A Family that Eats Together: Chicken Tostadas
Marin Mommies presents this week's guest recipe from Nicole Cibellis, Marin mom and author of the blog A Family that Eats Together, where she shares meal plans and recipes that will please foodies and children alike. Nicole is also the creator of the new Little Froglet line of children's activewear.
Nicole's meal plan for this week and features slow cooker syrah short ribs with roasted rosemary potatoes, spaghetti all'amatriciana, easy burgundy meatballs with noodles, peanut noodles with tofu and veggis, and these chicken tostadas with homemade refried beans.
Chicken tostadas are a great way to use leftover chicken. This recipe is the same as my vegetarian tostada recipe, all you have to do is add the chicken.
This tostada can be made a number of different ways. Make homemade beans or use canned. Add chicken, beef or pork. Add more or less ingredients than I suggest. Really the possibilities are endless. In this recipe, I have made homemade beans so that you can have the recipe. They are very simple to make and taste so much better than anything you can get out of a can.
Servings: 8–10
Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cooking Time: 1-1/2 hours (for the preparation of the beans)
Ingredients:
- Leftover rotisserie or other cooked chicken
- 1 cup dried pinto beans
- 12 cups water
- 1⁄2 white onion, chopped
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (a substitute for more flavor is rendered bacon fat)
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- Your favorite salsa
- Green onion, chopped
- Avocado, sliced
- Fresh cilantro
- Romaine lettuce, shredded
- Corn tostada shells
- Mexican crema
Directions
- To soak the beans, place the beans and 6 cups of water in a pot and bring to a boil. Boil for 5 minutes and then turn off the heat. Let sit for 1 hour. Drain the beans.
- To cook the beans, add the beans to the same pot with 6 more cups of water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 1-1/2 hours. The beans will be done when soft and the skins are falling off. Drain the beans.
- Clean out the pot. Add the oil (or bacon fat) to the pot with the onion. Sauté until the onions are translucent. Add the beans and mix well. With a hand blender, mix the beans until mashed thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper.
- Layer the tostadas: Shell, beans, chicken, lettuce, avocado, onions, salsa, crèma and then cilantro.
- For the kids, separate the items and break up the tostada shells. Let them use the shells to scoop up the items to eat them.
