Garlicky Black Pepper Tortilla Chips

Are you familiar with the I Heart Cooking Clubs? Twice a year, a celebrity chef is featured and entrants cook something each week from the chef's recipe collection. The chef this time is Rick Bayless. I love Mexican food, so I had to join this time.

There's a theme entrants must adhere to each week, and this week's theme is "Bienvenido Rick!" and we were to choose any of Rick's recipes to make. Since this is my first time with I Heart Cooking Clubs, and because it's the start of the Rick Bayless series, I had to go with a starter... an antojito (ahn-toh-HEE-toh).

I chose to make the Garlicky Black Pepper Tortilla Chips, but I had to put a little spin on it. The recipe calls for making a garlic and black pepper infused oil, which is then painted onto store-bought tortilla chips and baked in the oven for a short time.

I knew I wanted to deep fry my own tortilla chips and certainly didn't want to "paint" oil onto a chip already fried in oil, so I had to adapt the recipe.

I served the chips, which turned out to be very tasty, with some of my Zucchini Salsa and Rick's recipe for a 3-ingredient Easy Old Fashioned Margarita.

Next week's theme is "sweet tooth", so I'm off to hunt for a nice dessert. I think I have one in mind already!

PRINT RECIPE

Homemade Garlicky Black Pepper Tortilla Chips

1 pkg corn tortillas

oil for frying

6 large garlic cloves, pressed

1/2 tsp black pepper

3 T Kosher salt

Mix pressed garlic, salt, and pepper with a fork and set aside. Heat oil to 375F. Stack tortillas and cut into 8 wedges; separate. Working in batches, fry tortillas until crisp, about one minute. Remove chips from oil and drain on paper towels, then toss chips into a brown paper bag. Continue frying until all tortillas have been used and put into the bag. Pour the salt mixture into the bag and shake gently to distribute. Lay chips on a baking sheet and bake at 325F for 10 minutes. Serve with your favorite salsa and a Margarita!