Homemade Tortilla Chips from Corn Tortillas

Homemade Tortilla Chips from Corn Tortillas are an easy way to fry up delicious crunchy chips perfect for dips or just snacking. Incredibly delicious, you will want to toss the chips in a bag after you taste how amazing making chips from home is. 

The best part is that when you make chips at home from corn tortillas, they don’t crumble apart under the weight of salsa. Thick, fresh, full of salt – this is THE perfect way to really make dips special.

Homemade chips are truly something everyone enjoys!

I live in a super small town. And out of the 10 restaurants we have around here, 3 of them are Mexican. The problem with Mexican is I am super picky about chips and salsa. Honestly if I walk in and you plunk down a fake basket full of store chips, I’m gonna up and run. Those chips better taste fresh out the oil fryer and that salsa better have cut tomatoes in them or its the last time I visit.

Which is why we tend to go for home made Mexican food recipes. Our house makes a ton of tacos, baked taquitos, dips and enchiladas, but I despise serving them with some $2 bag of over salted chips that taste like cardboard.  If you are anything like me and appreciate the care and love behind a true tortilla chip, you will love learning how to make your own homemade tortilla chips.

They are SO easy and make the perfect easy appetizers!!

You don’t really need much other than corn tortillas, vegetable oil and some sea salt. Make tortillas in small batch or large batch, they are perfect to enjoy for a super authentic “taco Tuesday” or should I say “Tortilla Tuesday” that your entire family will gobble up.

Homemade Corn Tortilla Chips Ingredients

I think I gained 14 pounds eating all of these chips yesterday. And I didn’t even have any salsa or guacamole or dip to enjoy them with. I was just devouring them! Tortilla chips are quick to make, maybe 15 minutes total and you work in batches (like you do with all fried food).  This corn tortilla chip recipe makes approximately 120 chips (each tortilla is cut into 6 wedges/pieces as shown).

• 20 corn tortillas
• vegetable oil
• sea salt

White Corn or Yellow Corn Tortillas?

That’s a personal preference. I have done both – you can see white corn in the photos and yellow corn in the video.

Kitchen Supplies to Make Tortilla Chips

When you are working over a hot stove with fried food, there a few extra kitchen supplies I recommend.

1. Metal Tongs- you need tons to help flip your chips easily so they get crispy on both sides
2. Oil Splatter top for your pan – this is more of a safety precaution and can really help with splatter back when dealing with oil
3. Pizza Cutter – A pizza cutter makes it super easy to cut your tortillas evenly (shown in tortilla images above)

Homemade Tortilla Chips from Scratch

• Prior to making corn chips, you need to prep your corn tortillas.
• Use a pizza roller to cut 4 or 6 even pieces, quite like a pizza.
• You can usually cut a few tortillas at once to ensure evenness in the batch.

How to make Homemade Tortilla Chips

Use a pizza cutter and a cutting board to cut corn tortillas in six triangles. (see above for images)

Heat oil in a heavy duty skillet over medium high heat. Wait until oil is heated before starting. You want your chip to begin frying immediately when you add your chip.

Use tongs to drop triangles into hot oil.

Heat for 30 seconds on one side and flip to heat another 15-20 seconds.

Remove tortillas from pan and drain on a plate lined with paper towels.

Sprinkle with sea salt immediately. 

Work in batches and repeat until all tortillas are cooked.

Cool slightly before serving immediately or cool completely before storing in a resealable bag for up to 1 day.

Note about Oil Heat & Timing

If your oil is extra hot, you may need to cut down the timing and if its not hot enough, up the timing. The key is to not burn them brown – so if you find that a batch is turning golden too quickly, turn down the heat of your oil.

Storing Homemade Corn Tortilla Chips

You can store your fresh tortilla chips for up to 24 hours in a zip lock seal-able bag. I ate mine before I could tell you if they even got stale! In fact, we always eat ours up the same day and I am one of those people that hate left overs, so that doesn’t bother me at all.

Chips are really picky about storage and when you fry in fresh oil, even more so, so do not count on these chips to last more than a day or so.

• Reusable storage bags – I adore having large silicone re-usable storage bags in the pantry. Its great for chips like this or also storing and keeping fresh granola, raisins, cookies
• Air tight containers – About 4 months ago, I redid my entire pantry with these airtight containers for all the kids snacks, and these are great for storage too. I picked mine up at Walmart, which were reasonably priced, but they ran out of sizes that I wanted so you can always order on Amazon for what you need.

Serve Fresh Tortilla Chips with these Dips

You can absolutely devour these chips the second they come out of the pan, but you may want to include fresh dips or create a mile high nacho with them instead. If you need some homemade dips to enjoy with your chips, here are some of my favorites.

1. Queso Blanco – no Velveeta
2. Pico De Gallo – Pico is so delicious because it has fresh everything!
3. Enchilada Dip – this hot dip is made over the stove with cheeses and ground beef- a fan favorite here on Salty Side Dish
4. Taco dip – straight up layers of goodness, including beans, cheese and tomatoes
5. Fiesta Corn Dip – a gorgeous corn dip with Rotel tomatoes

Can you make Chips with Flour Tortillas?

Yes, you can make “chips” with flour tortillas…but if you want my opinion, don’t. They are incredibly disappointing. You can make them baked in the oven but they kinda have a loose pita taste and not the crispy taste that a corn tortilla does. They are “soft” , chewy, and kinda gross.

Season Tortilla Chips with

• Mexican Spices
• Sea Salt
• Rosemary
• Cinnamon and Sugar
• Nutmeg and Cinnamon
• Cumin

If you tried making chips from corn tortillas, use this recipe and have feed back or a way you made them even better, I’d love to hear it!