Two-Step Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips

January 26, 2017 by Lauren Schlothauer

I don’t think it’s a secret that good Mexican food is my THANG, but on top of enchiladas, tacos and green chile stew I really enjoy chips. Seriously, in the Southwest if you don’t fill your entire stomach up with their crunch goodness and the salsa on the table far before your food gets here you might not be a real New Mexican. There are a lot of people like me, and even if you don’t live where I do that doesn’t mean that every Mexican restaurant (authentic or not) isn’t going to have chips on the table. I mean, they may be served with watery tomato sauce but they’re probably good anyway. This is how you can easily home-make two-step restaurant style tortilla chips which are WAY better than what you can find out of a bag.

Don’t even get me started on that salsa bar honey. I mean bowls of salsa on the table are one thing, but when you get to choose between chipotle, pica de gallo and a traditional red or green you can almost guarantee I will take home half of my plate because I’ve indulged so much in the vast quantity of chips that have been consumed.

Yes, this is another recipe from growing up. Because dad would make rolled tacos and even if try your best to guesstimate how much product you need your corn tortilla to hamburger meat ratio, its never quite right. So pretty much you end up making flat cheese tacos or restaurant style tortilla chips with the extra. Both, which are FANTASTIC.

So to start out, you need to pour ample corn oil in the bottom of a pan. Do more than just cover it because you’ll take a significant amount of oil up when you pull out chips.
Next, you’ll need to decide how many chips you want. You can get four out of a corn tortilla so just make a stack of however many you think you/your family will enjoy.

Cut them horizontally and vertically.

Heat the oil and once it’s hot enough place them inside it.

You can tell that they’re just about ready to turn over (or come out depending on color) when the tortilla chip’s sides will begin to turn up slightly.

Once you see a SLIGHT gold color on the rim of the chip, turn it over so the other side can cook briefly. The tortilla chip should stand firmly horizontally but still be a little flexible. This photo looks a little more warm in color because I was trying to show the small color change, they are mostly white-ish when they come out of the oil.

Pull them out and place them in a bowl layered with paper towels and season with salt.

You can always pair them with salsa or queso too.

Are you a chip nut? What’s your favorite Mexican food side? Mine is definitely these Two-Step Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips.