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This flour tortilla recipe is made from 5 Ingredients. The tortillas are soft, easy, and can be used for burritos, tacos, and more!!
Whether you’ve got Tacos or Burritos on the menu, or you simply plan to slather your tortillas in Queso and Salsa, you can’t go wrong with these homemade flour tortillas!
Our Best-Loved Flour Tortillas!
Our family eats Mexican cuisine quite regularly. We love to use this flour tortilla recipe to make Enchiladas, Burritos, Tacos, and even Taquitos!
Being Hispanic, we’ve enjoyed homemade tortillas my whole life. In fact, my great-grandma Bean Burro was famous for her gigantic delicious tortillas and sold a dozen for $2!!)
With this simple recipe, we now make them all the time, and we all agree that Mexican dinners and sides always taste so much better and more authentic when they’re made with fresh tortillas!
Why we love fresh tortillas:
- 5 basic ingredients. Flour tortillas are surprisingly simple to make and require just a handful of basic pantry staple ingredients.
- Cost-effective. Making tortillas can be more cost-effective than purchasing pre-made ones, and you ensure clean and healthy ingredients!
- More flavorful. This homemade recipe is a fresher and tastier option compared to store-bought tortillas.
Ingredients
- all-purpose flour
- baking powder
- salt
- water
- unsalted butter – I like the resulting flavor using butter, but you can also use vegetable shortening or lard interchangeably.
How to Make Tortillas
- DOUGH. In a medium bowl, mix 2 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt with a whisk or wooden spoon. Add melted butter and warm water and mix with your hands until combined.
- Add more flour if needed 1 tablespoon at a time, but the dough should be a little sticky. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
- HEAT. Heat a large skillet over medium heat.
- ROLL. While the skillet is heating up, portion the dough into 12 dough balls of equal portions. On a lightly floured surface, use a pastry roller (or rolling pin) to roll each ball out into a circle about 8 inches wide.
- COOK. Add one tortilla at a time to a skillet on medium-high heat and cook for about 1 minute on each side (or until bubbles form and it’s slightly browned on both sides.)
Pro Tip
To keep tortillas warm while serving, the easiest way is to use a tortilla warmer. If you do not have one, use a pot and lid that is slightly bigger than the tortillas.
Make Tortilla Chips
- FRY. Fill a large frying pan with about 2 inches of vegetable or peanut oil. Heat to 350°F. Cut tortillas into strips or triangles.
- Add a few pieces to the oil and fry for about 45 seconds turning every 15 seconds. Use a spider skimmer to remove chips and place them on a paper towel or wire rack. Season with salt and other favorite seasonings.
- BAKE. Preheat oven to 350°F. Brush the flour tortilla with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt or other seasonings. Cut into triangles. Place a single layer on a baking sheet. Bake for about 4-5 minutes, use tongs to flip halfway, and bake for another 3-4 minutes.
- Check out our Homemade Tortilla Chips Recipe.
Recipe Tips
- Dough. Keep the dough from drying out by draping a damp clean kitchen towel over the top.
- Thickness. For thinner tortillas, divide the dough into 14 balls. For thicker tortillas, divide them into 10 balls.
- Rolling. Roll a flattened ball of dough in one direction from the center to the top edge on a floured work surface. Turn the dough a quarter turn and roll again from the center to the top. Repeat rolling and turning until the tortilla is to the desired size and shape. A pastry roller helps with this.
- No stacking! Do not stack rolled tortilla dough while waiting to cook them or they may become soggy.
- Shake the excess flour. Before cooking a rolled-out tortilla, toss it back and forth a bit between your hands to knock off any excess flour.
- Wipe the pan. Carefully wipe any flour out of the pan between cooking each tortilla, otherwise, it will accumulate in the pan and start to burn.
- Heat. If the tortilla doesn’t have golden spots after 1 minute, slightly increase the heat. If the spots are dark brown or black, decrease the heat.
- Stiff tortillas. If your tortillas feel stiff, you have either cooked them too long or used too high of heat.
Storing Info
- Make them ahead of time. Keep the dough in the fridge or the freezer until you are ready to cook. Store the dough in balls or pre-roll them.
- Divide the pre-rolled tortillas with pieces of parchment paper or wax paper. Store in the fridge for up to a week or in the freezer for up to 6 months. Thaw in the fridge before cooking.
- To cook. Place the tortillas directly into the pot as soon as they have been cooked. The steam from the tortillas will keep them warm and soft.
- STORE. Separate cooled tortillas with parchment paper or wax paper. Place them in an airtight container on the counter for 2-3 days, in the refrigerator for 6-8 weeks, or in the freezer for 6-8 months.
- To thaw, put the bag of tortillas in the fridge for 24-48 hours, or defrost in the microwave.
- To reheat. Stack on a plate and cover with a damp paper towel. Microwave for 15 to 30 seconds or until warm.
Use Flour Tortillas In:
Flour Tortilla Recipe
This flour tortilla recipe is made from 5 Ingredients. The tortillas are soft, easy, and can be used for burritos, tacos, and more!!
Ingredients
- 2 cups + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour plus more as needed
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- ½ cup unsalted butter melted
- ¾ cup lukewarm water
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, mix 2 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt. Add melted butter and warm water and mix with your hands until combined. Add more flour if needed 1 tablespoon at a time, but the dough should be a little sticky. Let dough rest for 10 minutes.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat.
- While the skillet is heating up, divide the dough into 12 balls. On a lightly floured surface, use a pastry roller to roll each ball out into a circle about 8 inches wide.
- Add one tortilla at a time to the hot skillet and cook for about 1 minute on each side, until bubbled and slightly browned on both sides. NOTE: Carefully wipe flour out of the pan between batches, otherwise it will accumulate in the pan and start to burn.
Video
Notes
Make ahead of time. Store cooked tortillas in a large resealable plastic bag on the counter for 2–3 days, or in the refrigerator for 1 week. These can also be frozen in a resealable plastic freezer bag for 4–5 months.
Serving tip. The easiest way to keep tortillas warm for serving is to use a tortilla warmer. If you do not have one, you can use a pot with a lid that is slightly bigger than the tortillas.
Use it up. Tortillas can be used to make Enchiladas, Chicken Tacos, Flautas, and Chimichangas.
Nutrition
Serving: 1tortilla, Calories: 221kcal, Carbohydrates: 32g, Protein: 4g, Fat: 8g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.5g, Monounsaturated Fat: 2g, Trans Fat: 0.3g, Cholesterol: 20mg, Sodium: 197mg, Potassium: 81mg, Fiber: 1g, Sugar: 0.1g, Vitamin A: 236IU, Calcium: 24mg, Iron: 2mg
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
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**This recipe was updated on 3/28/22 – made it even easier and yummier!
I have tried different recipes without success I was about ready to give up then I came across your recipe so decided to try one more time. They turned out wonderful! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe.🙏🏻
Oh that’s great news! You’re welcome. I’m so glad that you enjoyed the tortillas!
We use a lot of tortillas at home and so this is perfect for us! Tried this recipe as it is and we all loved it, this is going to be our new go-to recipe for sure.
These are so fluffy and delicious! There really is nothing better than homemade tortillas!! Will be making these again for sure.
So true! I’m glad you enjoyed the tortillas!
These are amazing and so soft!! Thank you so much
These are the best tortillas! So easy and taste amazing!
Thank you!! So glad you enjoyed them!
Can you use salted butter and omit the salt?
Wondering the same thing… I only have salted butter at home.
Sure! I like to use unsalted because I can control the amount of salt in the recipe, but you can use salted and reduce or omit the salt.
Awesome I really like and hope to try the recipe is simple to make more grace to your elbow
They taste so good and are fluffy and soft.
Oh yay! So glad you enjoyed the tortillas.
Made this recipe twice this week
My family loves it
Will never buy store bought again
It’s almost as good as a South African Roti
Thx
these were great! I never new they were this easy. I just have to work on getting them thinner but until then I’m gonna continue to enjoy them as they come out and next I’m gonna try making a batch of tortillas chips. Thanks for the recipe.
You are so welcome! You’ll get down 🙂 Thank you!
We go through tortillas like crazy and these are so good! My kids love helping to make these which is nice because they are so easy to make!