Quick & Crispy Homemade Tortilla Chips

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What if I told you, you could make the same restaurant-quality tortilla chips that make dining out such a treat right from your own oven? I mean, does it really get any better than warm, fresh tortilla chips?!

It’s true! And homemade tortilla chips are totally worth the time, especially with a fun little holiday twist I’m going to share with you.

How To Make Homemade Tortilla Chips

First of all, you’re going to need a big stack of tortillas: flour or corn, fresh or pre-baked, your choice. Today, I’m using TortillaLand tortillas. My husband brought home a giant 50-pack of them from Costco (find them in the refrigerated section), which definitely qualifies as a big stack! In fact, I didn’t even use up one of the two packets in the package for this recipe, so we’ll be having fresh tortilla chips, this yummy homemade tostadas recipe, and more for a few weeks.

If you’re not familiar with TortillaLand tortillas, there’s a few things you need to know about them. These are uncooked tortillas, which makes for a fresher tasting tortilla (in my opinion). Made from five simple, recognizable ingredients, they have a great taste and texture. My kids’ favorite benefit of uncooked tortillas is the way they puff as you cook them — just like restaurant tortillas. Yum!

So, back to the homemade tortilla chips… Next you’re going to mix up about two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil and a tablespoon of lime juice (preferably fresh lime juice). This mixture will get brushed on both sides of each tortilla, along with a sprinkling of kosher salt.

Alternatively, you can pour the mixture into a Mr. Misto sprayer and just spray it on each side. If you go this route, I recommend straining the lime juice, if you use fresh, to prevent clogging.

Next, stack the oiled and salted tortillas up and cut into wedges with a sharp knife, or a pizza cutter works really well for this step, as well. Depending on the size of your tortillas, 6-8 wedges should be a good size for dipping.

Lay the wedges out on a baking sheet, very close together but not overlapping. At this point, you can bake them as is, but I like to sprinkle on a mixture of chili powder and cumin for a little kick.

Go easy on the spices, though, especially if you’re serving your homemade tortilla chips with a spicy dip. I actually might have gotten a little heavy handed in the image above. I happen to love a little heat, so they were fine for me, but they were a bit much for my kids.

Now you’re ready to pop them in the oven. Your baking time will depend on the type of tortilla your using, but in all cases, you want to bake them until they’re starting to brown and have a nutty scent. Baking times can also vary by oven, so keep a close eye on them.

While these homemade tortilla chips are amazing straight from the oven, they’re also just as tasty the next day — even more so if you prefer a heartier crunch. So if you’re making them for a gathering or any sort, feel free to make them ahead of time. To warm them through, just dump them all on a baking sheet and stick them in a 350-degree oven for a minute or two.

Remember how I promised you a little holiday twist at the beginning of the post? Here’s where it gets fun — you can actually use cookie cutters to create your own holiday-themed homemade tortilla chips.

You just follow the steps as written above, and use your favorite holiday cookie cutter to cut the tortillas into chips, rather than cutting them into wedges. I used the simplest cookie cutter from this Wilton Christmas tree cookie cutter set, and here’s how they turned out:

A couple of notes about making holiday homemade tortilla chips:

• The simpler the cookie cutter the better. For clean edges, keep it simple!
• Only stack the tortillas about 3 high and really push to make sure the cookie cutter cuts cleanly through all of the layers.
• Depending on the size of the “chips”, you may need to adjust your baking time slightly.