You know what? Sunday movie night and tortilla chips are the perfect duos when you are home alone. Even if you’ve invited your friends or wanted to treat your guests with a potluck, then tortilla chips would be the best choice.
Also, the making process comes handy, and the ingredients are easily accessible in every local vendor so that you can make yours in your kitchen out of your leftover tortillas.
But here’re some more tea to spill! When it comes to making tortillas, you may need to pave a long way as the making process differs due to flavor preferences.
So, let’s just find out what tortilla chips are made of!
How Homemade Tortilla Chips Are Made?
I have a quirk to never finish my meal properly even when I am having tortillas; there’s always leftover on my plate! And the extra stack of tortilla that stares at me from the kitchen reminds me that this is going to be in the dustbin, which makes me feel bad!
Hence, I have figured out how I can use my leftover tortillas and extra stacks in a delectable way!
And it was homemade tortilla chips that worth my labor. It requires minimalist ingredients and almost zero effort to get it served!
First things first, you need to determine whether you are baking the chips or deep-frying them in a skillet. It’s suggested to bake them because frying consumes a lot of time, and the invested labor doesn’t worth the result as the chips get too soggy and oily.
Initially, if you don’t prefer readymade tortillas and also making them at home seems too much to ask for, then you could instead purchase a tortilla press. There are plenty of those which can make round and fairly textured tortillas in a jiffy. You just need to invest your energy when making the dough, that’s it!
And how you are gonna keep the tortillas hot, you ask? Get yourself a tortilla warmer! Once you get one, you’ll no longer need to reheat them repeatedly.
Now, Let’s see how homemade tortilla chips are made!
When you are baking homemade tortilla chips, you can be fluid! I mean, you can try literally any spices you like, but here I am, dropping the basic ones!
- Salt
- Pepper
- 6 or 7 stacks of tortillas or as much as u want (corn tortillas preferred)
- Baking sheet or greasing shit
- Olive oil
- Lime juice (for the traditional masa flavor)
How Manufactured Tortilla Chips Are Made?
Well, the tortilla chips that you buy from the Mexican shop or supermarkets aren’t obviously the one you craft at home. From the manufacturing process to the quality check, everything incorporates a long errand of effort.
However, if I am talking about authentic tortilla chips, then there’s nothing above corn tortilla chips that includes masa harina flour.
Now, let’s see how all this works shaping tortilla chips!
1. Making the Masa Ground
The masa harina flour is finely ground and includes several drying sessions under the exposure of heavy sunlight and a blend of lime juice and water when cooking.
After cooking the flour in lime juice water, it needs another period for kneading and drying. The core ingredient here is the lime juice, which intensifies the flavor and makes the masa distinctive amongst other flours.
2. After Preparing the Masa Flour
The manufacturers blend it with corn flour and make the dough using kneading machines and diverse technologies.
3. Adding Preservatives and Maintaining Quality
It’s crucial to add food preservatives that keep the chips crispy and fresh for an extended period. Also, controlling the temperature and humidity of the storeroom is essential where all the packaging is done. So, the most significant parameter which is wisely monitored during the production is temperature and humidity.
4. Grinding, Seasoning, Forming the Chips
The ingredients that are used to make tortilla chips differ from one brand to another. But if I name the universal ingredients, then salt, pepper, cumin, oregano, chilly flakes, and various seasoning merges in the list.
After adding all the ingredients, they shape the tortilla chips, mostly in a triangle shape. Sometimes oil and food color are also used. In contrast, preservatives, emulsifiers, gums, and other ingredients are also added.
5. Baking
After adding all the seasonings, it’s time to bake them at a temperature of 500 to 554 degrees Fahrenheit, which you can’t expect from your ordinary oven. When the predicted amount of tortilla chips is sufficiently baked, they take them out for cooling for at least 20 minutes in a moving rack or open tires constantly.
6. Packaging
Lastly, they mold them in attractive packaging with the brand trademark.
If you want to treat yourself with a bowl full of crispy and flavorful tortilla chips, you can check out the homemade tortilla chips recipe.
Bottom Line
The reason why you are concerned about this topic is pretty much related to your health consciousness. Well, if you have that habit to intake crisps or chips frequently, then I would suggest you throw all the high-calorie chips in the trash bin and adopt the homemade low-calorie tortilla chips. (For this, you may consider getting the best tortilla maker.)
You can literally notice the transformation and the changes in your body. The obesity that might lead you to acute health issues can be prevented if you settle for healthy food habits. Hence knowing what you are consuming and how much nutrients a certain meal bear is paramount.
Because we are what we eat! Isn’t it?