Homemade Tortilla Chips

Ahh….homemade tortilla chips! Here’s the background into my love for them. There is this little hole-in-the-wall restaurant close to our house named Julia’s. My love for the place might come from the fact that my daughter’s name is Julia and I have to love a place with the same beautiful name. But I know my love for it is also because they make everything completely fresh – even their tortilla chips. I had never had anything but a bagged tortilla chip until we started going to Julia’s. ‘Life changing’ might be a bit of an overstatement – so maybe we’ll stick with game changer instead! There really is no comparison to a homemade, salty, warm tortilla chip paired with delicious fresh salsa. It just doesn’t get any better!

How to make them:

Fill the bottom of a medium skillet with vegetable or canola oil. You want it to be about 1/2 inch deep. Heat it up until it is hot but not smoking.
Cut your corn tortillas into whatever shape you want your chips to be – strips, triangles, squares, dinosaurs….you get the point!
Have a plate covered with a paper towel ready. You’ll put the finished chips here.
Dip one end of one of the chips into the oil. If it bubbles around it, the oil is hot enough. If not, give it a few more minutes to heat up.
Starting with a few tortillas chips at a time, lower them carefully into the oil, making sure to spread them out so they aren’t overlapping. Flip them after 30 seconds or so.
Once the chips are LIGHTLY browned and you can tell they are getting crispy, remove them from the oil and place them on the paper towel. Immediately sprinkle them with course sea salt.

*Note – THIS IS A FAST PROCESS SO MAKE SURE NOT TO BURN THE CHIPS! You’ll quickly notice when you taste the finished chips that if they cook too long, they get a little bitter. Only cook them until they are lightly browned and just getting crispy. If you don’t feel like they are crispy enough after removing them from the oil, you can always drop them back in.

Serve these delicious homemade tortilla chips with homemade salsa.

Here is my recipe for my favorite salsa: Homemade Salsa