The other week I posted the classic Italian recipe Pollo e Patate. Today I crisped up the chicken in the air fryer and reheated the potatoes on the stove. Did you see the tortillas I was all happy about the other day? They make California sized burritos. The Pollo e Patate went inside the tortillas along with cheese, sour cream and avocado to make a tasty burrito.
Because the tortilla wasn’t crispy my wife got to experience it in all its soft starchy glory. “This tortilla is amazing! It reminds me of everything I love about eating raw pie crust.” Five ingredient tortillas are the best.
Anyway Italian to Mexican with the same starter recipe. A good day.
In terms of size, restaurant-grade tortillas are hard to find around here, yet are fairly necessary in order to put together a nicely-sealed burrito. Then there’s the other problem of traditionally-made tortillas running quite high in kcals, easily going over 200.
As someone trying to manage my weight, I usually just wimp out, buy the low-carb medium-sized tortillas (60 kcals), making a complete mess of myself whenever I have burritos.
Side note: if anybody knows what I’m talking about, Qdoba* offers these enormous, thin, gooey tortillas that can produce a delicious houseboat-sized burrito. I guess they’re using high-gluten flour or something, which greatly helps make those suckers elastic and flexible. Unusually good taste for an American-style tortilla, too.
* I think that’s the chain.
the mexican restaurants where i live steam the tortillas and it makes them extra pliable for wrapping. Works with the store bought tortillas if you put a wire baking rack on a big saucepan on the stove and boil a little water with a bit of foil or large lid on top of the tortilla
You can also just microwave them for like 20-30 seconds with a damp paper towel on top - works amazng for making store bought tortillas super pliable without any special equipment!
definitely not the same, having done it both ways. and neither of these ways is as effective as the tortilla steamer press the restaurants use.
Yeah, good point. And seems to confirm what I found below.
If you don’t have a strategically-sized wire rack, I’ve found that taking a used, thin can (like for sardines) and removing both ends serves as a great way to balance a plate on top of the can, which sits in a big saucepan or wok, filled with enough water to steam. Handy for making all kinds of steamed food, like veggies or dumplings.
I’d also meant to mention that pre-wetting tortillas in general helps unlock their flavor. It’s almost shocking how much better they taste than dry, and of course you can still crisp them up however you like.
your steaming apparatus sounds very clever!
Those tortillas are made from regular AP flour. It is the default style tortilla throughout California. When they are filled with dough conditioners for stabilization they lose that stretch.
Mission flour tortillas:
I guess I’ve probably had theirs somewhere along the way, but I’ve never had tortillas anywhere that were as elastic and unique as Qdoba’s.
However, Google AI just now suggested some things which might tell the tale:
Probably best that I don’t eat there very often, but good to know.
I seldom go. Some of that is location and lack of money. But on more than a few occasions it’s frustrating. I like basic burritos like meat, peppers and guacamole. But they aren’t in that mindset and want to put everything in. So I have to repeatedly explain the order and at each step confirm that I don’t want anything else and then when I finally get to the end I have no idea if I’m getting charged full price or if the clerk is going to charge the less expensive per item cost and I’m already frustrated so I’m not going to argue with them.
Every. Damn. Time.
I forget if it’s Qdoba or another place, but I’ve seen people say that it’s easier to order a bowl, then ask for tortillas on the side. I think the point is that it’s cheap, and there’s more flexibility to make it how you want. *shrug*
One thing that bothers me personally is that most places seem to assume you want rice. But as it’s typically based on white rice (before becoming ‘Mexican Rice’ or whatever), you’re starting with what is essentially junk food, stripped of it’s fibrous hull and most nutrients. Plus of course, there’s the arsenic content found in most rice.