Tortilla Chips

Tortilla chip, also known as tostado, is a popular Mexican snack made with corn tortillas. Corn tortillas are cut into small wedges and fried; however, they are also made by cutting corn masa with discs and then either frying or baking them. Yellow corn is the main type used for making the tortillas; however, red, white and blue corns too are used for this purpose. These days, wheat flour and sugar too are added to the corn flour and some commercially manufactured tostados also contain mono-sodium glutamate. The chips are usually served with salsa, guacamole or chili con queso and are also used in other Mexican dishes such as nachos.

Tortilla chips are among the most popular Super Bowl snacks consumed every year during the Super Bowl championship.

History

As per certain records, tortilla chip was first produced on large scale in the late 1940s, in Los Angeles. Rebecca Webb Carranza, the owner of a tortilla factory and delicatessen in southwest Log Angeles, found a way to use the misshaped tortillas that were produced in her factory. That is when she cut them up into triangles and deep fried the wedges. They resulted in the delicious tostados, which she marketed at the El Zarape Tortilla Factory. In fact, Rebecca Carranza was honored with the Golden Tortilla award for her defining contribution to the food industry of Mexico.

Today, tortilla chips are the most popular snacks not only in Mexico, but also in America, more precisely southeast America. Most Mexican and Tex-Mex restaurants offer them as complimentary snacks. Their popularity went beyond that of corn chips, a popular dipping chip of America. These days tostados are marketed by many companies under different brand names, such as Tostitos, Phileas Fogg snacks, Doritos, Don Tacos, etc.

Popular Accompaniments

Tortilla chips are usually served with refried beans, sour cream, pickled jalapenos, diced onions and olives, pico de gallo (salsa). They are also served with shredded or melted cheese.

Similar Corn Masa Recipes

• Corn Chip – This is a popular snack of America, which is at times mistaken with Tortilla chip, especially in other countries such as Oceania and Australia; however, the main difference between the two chips is the use of cornmeal for making corn chips, compared to the corn tortillas used for making tortilla chips. Tortillas are made by the nixtamalization process (using quicklime to process raw corn). Fritos is a popular example of corn chips.
• Chalupas – This is a Mexican tortilla platter. Fried tortillas are filled with shredded chicken, pork, chipotle pepper, onion and salsa (red and green). The tortillas can be fried as well as baked.
• Flautas – These are made by deep frying tortillas and filling them with chicken or beef. They are then rolled to result in delicious snacks.
• Quesadillas – This is another popular snack; wherein, tortillas (fried or baked) are filled with cheese, vegetables and meat and folded to form moon shaped snacks.
• Gorditas, Sopes, Totopos, Tlacoyos and Tlayudas are other popular Mexican snacks make with corn masa, similar to Tortilla chip.

Nutritive Value

Fried tortilla chips tend to be high in fat content, which is about 8.1g. Though the chips do not contain any cholesterol, the calories of one serving of the chips are about 126. The chips also contain good amounts of B vitamins and calcium, because of the lime used in the processing of tortilla.