If you are looking to save a few pennies at the supermarket, then it is certainly a great idea to make your own tortilla chips. Not necessarily all the time, because buying them in bags is an incredibly efficient way to get tortilla chips into your life. But making your own is really easy and fun, and besides: nothing you buy in a bag can compare with fresh, warm, crispy tortilla chips that you made with your own hands and you can control the amount of salt in you diet when you do make your own.

All you need are corn tortillas, salt, and oil. (You can also make your own corn tortillas.)A package of a dozen tortillas will make a very generous basket of tortilla chips, enough for 3 to 4 people, and just the right amount to go with this fabulous 3-avocado guacamole recipe. Coincidence? I think not.You can also use this same technique to make your own tostadas. Simply fry the whole tortillas without cutting them first.

Serves 3 to 4

Ingredients:

Twelve 8-inch in diameter corn tortillas

3/4 to 1 cup high-heat vegetable oil (See Cook’s Notes)

Kosher salt, to taste

Directions:

Gather the ingredients.

Leave the tortillas out in your kitchen, uncovered, overnight on the counter.

The following day, cut the tortillas into wedges using a knife or pizza cutter, if you have one. Stack two or three tortillas at a time, and use the knife to make three equally spaced diagonal cuts. The cuts will give you six chips from each tortilla.

In a medium sized Dutch oven or heavy cast iron skillet, heat the oil to 360 F. If you do not have a thermometer, to check to see if the oil is hot enough used the handle of a wooden spoon, a wooden skewer or a wooden chop stick to test the oil. If the oil bubbles up around th the tip of a wooden spoon, then you oil is ready.

Add enough chips to cover the bottom of the Dutch oven or skillet in a single layer, without crowding or overlapping.Fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until the chips have turned lightly golden brown and are quite crisp and firm. Flip them occasionally with a pair of tongs so that they cook evenly.

Remove each chip from the oil with your tongs, letting excess oil drain back into the skillet, and transfer to paper towels, sprinkle with salt, and then repeat the process until all the chips are cooked.

Serve warm with fresh homemade salsa.

Cook’s Notes:

You're going to fry the chips in a small amount of oil — about 1/4 inch.The key is making sure your oil is between 350 and 375 F. The optimal is 360 F, but you're fine anywhere in that range. However, because you're using such a small amount of oil, it's difficult to get an accurate temperature reading. It's not like you can stick a candy or deep-frying thermometer in since the oil isn't deep enough.So, here's the trick. Heat the oil up for a few minutes on medium heat, and then test it by placing the tip of a wooden spoon into the pan. When the oil is at the proper temperature, the oil will bubble around the tip of the spoon.

In terms of oil, be sure that you use a refined vegetable oil such as sunflower, soybean, or safflower with a high smoke point. How much oil you need will depend on how wide and how deep your skillet or Dutch oven or other cooking vessel is. A cast iron skillet is great because it'll maintain its temperature even after you add the chips to the oil.

Another tip in making great chip is using tortillas that are slightly stale. The reason being, staling happens when bread (or in this case tortillas) lose their moisture, and dry tortillas will fry up crispier than fresh ones. All you need to do is take the tortillas out of the bag and leave them out overnight on something flat. Like the kitchen counter.

Hello Friends!

All photographs and content, excepted where noted, are copyright protected. Please do not use these photos without prior written permission. If you wish to republish this photograph and all other contents, then we kindly ask that you link back to this site. We are eternally grateful and we appreciate your support of this blog.

Thank you so much!