The best part about your favorite breakfast just got even better. You won’t believe how good these cheesy frico fried egg tostadas are for breakfast. They have a crispy charred cheddar and pepper Jack cheese base with a spicy pico de gallo topping. They might even become your new favorite quick weeknight dinner.
In northern Italy, fricos, or cheese crisps, are a famous snack food. Typically, we use Montasio cheese, but you can substitute it with Parmesan, Gruyère, or cheddar. Here, we give them a Tex-Mex morning twist by smashing an egg into the center of the frico while it cooks and using a combination of cheddar and pepper Jack cheese. One wonderfully crispy, cheesy egg tostada results when the egg fries as the frico crisps up.
Making a frico egg tostada seems complicated, but it is actually quite simple. In a nonstick skillet, start with an even coating of just shredded cheese, heat over medium, and let the cheese melt and bubble. Crack the egg into the center after a few minutes, and watch as the cheese caramelizes and starts to set. Before scooping the cheese out of the pan and onto a dish, you want to wait until it is very solid (but not brittle). Use a big, flexible spatula. If the cheese seems a touch mushy at this stage, don’t worry; it will firm up as it cools.
What Is a Tostada?
Tostadas are the best dishes. It’s sort of a mix between a taco, a quesadilla, and an open-face sandwich. Should you choose? Popular in Mexico and other areas of Latin America, the term translates to “toasted” in Spanish.
Usually prepared using corn tortillas, they are an excellent method to use up any that aren’t as fresh as you may like for tacos or tortillas. If you fry them long enough, the oil-based frying process crisps them up beautifully and also refreshes the taste of the corn. If you would like, you may use flour tortillas or, my new favorite, a combination of corn and flour that offers the best of both worlds.
Sometimes a tostada, a fried, bowl-shaped tortilla will appear on a restaurant menu. When piled with shredded lettuce, shredded chicken, beans (maybe refried beans), salsa, cheese, and sour cream, they are just too much fun to refuse. Delightful. But at home, I simply fried tortillas flat in the pan, not in bowl shapes.
Tostadas should feel free to use whatever is in your fridge and what you want since tostadas are a great starting point for many different component combinations. Shred and put some leftover plain cooked chicken here; exclude the egg.
Is tostadas good for diet?
Before we get into the meat of the matter, let’s answer the big question: Is Tostada good for diet? The answer is not based on what we know about a ketogenic diet right now.
Here we get into the specifics. Generally speaking, one 100-gram portion of tostada has 12.43 grams of net carbs. As background, consider this interesting fact: To maintain a strict ketogenic diet, limit your daily net carbohydrate intake to 20 to 50 grams. Imagine if you used up a good portion of your allotment on 100 grams of Tostada!
The problem with a ketogenic diet is that it involves numbers, especially macros. A tostada’s macronutrient makeup primarily consists of carbohydrates, with minimal protein and fat. Thus, Tostada obviously does not fit well within the limited net carbohydrate allotment of a standard ketogenic diet.
I’m not at all attempting to separate Tostada from our dinners or disparage it. All we have to do is watch how much carbohydrate we eat in order to stay in the ketosis state, in which our bodies effectively burn fat for energy. A meal rich in carbohydrates, such as tostada, could disrupt this balance and push you out of the highly desired ketosis.
A Simple Cheesy Frico Fried Egg Tostadas
This simple Cheesy Frico Fried Egg Tostadas only needs three things: oil, an egg, and a corn tortilla. But to make it a meal, I’ve added more. They’re great with avocado and salsa on top, or with beans, cheese, and cilantro piled on top.
I taught my kids how to fry egg tostadas because they love them so much. To be ready for when we get hungry, we always have eggs and corn tortillas on hand.
You can serve egg tostadas plain with a little salt and hot sauce, or you can dress them up with any of the following:
- Greek yogurt or sour cream
- Apple slices, pea-camole, or guacamole
- Salad or corn and black beans Salsa
- Lime juice
- Radish or fennel slices
- Beans and frijoles Rancheros (beans)
- You can use fresh oregano, onions, or parsley.
- Shreds of cheddar cheese
Cheesy Frico Fried Egg Tostadas
It's obvious that I like frico cheese—that wonderful thing that occurs when cheese slinks out of your grilled cheese, melts in the pan, and then caramelizes into a crunchy, lacy wafer. If you prefer the extra-browned, cheesy portions of pizza or the toasted edges of lasagna, Frico cheese is for you. Why fricos are often considered garnishes in the restaurant industry is beyond me. You may have seen lacy circles of parmesan added to salads or soups. Why Frisco isn't more well-known is beyond me. This is one of my favorite cheese consumption methods. Cheese and crunch are my two favorite things; thus, crunchy cheese is undoubtedly my weakness.
- 1 large Tomato, Cored, Finely Chopped
- 3 tbsp Olive Oil (divided)
- 1 large Leek (trimmed and sliced; only white and light green parts).
- 1/4 Red Onion, Finely Chopped
- 6 inch Corn or Corn-and-flour tortillas
- 8 ounces Sliced Mushrooms (any type or mix)
- 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt ( plus more to taste
- 4 large Eggs
- 2 cups Shredded Monterey Jack (or a combo of Monterey Jack and mozzarella)
- Avocado, sliced red onion, and salsa (for serving)
Put the tomato, jalapeño, onion, cilantro, and lime juice in a medium-sized bowl. Add 1/2 teaspoon of salt and mix it all together. Leave it out until you're ready to serve.
Use parchment paper to line a sheet pan. Combine the cheddar and pepper Jack cheeses in a small bowl.
Spread 1/4 cup of the cheese mixture out evenly in a circle in a small nonstick pan. Leave the food to cook over medium heat for one to two minutes, until the cheese melts and starts to bubble.
Put one egg in the middle of the cheese. If you want, you can season it with salt and pepper. Allow the food to cook for approximately two minutes, or until the egg white has almost set and the frico has taken on a deep orange color. Once the egg white sets, cover the pan and continue cooking for another minute or so. Take off the lid and keep cooking for another minute or so, until the frico is firm enough to lift.
Using a nonstick spatula, carefully transfer the frico egg to the prepared sheet. Sit for two minutes to make the frico hard. Do it again with the rest of the egg and cheese mixture.
You should feel free to use anything you want and what’s in your refrigerator since tostadas are a very great starting point for all kinds of part combinations. You can certainly grate and add any leftover, just cooked chicken here; just leave out the egg.
Nutrition Value
Calories: Approximately 1000 KCAL, Total Carbohydrates: 60G, Dietary Fiber: 8g
, Sugars: 4g , Total Fat: 60G, Saturated Fat: 24G , Trans Fat: 0g, Protein: 56g
Cholesterol: 860 mg , Sodium: 1600MG,
Conclusion
Last but not least, You make it at home Cheesy Frico Fried Egg Tostadas recipe and enjoy with family.
