Homemade Corn Tortillas Will Make Your Tacos So Much Better

Delish

Corn tortillas are so easy to make and much better than anything you'd find in a store.

Transcript

00:00Hi, I'm McKinsey in the Delish Kitchen studios and I think you might just be shocked at how

00:04easy homemade corn tortillas are to make. These are like so soft, so fluffy, they're versatile,

00:12and they only take three ingredients. I don't think it's impossible to find really good tortillas in a

00:17grocery store, but once you try like a fresh, like hot off the stove corn tortilla, you will always

00:24want to make your own. So let's get started. The main ingredient you need for your corn tortillas

00:28is masa harina. Masa harina is just corn that has been soaked in water and lime or like a calcium

00:35hydroxide, and this is a process called nixtamalization, which is an ancient process

00:40that has been used for a very long time. This solution helps break down the cell walls of corn,

00:45making it more digestible and really softens it because it releases all those natural toxins that

00:50are found in corn. To make our corn tortillas, we're going to mix together our masa harina

00:56and some salt. Just whisk that together until it's well combined, and then add your hot water

01:01just from the tap. It does not need to be boiling hot, and just continue to stir that with your

01:06wooden spoon until it starts to form a dough. You're looking for something that's not dry

01:11anywhere. Everything is wet, but it's not sticky wet, more like play-doh. Now we can portion this

01:17out into 12 equal sized pieces. I like to use a bench scraper just to divide it. We're aiming for

01:24roughly two tablespoons each. Then you just want to keep these covered with a damp cloth because

01:29masa harina can really dry out, and that's how your tortillas will crack. They won't puff up,

01:33so hydration is just really important to them. To press out our tortillas, we are going to use

01:37a tortilla press for this. I love using one of these. I think they're a lot of fun, but if you

01:43don't have one, you can also use like a heavy skillet, and I'll show you how to do that as well.

01:47A little hack I like to use is a Ziploc baggie for pressing these out. It's a little bit easier

01:53than plastic wrap. This will just help your tortillas from sticking to your press, and you

01:59just place one down, your tortilla on top, and then the second half, and then you can like reuse it

02:06every single time, and it's just a lot easier. All your strength, just press, and you have a tortilla.

02:17If you don't have a tortilla press, you can still make tortillas. Just use a heavy skillet like a

02:22cast iron. It takes a little bit more strength and effort, but it still works. The easiest part of

02:29making our tortillas is actually cooking them, so just in a dry skillet over medium-high heat,

02:34we'll let this get nice and hot. Give it a couple minutes to warm up. You can think of this as like

02:39pan baking instead of pan frying, because we don't need any extra like fat or oil on it. We're just

02:45letting it cook through, and then getting that iconic char on our tortillas. I'm gonna drop our

02:49tortilla on, let it go for about one to two minutes per side. Go ahead and flip this one. It should start

02:56to puff up when you flip it on the second side. That means your tortilla is well-moistured. It's

03:02great. Don't stress. If you think you need to flip it one more time to get more char on that first side,

03:07you can. It's not like a burger where you should only flip it once. You can flip it once or twice.

03:11There is just nothing better than like a fresh corn tortilla. The ones you find in the

03:15supermarket are often like already stale tasting, but these are like, they're flexible, they're

03:20pliable, they're soft. I love like tearing into one, and like how soft, and like if it's really

03:26fresh, like right off the stove, like the steam coming out. Oh my gosh. You get like that, like the

03:34nuttiness of the corn, of like the char on your tortilla. These have like a good level of like

03:39saltiness to them, where they aren't just like bland tasting, but you can like kind of taste the

03:43salt just to like a hint of it a little bit in there, which just makes it like really fresh

03:47tasting and so good. You can use corn tortillas for so many things. You can eat them plain with

03:52like a little bit of butter and extra salt on top. It's an incredible late night snack. We made tacos

03:57out of them. You can also use them for chilaquiles, make fresh homemade tortilla chips out of them.

04:03The options are endless. Corn tortillas are just so easy to make that once you do it once, you're

04:07going to be able to make them without even thinking about it. So for this and other staples just like

04:12it, stick around here at delish.com.

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