Easily make homemade fried tortilla chips, or baked tortilla chips! Your choice! Only three ingredients to make the best tortilla chips you’ve ever had!
My family gets uncommonly excited when I make tortilla chips from scratch. Sure, it’s easier to just buy them in the bag. But they are just so much better when you make them yourself!
I’m going to teach you two ways to make homemade tortilla chips today. One way uses hot oil, and the other way uses a hot oven. Either way, it’s going to get hot 🙂
When did tortilla chips become popular?
As I was researching tortilla chips on the internet (yes, I researched them), I came across this question about the popularity of tortilla chips.
It turns out that in the 1940s, a woman named Rebecca Webb Carranza and her husband had a tortilla factory in Los Angeles that used an automated tortilla manufacturing machine. Not wanting to waste the “reject” misshapen tortillas, they decided to cut them into triangles, and thus the humble tortilla chip was born.
Tortilla Chips Ingredients
All you need for tortilla chips are soft corn tortillas. You can use either the yellow variety, or the white variety. They will taste the same. The tortillas themselves are just made of ground corn, oil, water, and salt.
If you are going to fry the tortilla chips, you’ll need some vegetable or corn oil and salt.
If you plan on baking the tortilla chips, you’ll need exactly the same ingredients. However, you’ll need a lot less oil, and you can also choose to use olive oil if desired. I don’t recommend olive oil for frying.
How to Make Homemade Tortilla Chips
If you plan on frying the tortilla chips:
Stack two or three corn tortillas on top of each other on a cutting board.
Use a pizza cutter to slice through the stack, cutting six triangles. (Three cuts straight across the tortillas).
Drop eight triangles at a time into at least one inch of oil heated to 350 degrees. (I HIGHLY recommend either a deep fat fryer, like the Presto Cool Daddy or an electric skillet like the Presto 16-inch Foldaway Electric Skillet. You can keep the temperature of the oil constant with either of these cooking appliances and don’t have to worry about constantly adjusting the temperature if you use a pan on the stove).
Fry for about one minute, then flip the chips over using long tongs and fry about one more minute. Remove the chips when they become golden and place them on a plate lined with a paper towel to cool.
Sprinkle with kosher salt immediately after removing from the oil.
Pros of frying your tortilla chips:
They get nice and crispy and taste amazing!
Cons of frying your tortilla chips:
If you want to make a lot of chips, plan to stand by the fryer for at least a half an hour!
If you are using an electric skillet, you need to turn each chip and remove them one by one.
If you use a fryer, like the Cool Daddy I mentioned above, you just need to stir the tortillas in the oil, and then you can lift them all out at once using the fryer basket.
If you plan on baking the tortilla chips:
Brush your corn tortillas with olive oil (or vegetable or corn oil) before stacking. Then place 2-3 oiled tortillas on top of each other.
Use your pizza cutter to slice the stack of tortillas into six triangles.
Place the unbaked tortilla triangles onto a foil or parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt.
Bake in a 350-F.-degree oven for 8-10 minutes, until crisp. Remove the chips from the baking sheet and place on a paper towel-lined plate to cool.
Pros of baking your tortilla chips:
They are a little healthier. You don’t have to deal with hot oil.
Cons of baking your tortilla chips:
You can’t bake very many at a time. You need to place your chips on the pan in a single layer, so if you want a lot of chips, you’ll need to bake two pans at a time, or bake the pans one after the other (depending on how many pans will fit in your oven at once).
How long do fresh tortilla chips last?
Whether you fry or bake your tortilla chips, they will keep at room temperature, sealed in a plastic bag, for about a week.
How to Make Flavored Tortilla Chips
If you want to get adventuresome with your tortilla chip flavors, try this:
Before slicing and baking, brush your corn tortillas with a mix of olive oil and fresh lime juice.
Or, sprinkle with taco seasoning or the cheese powder from a box of macaroni and cheese!
If you are frying your tortilla chips, sprinkle with the seasoning right after removing the chips from the hot oil.
Be sure to serve these with some delicious Classic Guacamole or Pico de Gallo!
Homemade Tortilla Chips From Scratch
Ingredients
- 12 corn tortillas
- vegetable oil
- kosher salt
Instructions
To Fry the Tortilla Chips
Stack two or three tortillas on a cutting board. Using a pizza cutter, slice through the stack, making three criss-crossing slices. You'll want each tortilla to be cut into six wedges.
Heat at least one inch of oil in a high-edged pan on the stove, a deep-fat fryer, or an electric skillet to 350 degrees F.
Drop the torilla wedges into the hot oil (no more than eight at a time) and fry for about one minute, until the edges start to turn golden. Then flip the tortilla chips and fry the other side for about a minute.
Remove the chips and place them on a paper towel-lined plate to cool. Sprinkle with kosher salt or other seasonings immediately after removing from the oil and placing on the plate.
To Bake the Tortilla Chips
Brush olive or vegetable oil on both sides of your corn tortillas.
Stack two or three oiled tortillas on a cutting board and cut with a pizza cutter into six wedges.
Place the wedges onto a foil-lined or parchment-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle with kosher salt and any other seasonings desired.
Bake at 350 degrees F. for 8-10 minutes, until crisp.
Transfer tortilla chips to a paper towel-lined plate to cool.
Notes
May be stored at room temperature in a sealed plastic bag for up to a week.
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Love that you can bake or fry these! Totally adding lime juice next time!
These were fabulous! I had ran out of tortilla chips and these saved me in a pinch now I never want anything but homemade tortilla chips!
It’s great that these tortilla chips can be baked!