These Mexican Potato Tacos (tacos de papas), are crispy on the outside, creamy and cheesy on the inside! Corn tortillas are filled with an easy, cheesy mashed potato making these a perfectly indulgent meat free and budget friendly, family taco dinner.
Why we love these potato tacos…
- Cheesy Mashed Potatoes: this recipe uses a quick and easy mashed potato with cheese added. Frying the tacos gives us a bit of crispy fried potato and cheese, pure comfort food!
- Quick and Easy: this recipe comes together in around 30 minutes. It can be even quicker if you have leftover Mashed Potatoes. Either way this recipe is a great, easy weeknight meal idea.
- Budget Friendly: simple ingredients, mostly pantry items, means this is one inexpensive family meal that will fit within most budgets!
Ingredients You Need
Notes on Some Ingredients
- Corn Tortillas: use store bought or make your own homemade corn tortillas. White or yellow corn will work, just use what you prefer.
- Potatoes: russet potatoes work great for this recipe. If you would prefer to use a gold or yellow potato, or that’s what you have on hand those will work also. This is a great, forgiving recipe.
- Cheese: I love using a combination of cheddar and Monterey Jack. You could spice it up and use a pepper jack if you would prefer.
- Oil: Avocado oil is a great high smoke point oil to use for this recipe.
- Butter: this is used to smooth out the potatoes and add a little extra creaminess. If you don’t have butter on hand you could add a little bit of milk or cream, or use sour cream to help get that spreadable texture to the potatoes.
How To Make
- Boil potatoes: scrub your potatoes clean and give them a rough chop, cutting into 1 inch chunks. This makes the cooking process much quicker. Cover the potatoes with water and boil until fork tender.
- Season the potatoes: add in the spices, salt, cheese and butter.
- Mash the potatoes to desired consistency. Add butter as needed to get a nice spreadable texture to the potatoes.
- Fry Tacos: heat the tortillas in a small amount of oil in a skillet or comal over medium heat. Spread potatoes on one side of the tortilla and top with cheese. Once the tortilla is warmed and pliable, fold the other side over to create the taco shape. Continue frying each side until crispy and golden.
Tips
- Potato Skins: the skins of the potatoes contain great nutritional benefits, leave them on to take full advantage of them.
- Frying: fry the tortilla to get it nice and warmed up, this makes it easy to fold over into a taco without causing the tortillas to rip or split.
- Overstuff: let’s be honest, the best part of this recipe is that bit of crunchy, golden fried mashed potato and cheese that escapes the taco. So just add a little extra filling causing the potato to spill out over the top to achieve those parts!
Toppings and Variations
- Vegan: these tacos are naturally vegetarian, but can easily be made vegan with a swap of vegan butter and cheese substitutes.
- Meat: want to add meat to these potato tacos? That’s an easy add, simply add some chorizo, ground beef, shredded chicken, shredded beef or pork carnitas to these tacos before frying.
- Toppings:These tacos are perfect for adding your favorite toppings. Ideas include: salsa, guacamole, sour cream, pico de Gallo, shredded lettuce, cream, queso fresco, sliced radishes, diced tomatoes, green onion, and fresh diced cilantro.
Commonly Asked Questions
These fried potato tacos, or tacos de papas, are originate from Mexico. They are traditionally made from boiled and mashed potato seasoned with onion, garlic and salt and fried until golden in corn tortillas.
Tacos dorados are tacos made in corn tortillas that have been pan fried until “golden”. They can be rolled, like a taquito, or simply folded like a taco. Traditionally they will be topped with a tomato salsa or consommé, shredded lettuce and cotija or queso fresco.
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