Make thick and fluffy flour tortillas with this easy to follow recipe. Requires no special equipment! Enjoy restaurant style tortillas in your own home! This post contains affiliate shopping links which help support this site.
Thick and Fluffy Flour Tortillas
I used to live for trips to Mexican restaurants that made thick, fresh tortillas from scratch. I'd hardly care what I ordered, so long as I could receive a steady supply of stacks upon stacks of tortillas.
Thick, restaurant style tortillas are so very different from the thin, tasteless packaged tortillas you get in the grocery store. That's hardly a tortilla at all in my book.
Some Mexican restaurants are even switching to corn tortillas, like Frontera Cocina down here at Disney Springs in Orlando.
Don't get me wrong; I adore corn tortillas, but there will always be a place in my heart for the fluffiest, thickest flour tortillas.
So, years ago, I looked up a recipe for tortillas made without lard. This was literally almost a decade ago. I jotted down the basics of the recipe and have been working to master it ever since. I wish I knew the original source, but, alas, it's been lost to time.
So although I'm usually very good about citing my sources, I'll have to let this one go. If you happen to recognize it, let me know and I'll give credit. (UPDATE 1/25/2016: A savvy reader recognized this from Homesick Texan! Mystery solved!)
If you like Mexican food, I must also encourage you to seek out one of the great gems of Mexico: Mexican Coca-Cola. Our local grocery stores carry it in 6-packs of glass bottles. It's made with sugar instead of corn syrup, and yes it tastes totally different. It's the champagne of cola!
Please do yourself the favor of finding it, chilling it, and sipping it straight (no dilution with ice, please).
Tips for Making Tortillas
There are a few tricks that will make your tortilla efforts a lot easier. These tips will help keep you from making all the mistakes I've made over the years!
- Measure carefully. It is far better to start with too little flour than too much, because too much flour cannot be corrected once mixed. Too much flour equals tough, hard-to-roll-out tortillas.
- Rest the tortillas for the full period of time suggested in the recipe. Too little rest = too tough to roll out.
- Let your skillet preheat for 5 minutes before cooking. A pan that's not hot enough will not cook the tortilla properly, leaving it pale and gummy.
- Don't leave the balls of dough exposed, or they will quickly begin to dry and become harder to roll out.
- As you cook the tortillas, put the finished ones in a stack on a plate and cover loosely with a sheet of foil. That will keep them warm and moist. Or get yourself a handy tortilla keeper—this one is made in the USA and is BPA-free, melamine-free, and microwaveable (for reheating tortillas as needed).
Thick and Fluffy Flour Tortillas Recipe
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour (for gluten free see note)
- 1 ½ teaspoon baking powder
- ¾ teaspoon sea salt
- 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil or your preferred vegetable oil
- ¾ cup warm milk
Instructions
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Stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Drizzle with the olive oil and stir again. Add the milk and stir, scraping down the sides and bottom of the bowl, until dough comes together. It should be a little sticky, but not extremely sticky. If it is extremely sticky, sprinkle on a tiny bit of flour until it is just a little sticky.
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Knead dough for 2 minutes, then form it into a large ball. Place in a clean bowl and cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for 20 minutes.
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Cut the dough into 8 equal sections and roll each section into a ball. Place the dough balls back in the bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let it rest for 15 minutes.
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Heat a nonstick skillet on medium low for 5 minutes. While you are preheating the skillet, roll out a dough ball into a round shape, as thin as you can manage without making it so thin it will tear.
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Place the tortilla in the skillet. Wait 30 seconds or so until the tortilla puffs up, and the side facing down has little golden brown spots. Flip it. Cook another 30 seconds or so until a few golden brown spots appear. Put on a plate and cover loosely with foil (add your cooked tortillas to this stack as you go, so they stay warm and moist until ready to serve).
Recipe Notes
To make these tortillas gluten free (yes, I've done it many times and it works perfectly), substitute Cup4Cup Multipurpose flour for the all purpose flour.
If you like Mexican food, also try these recipes from my collection:
Thank you so much for this recipe! I can't tell you how many tortilla recipes I have tried that just gave me flat, lifeless results. These were wonderful -- warm, fluffy, soft, EXACTLY what we were looking for. They reminded me of the tortillas we used to get at our favorite Mexican restaurant ... this is a permanent addition to my recipe collection!
I love it too! So much I even made a gluten free version. 🙂 Glad you're enjoying these super fluffy tortillas!
You ever just meet a recipe that changes your cooking life forever ? Money is tight - it's year 2 of the pandemie and I need to save those dollars where I can. My life of disappointment when I go to grab the uncooked tortillas from the store only to find out that once again that section has been ransacked and only the 5 dollar pack of organic gluten free tortillas remain are over! Been making these for months and wanted to thank you for sharing this recipe - me and my partner experiment with adding ingredients to the dough before cooking (finely chopped tomatoes and onions are a fav right now) and we use king arthur flour because a good quality flour is smth you should never skimp on. Thanks!
That is just fantastic to hear! Thank you for commenting! 🙂
I’ve been searching for a copycat recipe for the flour tortillas from Frontier Restaurant in Albq, NM. The picture of this tortilla looks identical to Frontier’s; so I’m looking forward to trying this!
I’m curious: you emphasize being careful with the flour measurements; while rolling out the dough, is the roller and the surface lightly floured?
It can be. I've done it both ways, depending on the surface. As long as you don't go too crazy with extra flour you should be just fine. 🙂
I’m in search of a Frontier copycat recipe, curious if you ended up trying this recipe and how it compared?
I find spraying the surface with a little oil to overcome the stickiness works without adding additional flour.
Looking forward to trying these tonight. Canada also has coke made with sugar. We often take some across the border for friends who prefer Canadian Coke
We tried your tortilla recipe today and it very good. We had looked for a tortilla that wasn’t too thin. The tortilla was easy to roll and was soft and chewy. Thank you for the recipe.
Really delicious! Sweet and slightly crunchy. Can be served with pickles! Awesome!!
I dont know what I did wrong. I followed your directions and amounts perfectly but my dough came out dry and lumpy
I really liked using warm milk instead of water - it gave the tortillas a very nice texture in your mouth.
As for puffy - that didn't happen. I'm thinking I didn't rest it long enough.
I make pancakes with no acidity and they puff, so my guess is just not resting the right times because my b powder is brand new. I'll definitely try again.
Used almond milk, EVOO + sunflower oil, tortilla press
Soooo good!
Thank you for this recipe! The tortillas are soft and pliable and make excellent wraps.
I like to add a tad brown sugar and sub the olive oil with melted butter for more flavor.
...and then add enough salad and veggies to make up for it 😉
For years....YEARSSSS! I've been searching for something like what my grandma used to make. My family is from Texas. South Texas and Northern Mexico. So I guess these are normal there. I live in Southern California now...and you can't find these anywhere. And migas. You can't find migas.
This is the only recipe that gets close to what my grandma made. I teared up a little. I haven't had them in so long. I'm 100% sure she used lard, but the texture, taste, and feel was close enough.
Thank you for posting this. I made them tonight and shared them with my wife. I was so happy.
The same thing happened to me. I added some warm water which helped me knead it into a ball but not sure what that is going to do to the recipe. I'm currently waiting for it to rest!
These are so easy and extremely delicious! I’m having issues reheating though. What’s the best method to reheat them without them breaking?
Two ways: microwave between paper towels; or, in a heated pan on the stovetop, with a lid if possible to hold in steam and warmth. Microwave can make them a bit chewy but sometimes that's a good thing. Stovetop is good but can dry them out a bit. You might moisten them with a few drops of water first.
These are so good. I had another tortilla recipe that I usually use but the last few batches had turned out dry and cardboard like. So I did a Google search for fluffy tortillas and this recipe came up. I made them for lunch and it was just what I wanted. I just deleted my old recipe and this one will now be my go-to!
Can I use water instead of milk? Will it still be fluffy?
I haven't tried that, so I can't say for sure.
I never understood, why people wanna get the hazzle of kneading it, making balls, then cut it up, then roll the dough, it's such a waste, when all you have to do, is just add some water to the mix, then the dough is so liquid, like a Pancake Batter, that you can just pour it into the Pan 🙂 No kneading, no cutting, no rolling = a lot of time, efforts, and dishwashing saved 🙂
Wow thank you made them and they r perfect puffy with spots soft and delicious. Added to my collection thank you