These Homemade Flour Tortillas taste amazing. With a few ingredients you can make fresh, warm tortillas for your favorite burritos, tacos, and enchiladas.
Homemade Flour Tortillas
Flour tortillas are the starting point of so many popular Mexican-inspired meals – enchiladas, burritos, tacos, quesadillas and more. Up your taco night game by swapping your regular store-bought flour tortillas for these delicious homemade ones. Sure it takes a little more time, but the resulting taste is well worth it!
Things To Keep In Mind
When you’re making tortillas, remember to only make what you plan to use. This is not the kind of recipe that you can make it bulk and use for weeks. Most of the time, tortillas tend to get a little stale after a few days.
While the most authentic Mexican tortillas are often made with lard, this recipe uses shortening, which can sometimes be easier to find. However, if you are adverse to the idea of using shortening or lard, you can swap butter for shortening in most recipes. One reader suggested trying coconut oil if you’re looking for a healthier alternative. If you try any of these substitutions, let us know in the comments how your tortillas turned out.
If you’re planning to make tortillas large enough for a salad or a burrito, you are going to need a fairly large griddle or pan. For soft tacos or smaller meals, you can use a normal frying pan or a cast iron skillet.
Great Ways to Use Tortillas
Our site is FULL of delicious recipes that start with a tortilla. For example, Our Version of Cafe Rio / Costa Vida Salad (click HERE) and Burritos (click HERE). We also love using these tortillas for Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas or Thai Chicken Enchiladas. These Homemade Flour Tortillas are also great for soft tacos.
How to Make Homemade Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
- 3 cups flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 3/4 cup shortening
- 3/4 cup very hot water
Instructions
- In a large mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt, and baking powder together. Cut in the shortening with your fingers or pastry cutter until the flour is crumbly.
- Add the water and mix until the dough comes together. Place on a lightly floured surface and knead for a few minutes until smooth and elastic. Place in bowl, cover with a slightly damp dishtowel and let sit for an hour.
- Divide the dough into 5-6 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball (if you are making soft taco sized tortillas, divide it into 10-12 pieces). Use a well-floured rolling pin to roll a dough ball into a thin, round tortilla (if you want it perfectly round, get a large round plate or serving platter, flip it upside down over the dough and cut out the circle).
- Preheat a large skillet or pan to medium-high heat. Place into the hot skillet, and cook until bubbly, golden, and no appearance of doughy-ness, about 1 minute (DON'T OVERCOOK. Remember these are supposed to be soft flour tortillas, you don't want them to be crispy). Flip and continue cooking until golden on the other side.
Nutrition
Beth says
Yummy! I love making homemade recipes especially this one! This was so perfect for our taco night and such a hit! I will be making these again very soon! Love having this recipe on hand!
Lori Cokes says
Amazing! My kids loved these and we even made quesadillas with them!
Krystle says
These are so soft and make great quesadillas.Much better than store bought!
katy says
? Is the nutrition information based on the entire batch or 1 serving (6 total as recipe states)
Favorite Family Recipes says
It is for the whole batch!
Rebecca Keppel says
Your recipe has created tortilla monsters out of my family lol! The kids eat them plain 2 at a time and my husband uses them for breakfast burritos. They are asking for them all the time!! Good thing your recipe is easy! Thanks for sharing it!
Favorite Family Recipes says
“Tortilla monsters” is making me laugh so hard!! I am so glad you guys like them! Thanks for letting us know!
Marlynn says
I can’t believe I hadn’t made these from scratch sooner. They are so easy to make, thanks to your recipe!
Priya Lakshminarayan says
Just the recipe I was searching for! Thanks for sharing tips..making it tonight
Angela says
Is there anything better then a fresh, hot tortilla?? This is a great recipe. Thanks for sharing!
estelle says
these look great! what I love even more than flour tortillas are corn tortillas but I cant find masa harina anywhere, so I usually make flour!
Carrie Robinson says
I am making tacos tomorrow night & couldn’t find tortillas at the store this week. Going to try your recipe! 🙂
Cafe Rio says
If you watch the ingredients used at Cafe Rio as they make their tortillas, you will notice they add yeast. While not traditional, it definitely is there.
Alli says
Thank you! I felt like something was missing when I did this, they tasted great but they were a little more dense then the cafe rio ones
Brie says
How much yeast do they use? And at what point in the recipe? Thanks so much.
Dena says
Might try this with lard. Actual Mexican tortillas always have lard…:)
Sally Fasano says
I use bacon grease when I make theses. Delicious.
Echo says
Great idea! Thanks!
Jennifer says
Can I make the dough, roll it, put it in the fridge and cook it the next day? I’m Cooking for a lot of people and don’t want to spend the entire time making these
Erica says
We have never tried it that way before but I am guessing it will probably be ok! Let us know how it turns out!
Cecilia s says
Does anybody why they no longer sell the Flore La Pina
Elvia says
I was told at cafe rio that they use palm oil in their tortillas.
Kristin says
I want to make these for a large group. Do you know how far in advance I can make them. How long do they store for?
Erica says
I would say no more than just a few days. IMO they go stale fast…
Melanie Bingham says
What about wheat tortillas?
Emily says
You could do that, just use whole wheat flour.
Hollen Baker says
La Pina IS the best. Problem is… they don’t make it any more. I happened upon 8 bags of it last night on a clearance rack and bought them all.
connie says
your water may not of been hot enough, i boil mine sometimes, this helps to soften the shortening
Kat says
True authentic tortillas are made with shortening.
Chantelle Hernandez says
Well actually.. True authentic tortillas use lard… Not shortening… But its a healthier option.
Cummins Family says
I did this recipe exact but they turned out dry. I wish there were more pictures shown on how thin you made them, and the coloring, etc. Anyway, more pictures of each step would have been helpful. Thanks for the recipe though. Maybe mine will turn out on another try.
Cox Family says
Do you know if I can substitute oil or butter for the shortening? I don't have shortening in my home.
KYli says
you can use butter like shortening…or if you want a really heart healthy alternative, use coconut oil. 🙂 works better in my opinions. 🙂
Susan Parker says
Great tip, thank you!!
LKB says
One tip that I learned for tortillas is that you should use flour called, "La Piña". I have seen it for sale at some Walmarts but you can get it at a mexican market as well. It made a huge difference for me.