Background: If I make corn chips, I think “guac and queso and nachos and 7 layer dip” and all the other awesome things that you can do with those golden triangles of delight. If I make corn crisp strips–which are exactly the same thing, but in thin strips–I think salads and vegan frito pie. The first are mindlessly-shovel-in-your-face-with-your-hands foods, which–if I’m being honest–are my absolute favorite kinds of foods. This is why I have to hack my brain and my pantry by keeping homemade Corn Crisp Strips on hand instead of chips. When I say “instead of” I mean sometimes I make these so I don’t buy corn chips. This isn’t a recipe, although it does have cooking temp. Here are the moves:
- Buy a package of corn tortillas. I like El Milagro Corn Tortillas, “BLANCAS”
- Take the whole stack out of the wrapper.
- Slice through the entire stack with large knife.
- Lay out on a cookie sheet in 1 layer.
- Drizzle with oil.
- Sprinkle with salt.
- Note the time.
- Bake at 350 degrees until they are the level of golden brown you like.
- Note the time again to determine how long to cook the next batch.
- Store on the counter, uncovered until completely cool.
Why it works
- I like El Milagro Corn Tortillas for the flavor and the blancas for the color.
- I also like that they aren’t wrapped in a plastic bag.
- You know which knife I use.
- The layer doesn’t have to be in perfect rows. If you just scatter them, some will stick together and they will come out different levels of crispiness and done-ness. That’s fine for chicken tortilla soup or sometimes frito pie.
- I use grapeseed oil.
- I use kosher salt.
- I start these when I’m going to be in the kitchen for a while.
- At 350 degrees, it takes about 20 minutes. You can do them faster in a convection oven or air fryer.
- I like to do the whole batch of tortillas in one session, so I do several rounds.
- I have ample fridge space, so I just put them uncovered in the fridge after they have cooled down.
Mods:
- You could season them with spices if you don’t want your kids to eat them.
- You could actually fry them in oil, since you have a spider strainer, but this feels like a waste of oil to me. I know you can reuse it, but I just don’t deep fry things that often.
- You can actually do this same move with flour tortillas and it makes for great crackers.