Homestead on Lakeside

Follow along as I make delicious homemade masa tortilla chips. When we visited Costa Rica we ate some of the most delicious food we had ever had. We visited the Nicoya Peninsula, known for their delicious, healthy food and their peoples’ longevity.

What is Masa Harina?

When researching traditional foods in countries such as Costa Ricca and Mexico, I came across masa harina flour tortillas. Masa flour tortillas are a staple with almost every meal, and the corn is processed differently than regular corn meal or corn flour. It goes through a process of nixtamalization. This process involves the dried corn kernels being soaked in an alkaline solution such as water and calcium hydroxide (pickling lime). Traditionally, wood ash has been used in this process.

The outer part of the kernel is removed, and the inner part is made into flour. Cultures have been making masa flour this way for hundreds of years, and for good reason! The nutrients are so much more available for your body to utilize increasing vitamins B3, calcium, and niacin absorption. I always feel our ancestors knew how to make foods the healthiest.

Masa Harina Tastes Better too!

Masa flour is delicious, too! I had always cooked with regular corn flour or corn meal. When I opened a bag of masa flour for the first time, I was blown away at the fragrance. It smelled like roasted corn, delicious! I have tried several different brands and colors of corn. They are all pretty similar. The King Arthur organic white corn masa flour was the finest ground, making very soft tortillas.

This is a repost of a recipe that I wrote back in 2021. Since then, I started making recipe cards for my more recent recipes. So, in an attempt to update some of my older recipes and make them more user-friendly, I decided to update some of my older recipes. 

Also, since I wrote this post, it is amazing how much more available store bought masa tortilla chips have become. If you’re looking for these traditionally made chips without making them at home, Siete makes a great product made with avocado oil.

If you’re looking for more ways to use masa harina flour, it can be used in all of your recipes where you would have normally used regular corn flour including my recipe for sourdough cornbread.

Homemade Masa Tortilla Chips Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups of masa harina flour

1/2 tsp of salt (plus more for sprinkling on top of the chips)

1 1/2 to 1 3/4 cups of warm water

1/4 cup of coconut oil

Homemade Masa Tortilla Chips Recipe:

In a large bowl, start by making your tortilla dough. Mix the flour, salt, and warm water. Start by adding 1 1/2 cup of water and mix the ingredients.  If the dough seems dry and crumbly, add 1/4 cup more water and incorporate it into the dough. Make the dough into a ball that isn’t sticky to the touch but is moist enough that it doesn’t crumble. Allow the dough to rest covered for 30 minutes.

Then, form the dough into approximately 2 inch balls. Take a small portion of the dough and roll the dough between the palms of your hands. You should get 14 to 16 dough balls.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Melt about 1/4 cup of coconut oil.

Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper. Brush the coconut oil on the side of the parchment paper that is facing up.

Forming the Tortillas

For this next process or making the tortillas, you can use a tortilla press, or you can use the back of two plates. Here is the tortilla press that I use. You will cover the sides of the tortilla press or the plates with parchment paper before smashing the tortilla dough. Here are precut round parchment paper sheets for ease of use when making the tortillas.

Press 4 to 6 tortillas, the amount that will fit on on your baking sheet, and place them, not overlapping, on the oiled parchment paper. When pressing your tortillas for making chips, make them extra thin by rotating the tortilla a quarter turn and pressing again. Repeat this process, turning the tortilla a quarter of a turn and pressing until back at the start of the tortilla. This will help your chip be thinner and crispier.

Brush the tops of the tortillas was a generous amount of coconut oil.

Sprinkle with salt.

Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife, cut each tortilla into quarters.

Place in the oven and bake for approximately 30 to 45 minutes. I start checking them at 30 minutes for crunchiness. If they don’t break easily, continue baking and checking every 5 minutes for the chip to break easily and not be bendy. Be careful not to burn.

You can repeat this process on another baking sheet to make the process go faster. You’ll have two batches in the oven at a time.

Once crunchy, remove from oven and cool on a wooden cutting board or plate with a paper towel to help absorb any extra oil.

They are ready to eat! Enjoy!

For more homemade family inspiration and recipes follow along @homesteadonlakeside

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