Shredded Seasoned Chicken Tostadas

Did you celebrate Cinco de Mayo? Did you eat lots of tacos and burritos and nachos and other versions of tortilla-meat-cheese? I did! And I did so wearing a pretty sundress and obnoxiously oversized hat, because I celebrated both the Derby and Cinco de Mayo together. If you were wondering how to throw a fun party, large hats, a little gambling, and Mexican food are the way to go.

My horse did not win, even though based on my highly scientific betting system of choosing what name sounds like a winner, it should have. But man did I eat. There were dips upon dips upon dips, one of which is coming your way soon, and a taco bar that I frequented more than twice.

After such a big weekend of indulgence, you'd think I'd want to eat anything but Mexican food. But if you think that then you don't know me at all, because on Monday night I did it again. This time, I made tostadas with spiced shredded chicken, crunchy lettuce, creamy avocado, homemade salsa, and a lot of lime. I think I could eat some version of that every single day and be happy.

Tostadas are basically just flat crunchy tacos. They're part finger food, part salad, part cheesy deliciousness and all perfect.

Let's make tostadas!

Start by making shredded chicken. My preferred way is as follows. I lay a couple of sheets of foil on a baking sheet. Boneless skinless chicken breasts go on top and then are seasoned with whatever you'd like. For this recipe I used taco seasoning and salt and pepper, but if you are just wanting to make something more basic like a chicken salad, salt and pepper would work fine.

Wrap the foil over the chicken in a packet by bringing the long sides together and rolling them up, then folding in the ends. It goes in a 375 degree oven for 35 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through. The juices stay in the packet so the chicken doesn't get dry, and after a couple of minutes of rest time, it's easily shredded with two forks!

After you shred your chicken, add it to a large skillet with some olive oil and 1 medium onion, diced. Add some of the juices from the foil packet as well. Add 3 tablespoons of taco seasoning and stir to coat, then cook over medium low heat until the onions are slightly soft and the chicken is nice and juicy and seasoned.

Meanwhile, make your tostadas. You can buy tostadas pre-made, but I decided to use up two of the 379 corn tortillas that are currently hanging out in my refrigerator and make my own. I lightly oiled a baking sheet and placed the tortillas on top, then drizzled some more oil on top of them. They went into the same 375 degree oven and are baked until nice and crisp.

When they are crisp, take them out of the oven, top with some shredded cheese, and throw them back in the oven until the cheese is melted.

That's the base. Once the cheese is melted, you're ready to top the tostadas. I started with the shredded chicken and onions.

On top of that I added some shredded iceberg lettuce that had been generously dressed with lime juice, some cubed avocado, a dollop of sour cream, and some homemade salsa. I squeezed some extra lime juice on top for an extra zing.

K chose to have his Mexican food in a more traditional taco vehicle, so those two tostadas were all mine. They are obviously quite tall, so I ate them with a combination of fork and fingers.

As the weather gets warmer, I find myself craving simple and flavorful dishes like this. The lime juice is what I think it boils down to--bracingly acidic food to me means sun and warm weather and outdoor eating. I like all of those things.

Tostadas are easy to make and even easier to eat, if easy to eat means that it's so good you don't mind that it's a little messy. Messy food is good food. Make a batch of these tonight and eat them outside. It's Friday. You deserve this.

Here's the recipe!