Chapter 2.75: Corn Chips
I can’t imagine my childhood without the presence of some form of chips.
For me I associate chips with the corner store, and as a part of my little $1 budget if my grandma had visited over the weekend. With my dollar I could either save it to get Pokémon cards or a higher commodity snack (e.g. a cartoon ice cream bar), but more often than not I used it to get 25 cent bags of chips and 5 cent candies.
Of all of the chips, my favorite was and will always be Party Mix, and within the party mix the corn chip fritos. I never intended to try and recreate them, but at some point in my mid-teens my mom got really excited about making a pupusa recipe from one of the PBS shows we were watching at the time. This led us to learning about masa cornmeal.
Then, somehow, that led us to figuring out we could make our own corn chips using masa. Although our attempts at making pupusas were hit and miss (leave it to the pros from South and Central America) we did get the hang of making our own corn chips to accompany lunch-time sandwich situations.
Originally I was going to make sour cream and onion chips for this section, but then I realized I hardly crave potatoes in the summer (when I recorded this section) and if I bought them just for this recipe, they’d go bad. However, purchasing masa de harina would work for these chips and I’d be more likely to use it in another recipe. So, here we are.
The Receipt - Masa de Harina Corn Chips
Yield: ~ 4 cups of chips
Ingredients:
2 cups Masa de Harina (fine cornmeal treated with lime, learn more hur)
1/4 to 1 cup Water (it depends on the humidity and time of year you make this, but pour that water slowly to avoid an overly-sticky situation)
1-2 teaspoons Flaky Salt (you can also use any ole’ regular salt, but a nice fleur de sal on your chips is nice, even better if it’s got herbs/smoked peppers in it)
Step to It:
Measure the masa into a medium bowl, and slowly add in the water starting with 1/4 cup, then use your hands to mix the dough. Squishing it to help the masa fully absorb the water before adding more water.
Once the masa and water are combined well, the dough should be soft and moist but not sticky. Flatten it and wrap in plastic, or a reusable zippy bag, and chill for about 30-60 minutes in the fridge.
Break the dough up into 2” rounds, cover the rounds that you’re not working on.
Lightly dust some masa on your countertop, take a round, and flatten the round on your countertop with a rolling pin, empty bottle, or your fingers.
Use a sharp knife to cut the flattened dough into 1 and 1/2” by 1/2” strips.
Prepare a plate with paper towels, or a metal cooling rack with fine grids.
In a skillet heat about 1/2” of oil over medium-high heat. You can test whether the oil is hot by sprinkling a little masa or flour in the pan, it should sizzle. If it doesn’t sizzle, let it heat a bit more.
Once the oil is hot carefully place cut slices of dough into oil and brown on both sides, about 2-3 minutes on each side. Use a slotted spoon to gather the chips and place into the prepared plate or rack. Immediately sprinkle with salt and continue frying remaining dough pieces.
Enjoy chips alone or with your favorite soup!
