If you read my
previous post you probably already know that I love baking and eating bread, but besides the Italian genes from my ancestors, our family now has its mix of Mexican genes, so my wife and kids love Mexican flour tortillas and so do I.
Then here you go, a simple recipe to make white flour tortillas
What do you need:
- 2 1/2 Cups of unbleached flour
- 2 tbsp of Baking powder
- 1 1/2 tsp of Salt
- 1/2 Cup Vegetable Oil Shortening (I use half a bar of Crisco's)
- 2 Cups of warm water
What to do:
Mix in a bowl the flour, baking powder and salt.
Incorporate the oil shortening with your hands until it is uniformly mixed with the flour.
Start gradually adding water (you may probably don't use all the 2 cups) mixing until you have a nice ball of dough. Let it rest for 10 minutes.
Separate the dough in small portions, and knead to form little balls. Using these proportions I normally get out about 16 tortillas. Don't over knead the dough.
Put back the balls in the bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and let it rest for 30 minutes.
With a roller press the ball to form a flat round tortilla, an easy trick is to roll first to obtain an oval shape, turn it 45 degrees roll over again, and again turn 45 degrees and roll over.
Place the tortilla in a hot flat pan or griddle and cook from both sides.
Now what can you do with them ?
Chicken fajita tacos !!
I sliced chicken breast halves into 1/3" thick filets and put to marinate with salt, pepper, dried parsley, lemon and lime juice for 1 hour, the griddle I used for the tortillas on the other side has a nice grill, so I put the chicken fajitas to grill in there.
And as you see to the right on another pan frijoles refritos (refried beans) to heat up.
While the chicken is cooking you can drop some lime juice or what was left from the marinade, don't overcook since chicken breast can dry up very quickly.
My kids love when we spread some frijol on the tortilla and then complete the taco with the chicken fajitas inside, add some salsa, pico de gallo and Enjoy !!
Cheers
Jorge
