Easy Mexican Beef Tostadas Ready in Just 35 Minutes

These beef tostadas are crunchy, crispy and delicious! Fried corn tortillas are piled high with seasoned beef mince, guacamole or refried beans, lettuce, tomato, cheese, sour cream and jalapenos. Perfect for taco Tuesdays or a DIY tostada bar where everyone can customise their own.

About These Beef Tostadas

Tostadas are like flat tacos and beef tostadas are a delicious way to serve up minced beef. Tostada means "toasted" in Spanish and refers to the crispy, crunchy base or shell. Crispy corn tortillas are topped with a seasoned minced beef topping, shredded lettuce, guacamole or refried beans, tomato, cheese, sour cream and jalapenos. They're a crunchy, fresh dinner idea! If you make tacos, then you will ace tostadas! For another easy dinner with minced beef, try Dolly Parton's 5 Ingredient Casserole.

Why You'll Love Beef Tostadas

It uses simple ingredients found at the supermarket. All you need for the topping is what you would serve in a taco!

You can use a bought taco seasoning mix or Mexican spice mix but I'll also link you to my favourite homemade taco seasoning if you want to make it from scratch.

You can choose either guacamole or refried beans depending on what you like. In this household we tend to prefer guacamole but sometimes use refried beans if the avocados aren't quite ripe yet.

Have a tostada party! People can top their tostadas the way they want - want it spicy? Add more jalapenos! More or less cheese? Done! Or offer a couple of protein toppings like my tuna tostada using sashimi tuna, slow cooker chicken tinga or beef barbacoa. For a super easy taco night, these sheet pan chicken fajitas are great too.

Video How To Make Beef Tostadas

Ingredients For Beef Tostadas

Beef mince - Lean beef mince works well here.

Taco seasoning - Use a pre-mixed one (Mingle is good) or make your own using my recipe here.

Sugar - I use brown sugar but white sugar can also work.

Burger sauce - your favourite burger sauce or thousand island dressing. I know it may seem strange but this is based on my Tex Mex style taco salad recipe and it pops!

Guacamole - every time I make guacamole, I get asked for the guacamole recipe and here it is. It's bright, zesty and delicious!

Refried beans - These are tinned refried beans.

Sour cream - Full fat or light sour cream.

Tomato - Ripe red tomato

Lettuce - Shredded iceberg lettuce

Cheese - Use cotija, tasty, cheddar or Pepper Jack cheese

Jalapenos - I love spicy food so I actually use both fresh and pickled jalapenos. But if you prefer medium spicy pick one.

Tajin seasoning - This bright, tangy lime and chilli salt will lift the flavour of Mexican dishes.

Onion - for piquancy. Red onion is the best for eating raw.

Tips For Making Beef Tostadas

1 - In America you can buy premade tostadas but in Australia you can make your own by frying corn tortillas. You can make this crunchy tostada up to a week ahead of time and keep it in an airtight container.

2 - Make sure that the tostadas are fried until golden brown. This way they'll stay crunchy and stand up to the toppings.

3 - Don't want to deep fry tortillas? Try smaller ones using those round corn chips.

4 - Make sure to remove the seeds from the tomatoes so that they don't make the tostada soggy.

5 - Season tomatoes before adding. Tomatoes always need a bit extra salt and pepper.

6 - Wash and dry the lettuce well so that it doesn't let the tostada get wet.

Easy Beef Tostadas Recipe

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Recipe Overview

Preparation time: 10 minutes

Cooking time: 25 minutes

Makes: 4

Ingredients Needed

For Base

• 4 corn tortillas (around 13cm/5inch in diameter)
• Oil for deep frying

For Mince

• 1 teaspoon oil
• 250g/8.8oz beef mince
• 20g/0.7oz taco seasoning
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 50g/1.7oz burger sauce

For Layering

• Choose one: 200g/7oz guacamole or refried beans (heat up beans until warmed through in frying pan)
• 50g/1.7oz sour cream
• 1 medium tomato
• 1/2 cup shredded iceberg lettuce
• 50g/1.7oz shredded cheese
• 20g/0.7oz pickled jalapenos
• 8 slices fresh jalapeno (optional if you like it spicy)
• Tajin seasoning
• Thin slices red onion

Step-By-Step Instructions

Step 1 TOSTADA - First make the tostada base. Heat an inch of oil in a deep fryer or cast iron pot to 180C/350F and fry a corn tortilla for 3-3.5 minutes turning halfway until golden brown (cook 1 at a time). Repeat with the remaining tortillas. Drain on paper towels and store in an airtight container for up to 1 week.

Step 2 BEEF MINCE - Add oil to a medium frying pan and add the mince, browning on all sides, around 5 minutes. Add the taco seasoning to this and toss and stir. Add the brown sugar and stir. Set aside to cool off while you prep the rest.

Step 3 ASSEMBLE - When mince is cool, stir in the burger sauce mixing well. Place the sour cream in a piping bag or a zip lock bag and snip the end. Chop up tomato and remove seeds and season with salt and pepper. Spread the guacamole or refried beans on the tortilla and then top with mince, diced tomato, lettuce, cheese, pickled and fresh jalapenos and red onion. Pipe sour cream on top and then sprinkle with Tajin. Serve straight away.

Personal Note

I'm not a great country driver. I feel much more at home in the city at 60kms/37miles an hour. But one day I was coming back from the Hunter Valley by myself and much of the motorway is marked as a 110km/68 mile zone. I usually sit in the slow left hand lane where I find a car that is going a little bit slower and just sit back and drive behind them.

It was a three hour drive home during peak hour so Mr NQN sent me a route that had one stop after one hour of driving to prevent me from getting too tired. I wanted to have a drink, stretch my legs because my bottom was getting numb and most importantly, connect my phone to charge it as it was at 17%. But somehow I missed that stop.

"Not to worry!" I said to myself and found a car that I just sat behind. Stopping might have delayed me too much and I was trying to minimise the amount of motorway driving when it was dark.

Then suddenly I realised that my battery was draining quickly and I was down to 8% then 7% and I still had one and a half hours to go. It's not a good idea to try and connect a phone at 110kms an hour and I started getting really worried.

I think I drove the next 10 minutes white knuckled thanking my lucky stars that I don't have to do this drive very often. Then I saw the welcome to Sydney sign relief washed over me. I turned into the first petrol station and almost kissed the ground! And even after that, I got home and made a batch of these beef tostadas because they're done in around 30 minutes!

So tell me Dear Reader, are you better at city or country driving? Do you make tacos at home? How about tostadas?