How To Give Your Store-Bought Tortillas A From-Scratch Taste & Texture

There's nothing like experiencing restaurant-quality food in your own home — and no, we don't mean ordering takeout. You have to admit that those dinner delivery or lunch leftovers just don't taste as good, and it can feel impossible to recreate restaurant food at home. Some of the hardest ingredients to master are the simplest, like a good ole tortilla. A staple in South American and Mexican cuisine, restaurant tortillas are fluffy and moist in all the right places yet have that nicely seared crunch just when you need them to. Getting that same effect with store-bought tortillas is impossible, right? Wrong.

Think of store-bought tortillas as a gateway, not a barrier to your cooking. By all means, try making restaurant-quality flour tortillas from scratch — or use some simple kitchen hacks to breathe new life into a pack from the grocer. The quintessential step to improving your tortillas is warming them up. Thankfully, there are a variety of ways to do this, both for flour and corn tortillas, depending on what best suits your dish and your preferred texture.

Some hacks to upgrading your tortillas require prep ahead of heating them up, but that's simply to make the most out of each one. With so many methods to choose from, ranging from quick and easy to requiring more specialized tools, you'll have restaurant-quality tortillas at home in no time — and nobody will be able to tell you got them at the store earlier that day.

For the best results, you want to start with a moist tortilla. While you may think being trapped in a plastic bag would help, it actually takes away that fresh taste you get at a restaurant and leaves your store-bought tortillas a bit lifeless. To revive them, give your tortillas a dunk in a bowl of water — no need to drown them, just a quick in and out — before throwing them onto your cooking surface. 

Particularly with corn tortillas, this helps break down the starches and prevents your tortilla from becoming a flaky mess. Just be sure you know when to use flour versus corn tortillas, but dunking them in water will always make for better cooking.

Once you've added your moisture, it's time to get your tortillas heated up using your kitchen stovetop. No, we're not saying throw them directly on the burner — grab a skillet, add an extra splash of water to the pan for more moisture, and let each side of the tortilla heat up. 

Adding water to the pan instead of something like oil or butter will allow you to warm the tortillas without making them crispy. Keep the heat on the stove medium to low and let your tortillas turn into cozy blankets for your other ingredients. But know that this is just one of the ways to warm store-bought tortillas for better flavor.

Not all tortilla recipes call for a soft shell. In fact, some dishes, like tostadas, are served on a bed made from a crispy tortilla — something you can accomplish with store-bought tortillas by firing up the oven. Best for tortillas with a smaller diameter, lay them out flat on a baking sheet or directly on an oven rack and allow them to lightly toast until golden brown.

 Not only will this puff up the texture of your meal and add a satisfying crispiness, but it will also remove some of the plastic flavor that comes from sitting in a bag. You can even slice the tortillas before you toast them to make your own chips! You simply can't go wrong.

We don't always have the luxury of a full kitchen to heat up store-bought goods, but a microwave can do the trick with your tortilla if you use it correctly. You can easily microwave up to a dozen tortillas at a time, so long as you seal in enough moisture. 

One option is to wrap the stack of tortillas in plastic wrap, flipping halfway through for even cooking — and the other is to place the tortillas in a microwave-safe dish and cover them with a damp towel while cooking. Both methods keep the moisture locked in and make for a quick solution to prepping large batches. Just make sure you heat them in short bursts or you cut the power to 50% to prevent them from burning or sticking.

Some at-home chefs shy away from frying and the dangers of hot oil, but just a small amount can give your store-bought tortilla the ultimate upgrade. Using a high-heat oil you can give your tortillas a crispy bath that will give them a deeper flavor and that signature crunch. While you can keep the tortillas flat, frying is actually a great way to mold your tortillas into taco shells. 

You can either fold the tortilla in half and fry one side at a time to get that classic cup shape, or stuff your tortillas and heat the whole taco at once, so your ingredients seep into the shell for more flavor. Note that it is safe to reuse your cooking oil, so you can heat all the tortillas in one go.

If tortillas are brought out separately in a restaurant, odds are they'll come on a special lidded dish. These tortilla warmers not only look festive but provide an air-tight home for your heated tortillas to rest and stay moist before eating them. This keeps the soft texture intact without compromising the flavor before eating them. Many warmers can go straight into the microwave, but check your make's individual instructions.

Granted, you can create a makeshift tortilla warmer by covering a plate with a towel, but it won't have that good heat seal. So, if you know you plan to serve tortillas to a large crowd, need a place to store and serve them from, or simply eat them regularly, a tortilla warmer is a great investment for flavor and functionality.