Homemade Tortillas

I love tortillas especially homemade ones which are considerably cheaper than store bought. (And, have a better taste...in my opinion.) We grilled up 5 lbs of bbq chicken over 4th of July, so I was trying to decide what to make with all that yummy chicken. Tonight, we are going to have bbq chicken quesadillas with mozzarella cheese, onions, and peppers served on homemade tortillas. Here's my recipe that I adapted from Cooks.com.

Homemade Flour Tortillas

2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
3/4 cup lukewarm milk

That's it! That is all the ingredients you need. Easy as pie...no, that's not true...these are WAY easier than pie crust! :)

In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the oil to the lukewarm milk and whisk together briefly to incorporate. Gradually add the milk to the flour mixture and work in a sticky dough. You can use your hands or I just use a fork. Place dough onto a flour dusted surface and knead for about 2 minutes until the dough is no longer sticky. You might have to add a tad more flour but not much. It's a pretty dry dough. Return dough to the bowl, cover with a damp cloth and allow to rest for 10-20 minutes. This makes the dough easier to roll out.



Divide dough into 8 balls of equal size. I use a pizza cutter to evenly divide the dough and then roll into 8 balls. Cover them with the same towel and let them rest for another 20 minutes. Don't let them touch each other or they can stick together.



Preheat a dry skillet or griddle on medium.

Dust your counter with flour again. One at a time, remove each ball of dough and press it out into a 5 inch circle. Using flour dusted rolling pin, roll out the tortilla from the center out, turn the tortillas 1/4 turn, roll out again starting in the center, and repeat until the tortilla measures a little less than 1/4 inch thick and is a 7-8 inch circle. (It's okay if your circle isn't really a circle...remember these are homemade not machine made!)



Transfer the tortilla to a dry preheated skillet or griddle. Cook for about 30 seconds to 1 minute on first side. Flip it over when it's lightly browned. Cook the other side a little less time than the first. Remove tortilla with a spatula or tongs--they do get really hot! Place the cooked tortillas on a paper towel and cover loosely with foil. (I use my tortilla warmer that we got for a wedding present almost 7 years ago...finally I have a use for it!) You can also butter the tortillas before covering.



Repeat for remaining tortillas. As you get comfortable rolling out the dough and remembering to check the cooking tortilla, then you can cook one while rolling out another. Don't stack uncooked tortillas because they will stick together. Side note: these tortillas freeze great! Wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and place in a freezer bag to freeze. Enjoy!

So, here's our finished dinner: bbq chicken quesadillas with bacon (for dh), mozzarella cheese, red, orange and yellow peppers, and purple onions. They were so GOOD! :)