The Best Homemade Flour Tortillas (with a secret ingredient)

Before I met Natasha I lived in Mexico for about a year in a city named Tepic in Nayarit a couple of hours outside of Puerto Vallarta. While living in Tepic I developed an appreciation for all of the wonderful roadside taqueria stands with salsa bars; never ending buffets overflowing with freshly made salsas and sauces. The other thing that stood out to me were those wonderfully fresh tortillas, I still dream of them from time to time. The taquerias I frequently visited were usually nothing more than a few folding tables with plastic chairs set up and a simple charcoal barbecue you could smell from miles away. Those master taqueria chefs roasted that delicious carne asada and I stopped by for dinner nearly every night.

 Of course, the tortillas at all of these taqueria stands were always corn, but since we always have a bag of all purpose flour lying around, homemade flour tortillas are more approachable, plus Natasha prefers flour tortillas. This tortilla recipe is so easy that they almost make themselves, and let me tell you that if you want to impress your brunch or dinner guests, just set out some tortillas you just made. And you"ll get some oohs and ahhs from your guests if they arrive while you're still cooking them in your cast iron and adding to your tortilla stack.

I originally learned this recipe from Natasha's aunt Connie when she was staying with us. I don't make it exactly how she showed me, and you probably wont do it exactly how I do here and that's the beauty of most recipes, they're meant to be played with, so go and have some fun!

Here's all you need:

 -2 C All Purpose Flour

-1 tsp teaspoon salt

-About 2/3 C of room temperature salted or unsalted butter (WHAT? Yes. Trust me.)

-About 1/4 C warm water (added until dough achieves desired consistency)

Instructions:

1. Add the flour to a medium mixing bowl.

2. Whisk the salt into the flour.

3. Break up the butter into small pieces and add into the flour.

4. Mix up the flour mixture and then add a few splashes of water.

5. Get in there with your hands and work that dough until it forms a ball the texture of playdough.

6. Add more water or flour as needed.

7. Break off pieces of dough a little smaller than ping pong balls.

8. Lightly flour your surface and roll out those balls into rough tortilla shapes! This is also where you can break out your tortilla press to start the shape of the tortilla, but you can also skip it and just use the rolling pin or tequila bottle.

9. Throw the raw tortillas into a medium or large cast iron skillet that is continuously kept at a good medium high temperature.

10. Flip the raw tortilla with a fork after a few bubbles have formed.

11. Build your tortilla stack on a pan in a warm oven. This will keep your tortillas warm and fresh, but will also help to make them more pliable.

Now go and put on some mariachi music or the latest Bad Bunny album, fill a few glasses full of ice, mezcal, and some good margarita mix and start the party already, your guests are getting hungry!