A tostada is a wonderful thing. I'm pretty confident there is not a better crowd pleasing meal than tostadas. You get to eat so many things all at once!

The topping combinations for tostadas are endless - but I always love to do chorizo. It adds a ton of flavor with no extra work. :D

There's a bit of prep work involved when making these, but once that's done they're really simple to assemble and eat. If you don't feel like sharing, there can also be leftovers for a few days. Hooray!

Step 1: Ingredients and Prep Work

There are tons of ways to make these, but the list of ingredients below is my favorite way to do it.

Ingredients:

2-3 good chorizo sausages, removed from casings and cooked until crispy
1 14.5 oz can refried beans, heated through
homemade pico de gallo (recipe here, chopped finer for this)
homemade guacamole (recipe here, but without tomatoes!)
lettuce (I used a head of romaine, sliced thinly, dressed with a little bit of olive oil and the juice of half a lime)
cilantro
feta or queso fresco
corn tortillas (small is better!)
oil for frying

Dressing the lettuce with lime juice and olive oil really makes these tostadas tasty. It doesn't taste that great on its own, but when mixed with the rest of the ingredients it makes sense. Trust me on this! :D

Step 2: Fry Your Tortillas!

Heat up a little vegetable oil or shortening in a pan over medium heat for a few minutes, or until nice and hot.

Add the tortillas (one or two at a time!) and let cook until bubbled, and then flip and cook until nice and crisp on the other side. This takes only a minute or so, so watch them closely.

Once they're crispy, drain them on paper towels. :)

Step 3: Assemble and Enjoy!

This is the best part. I like to layer mine like this:

refried beans
meat
lettuce
salsa
guacamole
cheese
cilantro

Putting the guacamole on the top is great, because you can squish it flat with a fork and it helps hold the rest of the toppings in place.

Tostadas are best eaten nice and hot, but you can also store the fried tortillas for a day and heat in the microwave if you're not feeling like frying a new batch. They get a little chewy but they're still super delicious. :D