Flour tortillas are a staple ingredient in parts of Latin America and the United States, and you can buy them in almost every supermarket in America. But when you make your own, you get better-tasting tortillas with a supple, almost fluffy texture—not to mention the satisfaction that comes from creating delicious tortillas from scratch.
Melissa Guerra, a San Antonio–based cookbook author and food historian, says on her website, “I have only one thing to say about [making] flour tortillas: practice.”
While repetition is important—your third tortilla will be more uniform than your first—the process isn’t hard, and even imperfect tortillas will taste great. To become expert tortilla-makers ourselves, we flew to Texas to watch Guerra working in her home kitchen. This recipe is a culmination of what we learned from watching her, plus hours of refining our technique in the test kitchen.
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Weeknight cooking inspiration, curated and written by longtime ATK author and editor (and avid home cook) Jack Bishop.
It’s crucial that you use the right ratio of flour to fat to create a dough that will roll out and cook evenly; our recipe calls for 2 cups of all-purpose flour and 5 tablespoons of fat. We love the savory flavor that lard imparts to the tortillas, but you can use vegetable shortening if you prefer.
After combining the flour and lard with some warm water (plus a pinch of salt) in a bowl, knead the dough to ensure thorough, even distribution of the ingredients and to encourage a little gluten development that will give the tortillas a nice chew.
Divide the dough into 12 equal portions, form them into balls, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes to let the balls firm up for easier rolling. Dust the counter with flour before rolling to prevent sticking, and then roll each piece into a 6-inch round.
Homemade Taco-Size Flour Tortillas
Make your own tortillas and take your tacos to a new level.
Get the RecipeA comal, a flat griddle, is the traditional choice for cooking tortillas in much of Latin America and the American Southwest. Feel free to use a comal if you have one, but you can use a preheated cast-iron skillet instead.
The cooking time is short—less than 2 minutes for each tortilla—so you need to be attentive once you start cooking to keep an eye on the browning. Adjust the heat as necessary to ensure that the tortillas are cooked through and have just the right amount of spotty browning.
Guerra was absolutely correct: Practice does make homemade tortillas a lot easier to pull off. So try your hand at making them. Tasting these homemade tortillas will change the way you think about tortillas forever.
