Crunch Time: Deep Fried vs Oven Baked Tortilla Chips Showdown
In today's culinary face-off, we're digging into the science and flavor profiles behind these two popular methods to see which comes out on top. Will the traditional deep-fried champions hold their golden, crispy title, or will the lighter, heart-friendly oven-baked contenders steal the show?
Prep Time 40 minutes mins
Cook Time 17 minutes mins
Total Time 57 minutes mins
Course Snack
Cuisine Mexican
- 500 g masa harina
- 550 ml water half cold - half boiled
- 1 tbsp sea salt
use 500 g masa harina cornflour and 500 ml warm water half cold half boiled add a little bit of salt you have to go by volume, two cups of flour and a little more than two cups of water, you have to go by feeling.
when the dough is ready add a spoon of sea salt and then start mixing with your hand and not with a spoon because you want to get to exactly the point where it releases from your hand and it's not sticky anymore
start kneading until a nice ball forms
take a small lump, roll it between your hands and then press it out and when you see that the sides don't crack then you know you have the right hydration
form the ball and cover it with cling film, rest for about half an hour to hydrate properly before you shape the balls.
form some balls in pingpong ball size
cover it up to avoid losing hydration then use the tortilla press, if you don't own one, you could do this with a heavy pot or with the palms of your hands to resemble a thick disk.
in a ziplock bag which has been cut up, place it in the middle and give it a little bit of a squish by hand and that has to go by feeling
leave it in the cling film not to dry out and repeat the same process for the rest
the flat Top is running on extremely hot temperature don't use a nonstick pan because it can't take that high heat you have to peel the plastic off the tortilla not the other way around otherwise it's going to break fry a little bit on one side 20-30 seconds and then you want to flip it, once the tortillas get brown you don't want to cook it to the end as they will cook into chips later
use a clay pot with two kitchen towels and let them to steam for half a minute then the tortillas gets pliable and soft
we're going to make two different versions
1st version in the oven
take half of the not fully baked tortillas, stack them up nicely and then split them to make three wedges
place them on a baking sheet and put them on in rows, give them a light brush of olive oil don't overdo it
continue by seasoning with salt and paprika
flip them and give them the same treatment on the other side
put them in the oven on the middle rack which is preheated to 180℃ - 356℉ for 15 minutes
2nd version deep fry
continue with the rest of the tortillas and cut them exactly the same way the difference here is that we will season them after they're cooked
stuff them in so they don't stick and fry them until golden brown
after frying put them also on a kitchen paper
ready to serve
Keyword deepfried, DIYsnacks, epicurianadventure, foodfight, foodscience, healtheating, ovenbaked, recipeideas, snacktime, tortillachips