Flour Tortilla Recipe
Add Preferred SourceA good flour tortilla recipe earns a permanent spot in your kitchen because the ones from the store rarely match the soft, warm tortilla you’re after. Mine uses four things you probably already have: white flour, salt, vegetable shortening, and hot water.
The hot water does quiet work here, melting the shortening through the flour so the dough stays supple instead of stiff. Roll them thin, cook them fast on a hot skillet, and they fold around a filling without the cracking and tearing that store-bought ones do.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
- Four ingredients, all of them pantry regulars: flour, salt, shortening, and hot water. Nothing to go out and buy. If you already make my homemade flatbread recipe, this is the same kind of pantry win, worked on a hot pan.
- They come off the skillet soft and foldable, not dried into something that cracks when you bend it around a filling.
- No lard and no baking powder, so they’re vegetarian and keep a clean, plain taste that sits under anything you fill them with.
- One batch gives you about sixteen ten-inch tortillas, enough for tacos one night and quesadillas the next.
Ingredients You’ll Need
You’ll need all the ingredients shown in the photograph below.
- White flour. Plain all-purpose white flour is all this needs. It gives tortillas their soft fold without the extra chew that bread flour brings, so I don’t bother with anything fancier.
- Vegetable shortening. The shortening is what makes them tender. I use it instead of lard, which keeps these vegetarian, and it melts into the flour cleanly without adding a taste of its own. Half a cup to three cups of flour is the ratio I stick to.
- Salt. Just enough to season the dough. Tortillas taste flat without it, and you can’t fix that after they’re cooked.
- Hot water. Use it hot, not cold. Hot water melts the shortening as you mix it through the flour, and that’s what keeps the dough supple and easy to roll.
How to Make Flour Tortillas
A complete printable recipe and the measurements in both US customary and metric are available in the recipe card below.
Mix and Rest the Dough
Whisk the flour and salt together in a large bowl, then work in the shortening with your fingers until the mixture looks coarse and crumbly.
Add the hot water a little at a time, mixing with your hands, until it pulls together into a dough; you may not need all of it.
Knead until it’s smooth, elastic, and no longer sticky, then cover the bowl with a damp towel and leave it to rest for thirty to forty-five minutes.
The rest isn’t optional. It relaxes the dough so the tortillas don’t spring back and shrink the second you roll them.
Divide and Roll
Divide the rested dough into about sixteen pieces and keep the ones you aren’t working on under the cloth so they don’t dry out.
Roll each ball from the center outward, rotating as you go, until you have a thin disc around ten inches across.
Cook the Tortilla
Heat a cast iron skillet until it’s properly hot, then lay a tortilla in it. When it bubbles and brown spots appear, after roughly twenty-five to thirty seconds, flip it.
The bubbles come back, so flip it once more, and it puffs up. Pull it off the heat right then and wrap it in a towel while you cook the rest.
The same hot-skillet, let-it-blister technique carries over to my soft and fluffy naan bread, if you like making your own flatbreads from scratch.
Recipe Notes and Expert Tips
- Don’t overcook them. This is the one thing that turns a soft tortilla stiff. The longer each one sits on the skillet, the drier it gets, so pull them the moment they puff and not a beat later.
- Get the skillet properly hot first. A tortilla puffs because the water and melted shortening turn to steam inside it, and that only happens on a hot pan. If yours aren’t puffing, the heat is too low.
- Weigh the dough if you want them even. Kitchen scales let you divide the dough into equal pieces, which is the easy way to get tortillas that are all the same size.
- Adjust as you mix. If the dough feels sticky, work in a little more flour; if it’s dry and won’t come together, add a splash more hot water.
Recipe Variations
- Roll them smaller, around six inches, and you’ve got the right size for soft tacos or quesadillas. They cook a little faster at that size, so watch them. I make them this small more often than not, so it’s well tested.
- For puffier, slightly thicker tortillas, stir a teaspoon of baking powder into the flour. I leave it out and don’t think these need it, so it isn’t tested in my version, but it’s a standard move if you prefer that style.
- Swapping in whole-wheat flour hasn’t been tested here. It makes the tortillas denser, so you’d need a little more hot water and a slightly longer rest to keep them rolling out thin.
How to Store Leftovers
Cooked tortillas keep in the fridge for three to four days, stacked with parchment between them and wrapped so they don’t dry out. To freeze, layer parchment between each one, seal them in a freezer bag, and they hold for up to three months.
Reheat in a dry skillet for fifteen to twenty seconds per side, or microwave under a damp paper towel for about fifteen seconds, which brings the softness back.
You can also roll the tortillas and cook them up to 3 days later. Stack the raw rolled tortillas with parchment between them and wrap them tightly in the fridge, then cook them fresh when you want them.
What to Serve With Flour Tortillas
These are a base more than a side, so the real question is what goes inside them. For a fast dinner, they’re the start of a cheese quesadilla: fill, fold, and crisp them in a buttered skillet.
Pile them higher with rice, beans, and peppers, and they become a proper vegetarian burrito. Warm from the towel, they’re also good with nothing more than a bowl of salsa and a squeeze of lime, which is how I like them best.
FAQs
Almost always overcooking. Once brown spots show and it puffs, it’s done; any longer on the heat and it stiffens into something that cracks. Working too much flour into the dough can harden them too, so add flour sparingly as you mix.
The skillet isn’t hot enough. The puff comes from steam building inside the dough, and that needs a properly hot pan. Turn the heat up and give the skillet time to come up to temperature before the first tortilla goes in.
It hasn’t rested long enough. Resting relaxes the dough so it stops springing back, so give it the full thirty to forty-five minutes. If one still fights you, set it aside for a few minutes and roll it again.
No. A rolling pin is all you need for flour tortillas, and it’s what this recipe uses. A press is particularly made for corn tortillas; flour dough has enough gluten to roll out thin and hold its shape, as long as you’ve rested it first.
More Mexican Recipes to Try
Once you’ve got a stack of warm tortillas, here’s what I’d make to go alongside them.
- Vegetarian Birria Tacos. For when I want something slow and a little special. The mushroom birria with its chili dipping broth is the one I make most.
- Salsa Roja. A cooked red salsa for when you want real heat and depth to spoon over everything.
- Salsa Taquera. Hotter, built on dried arbol chilies, for when a plate can take the heat.
- Pico de Gallo. Fresh and raw, the one I make when the tortillas are the main event, and I want a clean contrast.
Ingredients
- 3 cups white flour
- 1 teaspoons salt
- ½ cup vegetable shortening
- 2 cups hot water
Video
Instructions
For the tortilla
- Add flour and salt to a very large mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Add the shortening and incorporate until it's a coarse mixture. In small amounts, add the hot water (you may not need it all) and mix into the flour mixture and mix it together using your hands until it's coarse. Knead until the dough is smooth, elastic, and not sticky. Return the dough to the bowl and cover it with a damp kitchen towel for 30 – 45 minutes.3 cups white flour, 1 teaspoons salt, ½ cup vegetable shortening, 2 cups hot water
- Lightly flour your work surface and divide it into approximately 16 pieces. Take one dough ball and leave the rest covered with a damp cloth.
- Press down on the dough ball with the palm of your hand and then use a rolling pin to roll from the center forward, but not to the edges, and then backward, rotate the dough and repeat until you have a disc shape of around 10 inches. Repeat until all the tortillas have been rolled.
- Preheat a cast iron skillet so it's already hot and add a tortilla to it, when the tortilla starts to bubble and brown spots appear, approximately 25 – 30 seconds, flip the tortilla, the bubbles will appear again, so flip it, and then it will puff out, when it does, remove it from the heat and wrap in a kitchen towel while you repeat the process with the remaining tortillas.
Notes
Nutrition
