HOW TO MAKE HOMEMADE CORN TORTILLA CHIPS

Once you’ve made fresh ones at home, it’s hard to go back.

Servings

Serves 1

Ready In:

15 Mins

Calories:

216 Kcal per 100g

Good For:

Tortilla Chips for dipping, Nachos, Chiquiles

About this Recipe

Once you’ve nailed the art of making your own tortillas it’s time to experiment with these exceptionally versatile flat breads. In Central America they are used in most meals one way or another. Frying tortillas is a great way to save on food wastage. Obviously you can fry or bake tortillas as soon as you’ve made them (or received them from us), but sometimes it’s a great way to use up your spare ones when they are almost past their best.

There are two ways of making tortilla chips, frying and baking. We’ll discuss both. You can also get creative with how you chop your tortillas. Cut into triangles like a pizza for totopos and nachos, Slice into little rectangles for crunchy croutons to top salads and soups or big chunky rectangles for chiquiles. You can also leave them whole and fry them into tostadas.

What you will need to make tortilla chips

  • A pack or stack of tortillas (make sure they are thin or you may end up with bendy chips!)
  • A deep fat fryer or large saucepan
  • Corn oil, or similar oil with high smoke point
  • Sea salt flakes
  • Kitchen Towel
Baking vs frying tortillas

Here’s the real question, should you bake or fry tortillas to make homemade tortilla chips? It’s both a question of taste and health. Like most things, the unhealthy option tastes better (in our opinion). Frying takes more attention, whereas bake you can pop in the oven and leave. Oven cooking does tend to crisp the chips up by drying them out rather than cooking them in our experience although you can counter this by giving them a little drizzle of oil on the baking pan.

Tortillas

Your tortillas should be as thin as possible. We detail how this can be a challenge to do at home using a tortilla press in our soft corn tortilla recipe. After using a press you can always roll a bit more using a rolling pin…or save yourself some time and pick up a pack from our shop.

Oil

We like to use corn oil as it enhances the corn flavour of the tortilla chips rather than adding a new flavour. Any oil which is suitable for frying can be used, avocado oil while expensive is a nice healthy alternative.

Salt

Treat yourself to a nice box of sea salt flakes and you’ll be glad you did.

 

…treat yourself to a nice box of sea salt flakes…

Recipe for homemade corn tortilla chips

Our recipe is based on using our own soft corn tortillas

1/2 pack of MASA Tortillas Soft corn tortillas
1/2 pack of Blue MASA Tortillas Soft corn tortillas
Corn Oil
Pinch of sea salt flakes

Method

Step 1

Chop your tortillas into 6 pieces like a pizza and either preheat your oven to 180 degrees (if baking) or warm your oil to 180 degrees (if frying).

Step 2

If baking: place your cut tortilla chips onto a large flat pan and drizzle with a little oil (optional) and sprinkle with salt flakes. If frying: place a small handful of tortilla chips into the oil. If you are using a deep fat fryer you can put more chips in and keep ‘bouncing’ the basket to make sure the oil has worked it’s way round the chips. If you are using a saucepan just put in enough chips to cover the bottom without overlapping.

Step 3

If baking: Bake for 7-8 mins. If frying: Fry for 1 1/2 mins and then carefully turn the chips over in the pan and cook for another 1 min. Do not let the chips start to turn brown.

Step 4

If baking: Remove the chips and serve. If frying: remove the chips and place on clean paper kitchen towel, sprinkle with salt flakes and wait a few minutes to cool.

Air Fryer Method

If you’ve joined the air-fryer revolution here’s a little snippet for you.
Yes you can make tortilla chips in an air fryer. It took us some trial and error an all air fryers are different so you may need to play around with the timings and settings of yours to hone the perfect tortilla chip.

Set the air fryer at 220 degrees Celsius. Cut the tortillas into triangles as normal and add to a mixing bowl. Use a spray oil and lightly coat the tortillas while tossing around gently. Add some sea salt while doing this. Add a large handful to the air fryer basket and set the timer for 6 mins. When the timer goes off, toss the chips around and place the basket back in for another 6 mins. Crunch!

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