Homemade Tortilla Chips

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These Homemade Tortilla Chips are the perfect Mexican appetizer. They’re crispy, crunchy and won’t crumble and fall apart when dipping and snacking!

I am officially obsessed with these homemade tortilla chips! Also known as ‘totopos’ in Spanish, these chips are crispy, crunchy, super thick and insanely easy to make. If you make these for a party or get together, I 99.9% guarantee that you’ll get compliments from everyone because they’re just. that. good. I left out that 0.1% just in case anyone starts thinking about suing me. Just covering my bases.

So let’s chat about what you really want to know right now – how in the world do I make these amazing tortilla chips?! Let’s get to it.

How to make homemade tortilla chips

Step 1: Grab some store bought corn tortillas and cut them into fourths. This will give you the perfect size for dunking, dipping and snacking, which is exactly what we want. You can cut as many tortillas as you want, but I recommend about 3 tortillas per person. You could estimate about 2 per person if there’s going to be a lot of other food around, but 3 seems to be the magic number for snacking on the porch with a drink.

Step 2: Heat up some frying oil, about 1 1/2 cups worth or more depending on how big of a batch you’re thinking of doing. I grabbed a small bottle of peanut oil at the grocery store and just went ahead and used it all since I don’t really fry things that often. However much you use, just make sure that the tortillas can be submerged in the oil when you put them in.

The oil should reach a temperature of around 350°F in order to start frying, which you can check with a thermometer like this one {affiliate link} which I personally have and love. If you don’t have a thermometer, you can just put a small piece of tortilla in the oil and if it starts sizzling and bubbling, then it’s ready!

Don’t feel like frying? Here’s a recipe for baked tortilla chips.

Step 3: Time to get your fry on! Add a handful of tortillas into the oil and keep an eye on them as they do their thing. If they start to crowd together on one side of the pan, just move them around with a metal slotted spoon so they don’t stick together.

After about 2 minutes or so, or once they start to get a nice golden yellow/brown color, remove them using your slotted spoon. Shake ’em off a little to remove any excess oil and then place them on a baking sheet covered in paper towels. This will help soak up remaining excess oil so they’re not super greasy and gross.

Step 4: Sprinkle on some salt! One of my favorite things about tortilla chips is that they’re salty, so don’t forget the salt! In order for the salt to really stick to the chips, sprinkle it on immediately after you place them on the paper towels. I used a flaky sea salt {affiliate link} like this one because it gives it that beautiful look of restaurant quality chips, but you can use kosher salt or even table salt if that’s all you have.

Step 5: Time to eat!

These tortilla chips will change your life, hands down. No exaggeration, they’re so good! They’re authentic, have an amazing fresh corn taste, they’re satisfying and most importantly they won’t crumble and fall apart like store bought chips.

These chips can withstand any kind of dipping without breaking or cracking in the middle. Isn’t that one of the most annoying things ever? You go to dip a tortilla chip in salsa or queso and it breaks in the middle of dipping, so you go to grab another chip and that one breaks too. I mean, come on! That’s no bueno – can’t be dealing with that.

Serving suggestions

Here’s some of my favorite ways to enjoy homemade tortilla chips:

• with your favorite salsa – 5-Minute Fresh Homemade Salsa, guacamole salsa, pineapple salsa, red chile salsa, salsa verde
• or your favorite dip – queso dip, guacamole, salsa verde queso, jalapeno bean dip
• pair it with your favorite drink – classic margarita, mexican paloma cocktail, michelada, watermelon agua fresca

Or you can just eat them all by themselves. No shame in that!