Turning Corn Tortillas Into Taco Shells

Submitted by Juju Bee

"We have been doing this for years, but I didn't see a "recipe" posted for it yet, so I thought I would post it. MUCH better than those stale store bought taco shells!!!"

 

• Ready In: 12mins
• Ingredients: 2
• Serves: 1-100

ingredients

• prepared corn tortilla
• oil (for frying)

directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat in a skillet.
2. Carefully add half of the tortilla (folded into a taco shape) and fry until golden (you will need to hold up the tortilla half the entire time.).
3. Using tongs, carefully flip the tortilla to fry the other side until golden (continue holding the free edge to maintain the shape).
4. Remove from skillet and balance the shell (Teepee style) on a paper towel until set.
5. Repeat, placing each made taco shell on top of the last to drain oil and set.
6. After they are all set, you can pile on the taco goods and enjoy!

Reviews

[eknecht]

Yum! i needed to use up a bunch of corn tortillas, and this did the trick! After the second or third tortilla, I decided to streamline the process. I used some aluminum foil that I folded into a rectangle roughly 2 inches by 3 inches and about 1 inch thick, with the other end compressed slightly. I tucked these into the folds of the tortillas and placed them in the pan, and I just used my fingertips to hold them in place for about 10 seconds (the oil was only about 1 inch deep, enough to cook one side of each tortilla at a time). Then I flipped them over, let the other side cook, and propped against a nother long rectangle of foil that I draped with a couple of paper towels on top of a layer of paper towels. These worked perfectly- I could fry 4 at a time and not have to hold them up. I made 8 squares of foil (about the same amount total that I would use to line 1 1/2 cookie sheets), and although the foil was a little hot, I could take them out after I had flipped the currently cooking batch to get the next batch ready. Thanks for posting!

 

[WuhanNoodle]

i was so skeptical about this recipe being a good hard taco shell. Some called the store bought ones stale or some other negative thing. But I actually like those. I still gave these a shot. Following the directions, they came out perfect. too perfect. I'm so surprised that the corn tortillas fried into the hard taco they did. It's not just a shape, or that it's crunchy cooked instead of dense when uncooked. It's also the taste. This is how they were made to be eaten!! The outside gets crispy and solid to hold in all the essential taco fillings, the inside is still sort of soft and warm. It's the kind of crispy that you enjoy, not the ones that are sharp and tear the roof of your mouth.<br/><br/>Try this. You won't regret it one bit. You might actually love it because corn tortillas are so much cheaper than the flour ones... and now they are tastier, too!<br/><br/>I would post a picture, but the ones I cooked were eaten too fast. Everyone at the table was skeptical about them, going for the flour tortillas or butter fried corn tortillas which were still soft. I turned my back for one second though after happily eating my own creation, and all of a sudden they were all gone and no one cared for the flour tortillas anymore. Back to the kitchen I went to cook more hard tacos, while everyone grudgingly finished the flour tacos they started.

 

[Princess Donna]

This is the ONLY way I have ever known homemade tacos. Only difference is we add a thin strip of cheese in the center of the tortilla while we fry to our desired crispness. The cheese is all melted and gooey! YUMMY!

 

[Brenda.]

This is the way we make our taco shells too. I usually use flour tortillas and use a pair of tongs to fold the tortilla into a taco shell shape and a fork in the other hand to hold down inside the shell as it frys. Flour tortillas have a tendancy to "puff up" when cooking and using the fork to hold down the inside of the shell while frying keeps them opened up so they don't puff up like a giant donut :) I was so tired of buying soft shells for DH and DS and a box of crunchy taco shells for myself that always went stale because I would only use 2 at a time. Thanks for sharing this technique.

 

[SGpratt]

These were excellent! Easy to do and the results were phenomenal ~~ exponentially better than store-bought taco shells. Will make these again!