My Authentic Mexican Flour Tortillas are based on the traditional tortillas de agua (water tortillas) of Sonora, Mexico, known for their thin, soft, and ultra-flexible texture thanks to their high water content! Made with just 4 ingredients, they’re rolled thin and cooked quickly over high heat for that traditional flavor and a soft, flexible texture that can hold even heavy fillings without tearing or cracking.
Super easy to make and tastier than store-bought, I use them for Chicken Quesadillas, Grilled Cheese Burritos, Fish Tacos, and more!
Quick Look: Authentic Mexican Flour Tortillas
- ⏰ Ready in: 50 minutes.
- 🍴 Serves: 10-12 tortillas.
- 🥣 Main ingredients: All-purpose flour, lard or oil, water, salt.
- 😋 Taste: Soft, tender, pliable, and lightly salty.
- 🌿 Dietary info: Dairy-free, can be made vegetarian and vegan.
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Why my readers love this recipe!
- Authentic flavor and texture: made with the same simple, traditional ingredients and method they use in Sonora, MX!
- Easy to make. Mix, knead, roll out, cook for just a few seconds, eat!!!
- Ready for ALL the fillings! These tortillas are made to fold, wrap, and roll without cracking or tearing. Load them up and go big (like Chipotle’s hehe!).
Jump to:
- Quick Look: Authentic Mexican Flour Tortillas
- Why my readers love this recipe!
- Ingredients
- Substitutions and Variations
- How to make Authentic Mexican Flour Tortillas
- 4 Pro Tips for Success
- What to make with flour tortillas
- Authentic Mexican Tortillas FAQs
- Storing and Reheating Instructions
- Other Recommended Mexican Recipes
- Authentic Mexican Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
All-purpose flour is the best flour for flour tortillas, any brand will work. It gives these tortillas enough structure to hold together while remaining soft and flexible when rolled thin. And yes, it’s what they traditionally use in Mexico because, yes, flour tortillas are actually (Northern) Mexican, not Tex-Mex!
Lard. This is the traditional fat used in flour tortillas and my top choice because it makes exceptionally flexible tortillas that will stay soft and pliable and almost flaky even when cooling down after cooking, making them less prone to quickly drying out or cracking when folded. It also adds a richer flavor that’s very traditional. And if you have leftover lard after making these, make my Colombian Arepas next!
Hot water. The secret to good Sonoran-style tortillas is lots of hot water, that’s why they’re also known as water tortillas (or “tortillas de agua”). The water should be as hot as your hands can handle because the heat will melt the fat and hydrate the flour more quickly, softening the dough’s structure as you mix. You’ll get a much smoother and easily kneadable dough that won’t spring back and annoy you when rolling it out hehe!
Salt, for a lightly salty flavor. They’re still neutral enough to be slathered in butter and topped with cinnamon sugar if you want, though, so don’t worry!
Substitutions and Variations
Vegetable shortening, the BEST substitution!!! Crisco is what a lot of Mexicans use in Mexico when they don’t want to use lard, and it works! It makes very soft and pliable tortillas that more closely resemble the ones made with lard (minus the lard flavor).
Vegetable oil, sunflower oil, or canola oil. Any neutral-tasting oil will still give you soft tortillas, but you’ll miss out on the slight flakiness and the very Mexican flavor that lard adds. You might also see a different level of tenderness and flexibility as the tortillas cool. I do not recommend peanut oil, olive oil, or coconut oil because the flavor is too strong.
Butter. It works, but it’s not my top choice because, while it adds a rich, buttery flavor, it isn’t a direct equivalent to pure fat. It contains water and milk solids too, so replacing lard with butter changes the composition of the dough. In my testing, the butter tortillas dried out more quickly and were less flexible after cooling than the lard version.
How to make Authentic Mexican Flour Tortillas
Step 1: Mix the flour and salt together.
Step 2: Add in the lard, mixing it into the flour until it’s evenly distributed and forms a sandy texture.
Step 3: Pour in the water a few tablespoon at a time until a sticky dough comes together.
Step 4: Knead until smooth and elastic.
Step 5: Let rest 30 minutes covered in lard or oil.
Step 6: Divide into portions.
Step 7: Roll in flour with a floured rolling pin.
Step 8: Cook for just a few seconds on a hot comal, cast-iron skillet, or griddle, flipping 3 times.
4 Pro Tips for Success
💧 1. The secret to a good pliable tortilla is getting the amount of water just right. Sonora-style tortillas are ultra-pliable because they use more water than fat, but the amount of water needed varies depending on the brand of flour you use and the humidity and altitude where you live. The amount I recommend is a starting point, stop adding water when the dough is sticky and pulls away from the bowl as you mix, and there’s no more dry flour or crumbs.
🌡 2. Make sure the comal, skillet, or griddle you want to use is preheated on very high heat. Flour tortillas cook for just a few seconds on each side, and when you flip them for the third time, they puff up. If the heat isn’t high enough, they’ll dry out instead of cooking instantly!
🖐 3. You can make these by hand or with a stand mixer, which is super convenient if you’re not a fan of kneading! Use a dough hook when mixing the dough.
📏 4. Tortillas vary in size from about 4 inches to over 12 inches (10-30 cm). Sonora-style tortillas are typically on the larger side, but I usually make mine a standard medium size, which works great for most dishes. If you want taco size, go for 5 inches (12 cm).
What to make with flour tortillas
- Chicken Quesadilla or any flavor of your choice!
- Grilled Cheese Burrito or any burrito you love!
- Tacos like my Birria Tacos, Fried Fish Tacos, Skirt Steak Tacos, and even Salmon Tacos!
- Enchiladas.
- Fajitas.
- Chimichangas.
- Wraps.
- Tortilla chips (cut in triangles, fry in hot oil, that’s it!).
- Enjoy as a snack with butter, roasted green chiles, butter and cinnamon sugar, or salsa.
- Roll up with my Homemade Chorizo sausages with a squeeze of lime!
- Serve with my Creamy Chipotle Chicken and use them to scoop up the sauce!
- Serve with soups and stews.
Authentic Mexican Tortillas FAQs
Baking powder isn’t needed, it’s a more modern addition, as flour tortillas were created in the 16th century and baking powder was invented in the 19th century. Baking powder creates a thicker, more bread-like texture, while my Sonoran-style tortillas are meant to be rolled ultra-thin and stay soft and flexible. For the texture this recipe is designed to achieve, you really don’t need it.
No, flour tortillas tend to shrink a lot when pressed, a rolling pin is quicker and easier for these. You can use the press for corn tortillas!
The best tool is obviously a Mexican comal, which is a flat, rimless round griddle that holds stable intense heat, but a cast-iron skillet is a perfect substitute as it has good high heat retention. If you have a flat cast-iron, that’s even better so you don’t have high rims getting in the way. A griddle also works great. I don’t recommend non-stick skillets because when I tested tortillas with those, I noticed the pan couldn’t handle the continuous high dry heat required to quickly cook and char tortillas, so they’d turn out drier and not as good.
Puffing happens when steam and expanding air create pockets between parts of the dough. If your tortillas aren’t puffing, check the pan temperature: if the pan isn’t hot enough, it can dry out the tortilla before it even develops those pockets. Uneven thickness can also keep them from puffing up, especially if the center is much thicker than the edges. Even when made perfectly, not every tortilla will puff up, so don’t stress. A tortilla that turns out soft, pliable, and delicious is a success!
Storing and Reheating Instructions
Storing: Store room-temperature leftover tortillas in a Ziploc bag, making sure you press out any extra air so they won’t dry up. Store in the refrigerator for up to 5-6 days.
Freezing: Allow to come down to room temperature, and store stacked in a Ziploc bag, with a layer of parchment paper between each tortilla to keep them from sticking for up to 6 weeks.
Reheating: Reheat on a comal, skillet, or griddle over medium-high heat until soft and pliable again.
Other Recommended Mexican Recipes
If you make this recipe, be sure to comment and rate it down below. Also, don't forget to tag us @itsdamnspicy on Instagram and use the hashtag #itsdamnspicy so I can see your creations and re-share them with my followers! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Authentic Mexican Flour Tortillas
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup (60 g) lard (vegetable shortening is the best non-animal fat substitute)
- 3/4 cups and 2 tbsp (210 ml) hot water (the water should be as hot as your hands can handle)
Instructions
- Mix the flour and salt in a large bowl.
- Add the lard to the flour and work it with your hands until it distributes evenly through the flour and forms a sandy texture.
- Pour in the water 1/4 cup (60 ml) at a time while kneading, until a sticky dough that pulls away from the bowl comes together, it should form into one cohesive mass and leave no dry flour or loose crumbs behind. Some stickiness is ok but it shouldn't feel so wet that it sticks to your hands or is impossible to knead. You might not need all of the water, as it depends on how your brand of flour absorbs it and even on the level of humidity and altitude.
- Rest the dough. Form the dough into a ball, cover in lard or oil and return to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap to keep the dough from drying out. Rest for 30 minutes.
- Preheat a comal, skillet, or griddle over high heat.
- Roll out. Divide the dough into 10-12 pieces. Place a piece on a lightly floured work surface and flatten it slightly with your hand. Using a floured rolling pin, roll from the center outward, applying even pressure. After every one or two passes, rotate the dough a quarter turn and roll again. This helps you work each side evenly. Keep rotating the tortilla clockwise as you roll it out to achieve a round shape. Your tortillas should be thin enough that you can almost see light through the center and the edges should be nearly as thin as the center. If the dough starts sticking, dust the surface with a small amount of flour. Cover the pieces you're not rolling out with plastic wrap so they don't dry out.
- Cook. Once the comal, cast-iron skillet, or griddle is very hot, place a rolled tortilla on it. Cook for just 5-10 seconds: look for the first small bubbles to form on the surface, then flip when those early bubbles appear. After flipping, cook for another 5-10 seconds and look for the bubbles again, flip a third time to finish cooking the tortilla (another 5 seconds). After this flip, the tortilla may puff up. If it doesn't, don't panic, it's okay, just remove it from the heat and immediately wrap it in a clean kitchen towel. A successful tortilla is soft, flexible, pale in color with scattered dark spots. As each tortilla comes off the pan, stack it with the others and wrap the stack in the kitchen towel: the retained warmth and moisture help keep the tortillas from drying out as they cool. Keep the stack covered while you cook.
Steve maestas says
Good morning, I made the tortillas they came out perfect. I got up early and decided I would make them for my wife for Valentines Day, She’s going to love them. Thank you for the recipe I will always use it, just like my mom made, God rest her soul she would be so proud of me. Thank you again God bless you 🙏 ❤️