Air Fryer Tortilla Chips – so crispy!

Imagine warm, restaurant-style tortilla chips made at home. Air fryer tortilla chips satisfy your cravings for a crisp salty snack in just a few minutes.

At a glance

What stands out: Air fryer tortilla chips are a lighter snack and are unbelievably straightforward to mix.

How long it takes: 10 minutes
Equipment you’ll need: air fryer, sharp knife
Servings: 3 (but it’s straightforward to mix more!)

Looking for a speedy snack? Looking for a way to use leftover corn tortillas? Looking for warm restaurant style tortilla chips? You can stop looking, we have the answer for you: air fryer tortilla chips.

Don’t you just love those baskets of warm tortilla chips that are served at some restaurants? We could easily demolish a basket all by myself. We usually have to order at least a couple baskets depending on how many of us are sharing the chips. Yeah, one for us and one for the rest of you.

Now that we've found out how straightforward it is to make from-scratch tortilla chips in both our oven AND our buddy the air fryer, we may have to retire our popcorn popper. Ha, just kidding! That will never happen.

Keep reading if you want to know how seriously straightforward it is to make this tortilla chip recipe. You only need a few ingredients, corn tortillas, oil spray, and salt. These babies are not grease-laden bombs either because they are AIR-fried, not deep-fried. Gotta love it!

Serve them with from-scratch restaurant style salsa, pico de gallo, spicy chipotle salsa (make it in a blender), creamy guacamole, or tangy salsa verde. For something a little different, try citrus salsa with fresh grapefruit, orange, and lime.

Make it a meal with from-scratch crockpot refried beans or wenstant Pot refried beans. No soaking necessary! We love this healthier version of black bean dip, too, or creamy refried bean dip with cream cheese. Make nachos or employ the chips as dippers to go along with this creamy queso chili.

If you’re feeling like a party, make strawberry margarita punch or a cranberry margarita. Or, keep it simple with a icy cold G &T or Negroni.

About This Recipe

From-scratch tortilla chips are a great way to use leftover tortillas. We always seem to have half a package hanging around. Maybe you made fish tacos , tortilla soup, or breakfast tostadas and are wondering what to do with the rest of the tortillas. Voila! No need to waste them, there are crispy chips waiting right around the corner for you.

This is an air fryer recipe so there’s little oil involved in the prep. That means you can wave bye-bye to those fat calories. The clean-up is straightforward too.

By the way, did you know that corn tortillas are gluten-free and vegan? Basically, they are just ground up corn. That’s a pared-down description but ingredient-wise, corn tortillas are just corn. Flour tortillas are made with lard or some other type of fat and can be high in sodium as well.

So here goes. We'll get you started here and give you some extra tips that may be helpful.

Don't Have An Air Fryer?

If you don’t have an air fryer, you may want to try oven baked tortilla chips. They are basically the same thing but baked in the oven. They take a bit longer because it takes awhile for the oven to preheat and there’s not all that hot air blowing around to get them crispy fast.

What You’ll Need

• Corn Tortillas: Look for the taco size. Any size will work fine but the taco size is straightforward to cut into chip-sized wedges. White corn tortillas, yellow corn tortillas, or even flour tortillas are good.
• Avocado or Olive Oil Spray: Just a light misting of spray will give the chips flavor and more crispness. You could brush the chips with oil but you would end up using a lot more oil.
• Kosher Salt: Use as much or as little as you like. We’ll talk more about flavorings in the Make It Your Own section.

Air Fryers

Let us just say that we're on our second air fryer. We use ours a lot! An air fryer is a speedy and straightforward way to cook with good results. There are lots of air fryer models to choose from and it can be a bit confusing. We love this one!

Buy it on Amazon

How it comes together

First step is to apply a little bit of oil to the tortillas. Do it before you cut them into wedges. It’s much easier to apply oil to a whole circle than lots of little pieces.

There are a couple of ways to do this. The easiest way is to mist them lightly with avocado oil spray or olive oil spray. The tortillas get a much lighter layer of oil this way, too. Flip them over and spray the other side, too.

The other way to apply the oil is to brush it on with a pastry brush or baster brush. This method usually results in a bit more oil on the tortillas but there’s nothing wrong with that. If you’re not into spray oils, this is the method for you.

Don’t worry about getting oil on every little bit of the tortilla. It’s just not that fussy; your chips will turn out fine. Lightly sprinkle each tortilla with salt, both sides or just one side. It’s up to you.

Next, cut the tortillas into wedges. Slice them like a pie so you get six triangles per tortilla. You can stack all of the tortillas on top of each other and slice through all of them at once if you have a good sharp knife. If your knife is just so-so, do three of them at a time. A sharp pizza cutter or a kitchen scissors works well too.

Arrange the wedges in the air fryer basket in a single layer. Yup, they probably won’t all fit in one batch unless you have a big air fryer but they cook quickly so it’s not much of a problem.

Air fry them at 350°F for five to seven minutes, checking them occasionally and giving them a shake to make sure they aren’t sticking to each other.

Dump them out onto a plate and enjoy. They crisp up even more as they cool.

Note: Some recipes use no oil but instead brush the tortillas with lime juice before baking. We tested this method but wasn’t happy with the results (soggy!)

Before you start

Make It Your Own

• If you’re not a fan of corn tortillas, make this recipe with flour tortillas. You may decide you like them even better!
• Season your chips with any seasoning that sounds good to you. The popcorn seasonings sold in little bottles work great for chips and come in many flavors.

Keeping leftovers

After the chips have completely cooled, store them in an airtight container or plastic bag. They’ll keep for a few days. If they lose some crispness, crisp them back up in the air fryer for a minute or two.

Air Fryer Snacks

• Yield: 3 servings
• Prep: 5 minutes
• Cook: 5 minutes
• Total: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 6 small (taco size) corn tortillas (see note)
• Avocado or olive oil spray
• ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt, more to taste

Method

1. Brush or spray both sides of each tortilla with oil. Sprinkle one side with salt (or both, if you love them salty).
2. Cut each tortilla into 6 wedges.
3. Place in a single layer in the air fryer basket
4. Air fry at 350°F for 5-7 minutes, checking on them once or twice to make sure they aren’t overlapping, shaking basket if needed.

Notes

While the recipe is written for 6 tortillas, you can choose to make anywhere from 1 tortilla to as many as you like. The tortilla size doesn’t matter that much either. Just cut them into chip-sized wedges.

Nutrition information is for 12 chips, about 1/3 of the recipe. It doesn’t include the avocado/oil spray.

Leftover chips can be stored in an airtight container or resealable bag. Be sure they are completely cool before storing them. If necessary, re-crisp them by putting them back into the air fryer a minute or two.