21 Delicious Mexican Appetizers For The Next Taco Tuesday

Millions of families love Taco Tuesday. But more often than not, you run out of appetizers to serve with it! So today, I will share with you my all-time favorite Mexican taco appetizers that you have to try!

And, if you enjoy these dish summary lists for inspiration, you can also take a look at some others I have on my site. My readers enjoy the Top 10 Mexican Soups and Mexico’s Best Street Foods.

21 Delicious Mexican Appetizers For The Next Taco Tuesday

As always, I included a broad range of options so that you are guaranteed to find something that works for you, your budget, and your spread. Let’s take a look!

1. Mexican Pinwheels 

These Mexican pinwheels are great Mexican fiesta appetizers. You only need flour tortillas, shredded cheese, cream cheese, green onions, and diced tomatoes.

Once you’ve added all of the toppings onto the tortilla, you can roll it into a log and slice it into smaller bite-sized pieces.

This concept is incredibly simple, yet exceptionally versatile. You can play around with flavors and textures to create variety for your platter. And these aren’t super heavy, so your guests won’t fill up on them too quickly.

2. Aguachile Verde – Fresh Mexican Taco Appetizers

While this recipe is for a full portion of salad, you can customize it to create smaller appetizers. Serving these on tortilla chips or in taco shells is a breeze.

Together, the quick pickled red onions, lime dressing, fresh cucumber, and avocado form a beautiful symphony of delicate flavors that pairs well with heartier, meatier tacos.

3. Mexican Shrimp Guacamole Bites

I love small canapes that look a lot fancier than they are. These shrimp and guacamole bites are excellent examples.

To make these, you can simply top some round tortilla chips with homemade (or store-bought) guac, pan-fried shrimp, and queso fresco. Again, this is an incredibly versatile snack that can be changed to your liking.

These are easy Mexican appetizers for a crowd that will only take you a couple of minutes to make.

4. Easy Wonton Mexican Taco Cup Appetizers

Now, before you go buying taco cups, you have to take a look at this recipe. It will show you exactly how to make your own using wonton wrappers.

These cups can be filled with any meaty filling and garnished with cheese, green onions, salsa, and fresh chopped herbs. 

Another reason I love this concept is that you can customize it to pair well with your taco spread.

5. Mexican Keto Meatballs 

For meatier individual Mexican appetizers, I love serving meatballs. And this recipe makes them low-carb as well!

All you need is ground beef, a couple of spices, jalapeños, cheddar cheese, and an egg. If you don’t like beef, you can easily substitute it with ground pork as well.

And, taking the creativity one step further, you can serve these meatballs with a small cup of dipping sauce.

6. A Must-Add Mexican Appetizer – Homemade Guacamole

Guacamole isn’t an appetizer per se. But it is an essential add-on to ANY Mexican spread or taco night appetizer table. And having a fool-proof and easy-to-pair guacamole recipe is vital!

This is a simple 5 ingredient recipe that is LOADED with flavor and is surprisingly versatile. You can adjust the ratio of different flavors, add in more, take some away – literally change it in any way that you’d like.

And it’s a fantastic recipe that can be made in advance thanks to the natural preservatives added.

7. Cucumber Tomato Salad 

For more refreshing vegetarian Mexican appetizers, you can try something a little more basic like a cucumber and tomato salad. 

What I love most about this recipe is that you can cut it up and serve it in different ways, essentially creating different kinds of appetizers. 

This salad is incredibly easy to make and can even be served as a garnish for other sides as well.

8. Mexican Fried Mac and Cheese Appetizers

While many people only see mac and cheese as a main dish, you’d be surprised what amazing Mexican food appetizers they make.

But how is this recipe unique from regular mac and cheese? Mainly the addition of jalapeño, cilantro, and green onions. 

What I love most about these appetizers for a taco bar is their texture. These are exceptionally good when paired with soft tortilla tacos or fresher taco fillings.

9. Crock Pot Taco Salad 

If you don’t feel like dealing with messy taco shells, you can always use this crockpot taco salad recipe instead.

It’s super simple, relatively quick, easy to make, and as always, very versatile.

All that’s involved is frying the ground beef with beans inside of a crock pot. Once cooked, you can assemble your salad by adding some cheese, sour cream, onion, salsa, jalapeños, guacamole, lettuce, and, of course, corn chips.

10. Mexican Spinach Dip Taco Appetizers

This dip is made with cream cheese, sour cream, tomatoes, spinach, and lots of cheddar. It of course also has some delicious spices that help elevate the natural flavors already there.

It is incredibly rich and uber-creamy!

11. Enchilada Cups 

Enchilada cups are similar to the ones mentioned above but with an entirely different filling and cup base. These are made with small flour tortillas that are baked in cupcake pans.

You can, again, use any type of filling that you like, but you have to add a hearty enchilada sauce. 

These are incredible additions to any Mexican appetizer board or spread. You can customize them to your liking, serve a couple of different options, portion out the exact number you need to make, and serve them with many accompaniments too.

12. Easy Taco Salad Cups 

If you haven’t guessed by now, I see cups as the best Mexican appetizers. They are just so easy to make, easy to portion out, easy to serve, and easy to eat!

This recipe focuses on a more healthy Mexican appetizer. You can make the cups from corn tortilla shells and stuff them with a lean ground beef filling.

Then, toppings all include fresh options like tomatoes, avocado, cheese, lettuce, and olives. 

Again, the cups are super customizable and easy to assemble last minute. Plus, most (if not all) of the ingredients used will be served with your taco bar. This just makes prepping a lot easier.

13. Mexican 7-Layer Dip Appetizers

If you want a less processed and simpler 7-layer dip, you can give this option a try as well. 

Instead of salsa, it simply uses diced tomatoes. This is perfect for people that don’t like fresh onions or have an allergy to them.

This recipe also incorporates some taco seasoning for some extra flavor. Personally, I love how it ties in with the taco flavor theme of the night.

14. Roasted Tomatillo Salsa Verde 

Salsa verde is a refreshing fresh herbaceous salsa. But have you ever tried making it with roasted tomatoes instead?

This recipe is packed with complex and extremely unique flavors. It’s still a delicious dipping sauce and garnish which will go especially great with the cups and Mexican mac and cheese recipe above.

15. Pico De Gallo

A secret that people don’t share about creating the ultimate taco spread is that you HAVE TO include pico de gallo.

This is a type of fresh salsa made with cilantro, red onions, jalapeños, garlic, and tomatoes.

This accompaniment goes great with almost any Mexican or Tex-Mex appetizers but is perfect with plain salted tortilla chips as well.

You can adjust the consistency of this salsa to suit your preference, and you can store it in the fridge for a day or two.

16. 10-Minute Pineapple Salsa

This pineapple salsa makes quite the unique taco bar appetizer and, as most, pairs well with rich, hearty, and meaty tacos.

All you need are tomatoes, red onions, cilantro, and, of course, pineapple. You can add some chili if you’d like and if it pairs well with the other flavors on the table.

This zesty, fruity, and slightly spicy dish is a must-try!

Pro-tip: It works incredibly well with pork tacos, especially birria pork tacos. It breaks extreme savory flavor profiles and elevates naturally meaty undertones.

17. Smoky Red Pepper Crema – Unexpected Tasty Mexican Taco Appetizers

This is an unexpected addition to the list. However, I stand by it! The more I make this dipping sauce, the deeper I fall in love with its versatility.

It’s an incredibly hearty and rich dip that adds a ton of flavor to somewhat bland dishes. You can also serve it with nacho chips or fresh crudites.

All you need are some sour cream, vegetable broth, roasted red peppers, and a few aromatic spices. Once cooked and blended, your dip is ready to be served hot or cold.

18. Instant Pot White Queso Dip 

While tacos aren’t traditionally loaded with sauce, that doesn’t mean you cannot serve one with your appetizers for taco night.

And what better dip to make than a Mexican cheese one?

This recipe is incredibly easy to make. However, you will need quite a few ingredients to create such a unique and versatile flavor profile.

First of all, you will need white American cheese, quesadilla cheese, butter, and cream cheese for the base. This is what gives the cheese its unique consistency.

To flavor this mixture, you can add garlic, oregano, Rotel, and spicy chorizo.

The ingredients are cooked in an Instant Pot, which significantly speeds up the process. Once finished, you have a delicious dip that can be stored in the fridge for several days.

19. Slow Cooker Mexican Corn Dip 

When I am assembling a spread for a taco bar, I always look for hands-free recipes to make as well. This is essentially any recipe that adds to the table but that doesn’t take me a lot of time or effort to make.

That’s exactly why this corn dip recipe changed my life. It’s made in a slow cooker that can go for a couple of hours. It’s nearly impossible to overcook and honestly, the flavors just get better the longer it does.

You also only need a couple of basic ingredients including corn, tomatoes, cream cheese, cheese, and garlic. The rest are recommended, but optional add-ins.

This corn dip works as a topping for tacos, nachos, fajitas, and quesadillas. But it can also be served as-is with crunchy nacho chips.

20. Homemade Fresh Salsa – Mexican Taco Appetizers Must-Add Condiment

We have already covered a couple of different salsas in today’s list of Mexican appetizers for Taco Tuesday. But I haven’t touched on a fresh recipe yet.

If you don’t have a fresh recipe that is flavorful, easy to pair, and versatile, you shouldn’t move on to more complex versions.

This basic fresh salsa is made with tomatoes, onions, cilantro, and jalapeño. All these ingredients have the perfect ratio to create a unique and appetizing flavor balance.

As with most salsas, you can serve this one as a garnish for Mexican vegan appetizers or a topping for tacos, burritos, nachos, and more.

21. Shrimp Ceviche 

The final recipe on my list of appetizers for a Mexican food party is a fresh shrimp ceviche salad.

This is an incredibly versatile and tasty recipe. All you need is cooked shrimp, red onion, cucumber, tomatoes, cilantro, avo, and most importantly, mango. 

It’s also served with a citrus dressing that helps the flavors pop.

You can also serve these in tortilla cups to make individual portions. Alternatively, wrap them in small tortilla wrappers to make mini ceviche wraps.