I love chips and salsa when I go to a restaurant, but for a very long time I hated eating chips and salsa at home because even the best (and most expensive) brands of salsa left much to be desired. I am a HUGE fan of the salsa at Chili’s, I think because it is not chunky. I do not enjoy chunks of tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc., in my salsa, spaghetti sauce, chili, etc. When I am making any of the above, I chop them very finely and always put tomatoes in the food processor. Imagine my delight, then, when I discovered this recipe on The Pioneer Woman’s website (I just love her so much!).
The chips are my attempt at cutting a few calories, because when it comes to chips (potato or tortilla) I have no self-control. When I eat chips out of a bag I usually have to tell Philip to put the bag away because I can’t stop eating them. Therefore, I almost never buy chips in a bag and instead make my own potato chips and tortilla chips using lower-fat methods (and also limiting the number that I make and therefore limiting my portion size….).
Start by putting the following ingredients into your food processor (a blender will do in a pinch): 1 14.5 oz can of tomatoes (diced or whole, it doesn’t matter; 1 can of diced tomatoes and chilies (the usual brand is Ro*tel but I used store brand); 1/4 onion, chopped; 2 minced garlic cloves; 1 diced jalapeno (I used half of a red jalapeno and half of a green jalapeno, and they look like they are glowing against the white cutting board!); juice of 1/2 lime; a dash of cumin.
Pulse until the ingredients reach the right consistency, then add a big handful of cilantro (if you don’t like cilantro, leave it out!) and pulse again to incorporate it. Taste, then salt to your own taste. Perfect salsa!
Now, for the chips. Of course, I used my Pampered Chef stoneware, which I preheated in the oven at 400 degrees. If you don’t have stoneware, just use a regular cookie sheet-you’ll have to bake the chips a little longer, but they’ll be fine!
You’ll need soft corn tortillas for this. I used my homemade tortillas, but storebought is fine, and that’s what I usually use! Once the oven is preheated, cut the tortillas according to your preferences. I like to cut mine into fourths or sixths. Arrange them on the baking sheets, spray with olive oil spray, and sprinkle with salt. Bake the chips for about 5 minutes then rotate the pans and bake until brown and crisp, rotating again if needed. Usually, storebought take about 10 minutes altogether, but my homemade tortillas took a little longer, presumably because they had more moisture in them than the storebought kind.
Once the chips are done, let them cool until they can be handled, then serve them with the salsa!
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