Easy Mexican Potatoes (Papas A La Mexicana) | Mexican Made Meatless™ (2024)

Papas a la Mexicana or Mexican potatoes is one of the simplest and budget friendly dishes you can make. Serve it as a delicious side dish or as a filling for tacos, gorditas, quesadillas or even with some refried beans for a complete.

Papas a la Mexicana (Mexican Potatoes)

Papas ala MexicanaorMexican-style potatoesare a stable food inMexican cuisine.

If you’re new toMexican Made Meatless, then let me tell you that we are strong believers of easyMexican cooking. Thishumble potatorecipe fits the bill perfectly!

Potatoes are easy to cook, inexpensive, and can be made into countless different dishes. All of this applies to thisMexican potato recipe.

Growing up in a Mexican home meant that this quick, budget friendly, flavorful meal was on repeat.

My mom would serve it as a filling for gorditas or sopes, as amain mealpaired with some frijoles refritos andwarm corn tortillas. It always blew my mind how such a simple dish could be bursting with so much delicious flavor.

You can serve Mexican potatoes for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Enjoy it as aperfect side dishor as amain dish— it also makes a perfect and delicious meatless dish or vegan meal.

Did I mention you can make thisMexican potato recipeahead of time? Just store in the fridge until ready to use. You can also make this dish for your weekly meal prep.

Just like my Mexican mom, you can pair it with a protein like somerefried beansfor a complete meal. Or use as a stuffing and filling fortacos,gorditas,quesadillas…It’s just such a versatile dish and honestly it’s no wonder why it’s so popular with Mexican people.

What Does “a la Mexicana” Mean

You may be wondering the meaning of ala Mexicana, it simply means Mexican style.

This term is used in Mexican cuisine to refer to dishes made using three common ingredients which represent the Mexican flag.

They are: chilies for the green, onion for the white and tomatoes for the red color in the Mexican flag.

There are countless popular “A la Mexicana” dishes. For example: huevos a la Mexicana, mushrooms a la Mexicana, nopales a la Mexicana, arroz a la Mexicana, bistec a la Mexicana, and calabacitas just to name a few.

Of course there’s also thisauthentic Mexican potatoes recipemade “ala Mexicana”.

Salsas like pico de gallo (aka salsa bandera) are also based on this traditional combination.

I’ve also share some fusion recipes for Brocoli A La Mexicana and Okra a la Mexicana.

Ingredients Needed for Mexican Style Potatoes

Papas ala Mexicanais seriously one of the easiest recipes you can possibly make.

It’s made with 7simple ingredientsthat are all pantry basics. The ingredients are inexpensive and are available to just about everyone all around the World. Plus this is quite ahealthy recipe too, check therecipe cardfornutritional information.

• Potatoes: In Mexico we usewhite potatoes. But you could also userusset potatoes,yellow potatoesorYukon golds(akagold potatoes),red potatoes. Once I even usedfingerling potatoesbecause that’s all I had at the time. You could really use any potato that is available locally to you. They’ll each have a slightly different starch or texture to them, but potatoes are delicious. I personally love starchier potatoes.

• Onion: You can use white onion or if not available then yellow onion is perfectly fine.

• Green Chilies: You can use serrano peppers, jalapenos or even poblanos. I once made this with Hatch chiles and they were delicious.

• Tomatoes: Roma tomatoes that are ripe and juicy are perfect in this simple recipe. But you could also use just regular ripe red tomatoes.

• Garlic: Not everyone uses garlic but I personally love it.

• Oil: Anything fromvegetable oilor corn oil, canola oil or even alittle olive oilwork. Olive oil isn’t traditional but it’s what I normally use due to health reasons. Use your favorite.

• Salt: Potatoes need to be well salted to really enjoy their deliciousness. I like to usesea salt.

Additional Optional Ingredients

I personally love to add chopped cilantro to the crispy Mexican potatoes to give them a burst of herby freshness. This is optional and up to you.

Some people like to add seasonings likeblack pepper,ground cuminor dried oregano. It’s completely up to you.

Tips for Substituting Ingredients

If you don’t have access to freshgreen chilisthen in a pinch you could use chili powder – to give a smoky touchchipotle chili powderwould work great.

If you’re out of fresh garlic thengarlic powderis a good substitute – as isonion powder for fresh onion.

Red onion would work it just wouldn’t have that Mexican flag look to it.

For the potatoes use any of the varieties mentioned and stay away fromsweet potatoesfor this recipe. It wouldn’t work too well here.

You may have noticed that authenticMexican fooddoesn’t rely on the so-called “Mexican seasoning” packets so often promoted in Mexican-inspired cooking. You see,blend of spicesare used inMexican cooking, we just add them individually and they are quite different than theMexican spicesmixes (liketaco seasoning) often seen outside of Mexico.

I would recommend you stick to the basic flavors provided in the recipe and skip the spice mixes for another meal.

Please notice that the results using any of these substitutions will be quite different then the traditional dish and what you see pictured here. Still yummy, just different.

How to Make Mexican Potatoes

This authentic Mexican recipe is one of the simplest and easiest ones to make.

Step 1: Peel the potatoes then run them under cold water and patdry with paper towel. Chop into very small pieces. This helps cooking go faster. Prepare the rest of your ingredients because this easy recipe moves quickly.

Step 2: Heat the oil in a large frying pan overmedium heat, add the potatoes and sprinkle a bit of salt over them.

Use a wooden spoon to sauté until fork tender or crispy. Try to create one single layer with the potatoes to help them cook faster. You can cook until you have extra crispy potatoes if you’d like.

Step 3: Add the onion, garlic, and chile and sauté for 4 minutes or until the onion is soft and translucent. Stirring occasionally.

Step 4: Next you’re going to add the chopped tomatoes and season with salt. Cook just a few minutes or until the tomatoes begin to break down.

Step 5: Lastly mix in the chopped cilantro, if using, and stir until well combined. Remove from heat and serve as desired.

How to Serve

Now that you’ve made these easy Mexican potatoes, it’s time to enjoy them.

The combination of the tender potatoes, spicy green chiles, sweet onions, juicy tomatoes on a warm tortilla and drizzled with some homemade salsa orsour cream, is a scrumptious one!

Below are some of the many ways you can eat papas a la Mexicana.

As an easy side dish you can serve them with any protein main dish. These vegan fajitas would go great with these papas. So would enchiladas, grilled vegan steaks, bistec a la mexicana, tinga tostadas, vegan chicken milanesa torta, or my Breakfast Tacos: Huevos con Salchicha.

As a main dish you can serve it with some refried beans, maybe some arroz rojo. You can also sprinkle with some queso fresco or cotija (parmesan cheese will work too). Don’t forget the warm corn tortillas or flour if you’d like.

As a filling it would be amazing in tacos dorados, chiles rellenos, gorditas or quesadillas or even breakfast burritos.

Don’t forget to drizzle your papas with some homemade salsa verde or homemade Mexican crema.

If you’d rather have these potatoes for breakfast, or you have any leftover potatoes, then you can serve with a fried egg on top. I like to sprinkle with some cotija cheese over the potatoes before adding the egg.

How to Store and Reheat

You can store Mexican potatoes in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. Just allow to come to room temperature and store leftovers in an airtight container before placing in the fridge.

I really don’t recommend freezing. Potatoes don’t freeze nor defrost well.

To reheat do so on a hot pan with a little bit of oil. You can also microwave for about 30 seconds. In the oven would be fine too, or in the air fryer to end up with extra crispy potatoes.