

🎥 Recipe Video

You'll ❤️ Tostadas de Tinga

"There is something special about having tinga tostadas. They taste amazing and you can make everyone happy by customizing with your family's favorite toppings! "

Unique and Fun

Top your tostadas with a unique and fun combination of your favorite toppings to make it custom to each persons liking.

Savory and Smoky

The Tinga sauce made in this recipe adds the perfect amount of spice and smokiness from the chipotle in adobo. It is not too spicy, but you could add spice to your liking!

The sundried tomatoes add brightness and savoriness to round out the flavors.

Healthy

This recipe allows for freedom in how healthy you can make this by your toppings. Bake or air fry your corn tortillas at home to decrease oil and extra fat.

• This gluten-free friendly recipe starts with a base of a corn tortilla. The Tinga is gluten-free as well!
• This recipe can also be keto friendly. Substitiute for your favorite low-carb tortillas to keep the carb count lower.
• Customize your toppings to this recipe by what works with your dietary restrictions. Low-fat options are available for your sour cream and cheese. You can remove these if desired as well.

🥘 Ingredients

Here are the ingredients you will need to make Tinga Tostadas:

• Corn tortillas - substitute for your favorite kind of tortillas including low-carb or flour. Be sure to stay with a 6 inch tortilla regardless of type.
• Olive oil cooking spray
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• Rotissere chicken - I prefer to use rotissere to save time!
• Sweet onion - I like to balance flavors in a recipe, and using a sweet onion here will help with balancing spice. You can use whichever onion you prefer or have on hand if you do not have a sweet onion.
• Sundried tomatoes - I used prepared sundried tomatoes that I purchased at my local grocery store. Make sure to purchase the ones that are dry and not in oil. The purpose of the sundried tomatoes is for flavor and to add thickness to the sauce.
• Cherry tomatoes
• Chipotle in adobo - this can be found in most grocery stores in canned form, with the other Mexican groceries. If you want spicier, add more chipotle peppers in adobo sauce or add chipotle powder to your taste.
• Garlic
• Chicken stock - You can substitute for your prefered stock including vegetable or beef.
• Salt
• Cumin
• Refried Beans - classic tostadas have a layered of refried beans on the shell then they're topped with the meat. Try my homemade authentic refried beans! They are nothing like store-bought! You could also sub black beans if you prefer.
• Optional toppings - shredded lettuce, queso fresco or cotija cheese, tomatoes, avocado, fresh cilantro, chipotle crema or sour cream.

🍽 Equipment

Equipment and tools needed to make tinga tostadas:

• Cutting Board
• Chef Knife - A 10" chef knife or larger works the best.
• 2-quart Sauce Pot - used to make tinga sauce. feel free to use a larger pot if that is all you have on hand.
• Measuring Cups
• Measuring Spoons
• Can opener
• Stirring Spoon - can be metal or wooden.
• Hand Blender - used to blend and make a smooth sauce.

🔪 Instructions

Here's how to make these Tinga Tostadas:

For complete instructions, please see the printable recipe card below.

Make Sauce

Preheat a 2-quart saucepan with extra-virgin olive oil over medium-high heat until the oil begins to smoke.

Add onion and sundried tomatoes to the pan and saute until the onions caramelize.

Add remaining ingredients, including the chipotle in adobo, cherry tomatoes, chopped garlic, stock, cumin, and table salt.

Reduce and simmer

Reduce your heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes or until the cherry tomatoes begin to soften and pop.

Bake Tortillas

Preheat your air-fryer or oven to 350 degrees.

While preheating, prepare your tortillas by spraying them with oil on both sides of the tortillas. Adjust to your size so they do not overlap. Our air fryer can fit three at a time.

Air-fry for six minutes or oven bake for 10 to 15 or until crispy, and be sure to flip them halfway through to ensure they are light and crispy!

Shred

Pull apart and shred your chicken and set aside in a bowl

Blend

Remove the sauce from heat and blend with a hand blender for approximately five minutes or until desired consistency.

Mix

Start by mixing half of the Tinga sauce with the shredded chicken and check the heat level to your liking.

Assemble and Serve

Assemble your Tostada with meat and your favorite toppings, and it is time to serve!

🥗 How To Serve

Describe ways to serve it - garnish, side dishes, salads, etc. We need to use recipes from the blog to link to also.

• Feel free to serve these Tinga tostadas on their own for a fun and easy meal!
• Try this Roasted Chili Corn Salsa to add as a topping for your Tinga tostadas. It has bright flavor, subtle heat and color to add to your dish!
• Topping ideas: refried beans, guacamole or fresh sliced avocado, cilantro, and queso fresco or cotija cheese. Don't forget your shredded lettuce, onion and tomatoes!

📖 Variations

Here are a few ways you can vary or make substitutions to your Tinga Tostadas:

• To accomodate for a vegan lifestyle, saute bell peppers and onions and mix with the tinga sauce. You can top the tostada with any of your favorite toppings still! Use plant-based sour cream and vegan shredded cheese as well for added texture and flavor. Use vegetable broth.
• If you prefer flour tortillas you can use those in place of corn tortillas. Prepare them the same as you would the corn tortillas and either bake or air fry to make crispy. Purchase carb smart tortillas to make this it low-carb!
• Another substitution for the tortilla could be a chaffle!

💭 Top Tips

❓ FAQs

What does Tinga mean?

Tinga is a classic Mexican recipe typically made from a meat protein such as beef, chicken, or pork. It is served in a spicy tomato red sauce and can be made in many different ways. You can add it to tacos, burritos, enchiladas, and on tostadas.

Can you make it ahead of time?

Yes, you can make tinga tostadas ahead of time! Prepare the chicken and sauce together, then prep the toppings, and bake the tortillas for later.

Can you freeze Tinga?

You could absolutely freeze the Tinga sauce and meat. I suggest storing leftovers into portioned containers that are easy to thaw and serve. You can also freeze the un-baked tortillas as well.

Be sure to cool your leftovers before placing them in the freezer. By doing that, you prevent partially thawing any other frozen food in the freezer, changing the quality of those foods, and controlling the growth of any harmful bacteria.

✔️ More Mexican Recipes

If you are looking for more Mexican-inspired recipes, check these out:

• Birria Tacos with Consommé
• Seafood Enchiladas
• Instant Pot Chicken Fajitas
• The Best Low Carb Keto Shrimp Tacos
• Zucchini Ground Beef Taco Casserole

⭐ Let's Connect

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