This homemade tortilla chips recipe is a great way to make your own homemade tortilla chips that taste better and are fresher than store-bought! This easy tortilla chips recipe is a great way to revive and use corn tortillas that are getting too brittle to roll.
Homemade Fried Tortilla Chips: A Simple Way to Save Money and Reduce Waste!
Have you ever opened a package of corn tortillas only to find that a few days later they’ve become too stiff to roll without cracking? It happens to all of us. Instead of throwing them away or letting them sit unused in the fridge, there’s an easy solution that turns those tortillas into something delicious—homemade tortilla chips!
Making your own tortilla chips at home is surprisingly simple, and once you try them, you may never want to go back to the bagged kind again. They’re fresh, crispy, and incredibly flavorful. Best of all, they’re a great way to stretch your grocery budget by using something you might otherwise waste.
Store-bought tortilla chips can be expensive, especially if you buy them regularly for snacks, nachos, or salsa. But when you make your own, you’re essentially turning inexpensive corn tortillas into a whole batch of chips for just pennies. If you already have tortillas on hand, the only extra ingredient you need is a little oil for frying.
Another great thing about homemade tortilla chips is how fresh they taste. When you fry them yourself, you get that warm, crispy texture that store-bought chips just can’t match. They’re perfect for dipping in salsa, guacamole, queso, or even enjoying plain with a sprinkle of salt.
This recipe is also incredibly flexible. Have a big pack of tortillas and worry you won’t use them all in time? Just turn them into chips! Slightly older tortillas actually work really well because they crisp up beautifully when fried. Instead of struggling to roll them for tacos or enchiladas, simply cut them into wedges and fry them.
Homemade tortilla chips are perfect for family movie nights, quick nachos, taco salads, or serving alongside your favorite Mexican dishes. You can even experiment with different seasonings like garlic salt, chili powder, or lime salt if you want to add a little extra flavor.
Once you see how easy these are to make, you’ll want to make them a lot more often! Crispy, fresh, and budget-friendly—what could be better?
This easy tortilla chips recipe is from volume 1 of our Dining On A Dime Cookbook!
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Could you bake these in the oven and still have them be crispy?
If not, how much oil would you need in the pan?
You can bake them but I’m not sure the taste would be exactly the same. You have to wrap 4-8 shells in damp paper towels and microwave for about 30 seconds to 1 minute until they are pliable. Then spray with cooking spray on each side, lay on foil and place in oven that has been preheated to about 370 degrees and bake for about 7-10 mins. until brown and crispy.
If you use oil on the stove I use a small frying pan with about 1/2 in. of oil is all at the most. I once did some figuring on how much oil each shell absorbed when fried in oil and figured you would get 1/8 -1/4 tsp. of divided between 3 shells. That really isn’t a whole lot more then if you spray them with cooking spray. Hope this helps.
Duhhh!! Maggie where is my brain today. We have a recipe for baking the shells on our website – Baked Tortilla Chips. The temperature is different but I have seen recipes where it was 275 – 450 so I don’t think it matters a whole lot. Sorry. We have so many thousands of articles and things I can’t remember them all I’m afraid. Anyway that is a better excuse then to say my memory is going because of old age. : )
How do you make the salt stick? Some times when I fry foods the salt seems to fall off.
It does tend to fall off. I salt mine the instant I take it out of the oil before it has a chance to drain and that really seems to help.
When items come out of hot fat they are wet so that salt and sugar sticks better than if applied when they were cold.
Jill and Tawra: I ordered Dining on a Dime,Penny Pinching Mama,Quick & Easy Menus on a Dime, and Dig Out of Debt for the Mother’s Day Special to myself. I read about 5 pages each night from every book. I’ve made Tomato Soup pg. 105 which tasted so fresh that there is already a repeat request for this soup. Tonight I’m making Shepherds Pie by my husbands request from your cookbook. This weekend I’m also trying one of the homemade salsa recipes and the fried tortilla chips. I just can’t thank you enough for all the homemade recipes throughout the whole book, and for helping me be better at cooking and my budget. God Bless you both.
You are welcome Carol. I am so glad you not only like them but are actually using them. That is the highest compliment we can get. And Happy Early Mother’s Day too you. I am about to go buy me a mother’s day present too – a new hose. What can I say. I know it isn’t an expensive bottle of perfume or a new outfit or a manicure but if it will make my life easier that is what is important to me. : )
I’ve made flour tortillas from this USDA recipe:
http://www.whatscooking.fns.usda.gov/recipes/supplemental-nutrition-assistance-program-snap/flour-tortillas
I mixed seasonings right in the dry ingredients and then cooked them up in a large non greased frying pan over medium high heat .. .. .. & used a pizza cutter to get the desired shape.
They were good ~ I did find that plenty of seasoning was necessary
For those of you who have Dining on a Dime we have the recipe for flour tortillas in there if you need it.
I want to know if you can make chips with flour tortillas?
Yes Cathy you can. I love them too. I usually fry them up (I think some bake them but don’t know if they are as good) and I love my flour ones sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. Also my all time favorite it to fry them like you do regular taco shells and use them for tacos – oh they are so good that way. One other thing too is to fry the flour shells whole and then spread them with guacamole and a little lettuce and eat them that way – so yummy
has anyone attempted to do this in air fryer?
Yes you can do them in the air fryer – don’t overlap them and cook them for 3-6 mins at about 350 degrees