10 Biggest Mistakes Everyone Makes When Cooking With Corn Tortillas

If you like making enchiladas, tacos, and tostadas, then you probably work with corn tortillas on the regular. Their distinct texture, subtle corn flavor, and pliability mean that they work exceptionally well in lots of Mexican, Mexican-inspired, and Tex-Mex dishes. But, let's be honest: It's a food that can be finicky. And if you don't know how to work with corn tortillas, then you can easily break or tear them, leave them mushy and soft, or otherwise ruin the dish you're trying to make.

To help you avoid these disastrous corn tortilla outcomes, we've spoken with food experts Ryan Allen, food content creator, recipe developer, and founder of Slow Cooker Meals; Mark McShane, chef and food safety expert at Food Hygiene Certificate; Ethan Parker, recipe developer at SpoonSoul.com; and Chef Sean Huggard, founder and president of Shucking Good Hospitality. They've outlined some of the most common mistakes home cooks make with corn tortillas and provided some guidance for making sure you don't make the same mistakes. Your corn tortilla-based recipes are about to get a lot tastier.

Have you ever found that your corn tortillas crack and break when you start filling them with other ingredients? We've been there, and it can be a huge bummer. It can make the whole recipe fall apart and leave you with a mess on your plate. If this is happening to you, though, it's likely because you're not heating your corn tortillas up before using them. This, says Ryan Allen, is a big mistake that can cause the structural integrity of your tacos, enchiladas, and more to crumble.

"Warming your tortillas (corn or flour) before serving is generally a good idea," explains Allen. "Right out of the package, tortillas are dry and hard to fold without them cracking. They need just 20 to 30 seconds per side in a dry skillet, or a quick spin in the microwave wrapped in a damp towel." No microwave? Just wrap them in some aluminum foil and place them in a 350 F oven for about 10 minutes to ensure that they're nice and pliable once you take them out.

Of course, there may be times when you need to heat up a larger quantity of tortillas to make sure everyone around the table is fed. This is especially true when you're working with small tortillas, which tend to be eaten in large quantities. But it's a mistake to try to warm all of those tortillas up one by one in a pan. And if you don't have access to a microwave or oven (or just don't want to use them), then there's another way to heat up large batches of corn tortillas: with a vegetable steamer.

According to Chef Rick Bayless, all you have to do is put some water on the stove, turn on the heat, and wait until it boils. Then, place the steamer on the pan, put your tortillas in the steamer, and take it all off the heat, letting the tortillas steam for about 10 to 15 minutes. This guarantees you have tons of freshly steamed tortillas in a pretty hands-off way.

One of the most significant mistakes you can make with corn tortillas doesn't actually involve the cooking process at all. Rather, it's all about how you store them. One thing you definitely don't want to do is leave the bag open for too long while those corn tortillas are just hanging out in the back of your pantry. According to Mark McShane, "Tortillas dry out very quickly when exposed to air, and once they lose moisture, it's hard to bring them back to life. People leave an open package on the counter or refrigerate them without sealing them tightly, which causes cracking and tearing." This could lead to dishes that fall apart as you're trying to eat them, leaving behind a crumbly mess in the food's place.

So, how exactly should you store corn tortillas? They're best stored in the refrigerator in a sealed zip-top bag or other sealable container. However, if you don't plan on using them in short order, you can also freeze them to use for later.

When you're making tacos, most of your focus is probably on the fillings. If you're like a lot of us, then you really want to load up on a ton of fillings to maximize the flavor of every bite. But for the best results, you also have to think about how your corn tortilla is going to hold up to all of those fillings. This is why Ryan Allen says that it's a mistake to overfill your corn tortillas.

"When it comes to tacos," says Allen, "I see this all the time, but burritos suffer the same fate. Cooks fear ripping or destroying tortillas by overfilling them." So, what's the solution? Well, you'll want to be realistic about how much you can really fit into a single tortilla. According to Allen, "Leaving space around the edges and layering ingredients sensibly — protein on the bottom, lighter toppings on top — is key." Once you start filling a few tacos, you'll get a better sense of just how much the tortillas you're working with can hold.

When you're heating up corn tortillas, whether you're making them from scratch or you're just taking a few premade ones out of a bag for a quick and easy meal, you want to ensure that they're cooked properly. We've already discussed the importance of warming them up before adding in the fillings or toppings of your choice, but understanding how exactly to do so is integral to ensuring your tortillas come out perfectly every time. One mistake that home cooks tend to make, even when they remember to heat up the tortillas before serving, is cooking them on low heat.

"Heat control is where most people struggle," explains Sean Huggard. "Medium to medium-high heat usually works best. You're looking for light brown spotting and, ideally, a gentle puff on the final flip. That puff tells you the interior has cooked through properly." Medium-high heat on a stove is generally considered to be around 350 F to 400 F. Of course, if you're steaming the tortillas or heating them up in the microwave or oven, this doesn't necessarily apply. However, if you're not trying to take any shortcuts and you are cooking them on a pan, it's good to remember to make sure you're using high-enough heat.

A lot of home cooks are used to pouring some oil in a pan whenever they put one on the stove. But most of the time when you're working with corn tortillas, you should be working with a dry pan. It can actually be a big mistake to add oil to the pan before heating your tortillas. "Another frequent issue is adding oil to the pan," says Ethan Parker. "Traditional corn tortillas are cooked on a dry, hot surface. Oil can cause uneven browning and prevent proper puffing." Plus, all that oil can make eating your tacos even messier than usual.

However, there are some exceptions that might necessitate the use of oil. If you're making tostadas with corn tortillas, for instance, you'll want to actually fry them to get them nice and crisp so they can hold up to all the toppings you plan on adding. Otherwise, though, you should avoid the oil and cook your corn tortillas on a hot, dry pan.

Most of the mistakes we've covered here revolve around store-bought tortillas. However, real tortilla lovers know that the packaged variety just can't compare to freshly made tortillas. Yes, they take a bit more effort than the premade ones, but that effort is absolutely worth it when you see how much more pliable they are and how beautifully soft the texture can be. And when you use particularly high-quality masa, you'll get a richer, more corn-forward flavor instead of the rather neutral flavor profile you'd expect from the store-bought kind.

Luckily, making your own corn tortillas from scratch isn't quite as tricky as it may seem. In fact, when you follow our recipe, you'll find that you can make a full batch of corn tortillas in under 30 minutes, using only three ingredients. Once you start making your own tortillas, you'll never want to go back to the store-bought variety again.

If you don't tend to work with tortillas in your home kitchen very often, then you may assume that corn and flour tortillas are pretty much interchangeable, apart from the slight differences in flavor. This, however, just isn't true. That misconception leads some people to make the mistake of using corn tortillas for the wrong kind of fillings. "Corn tortillas are classic," says Ryan Allen, "but they can break under the weight of lots of filling[s], cheese, and salsa." Even if you warm them up properly before serving, you might find that they simply can't hold up to whatever you're filling them with.

This is why, says Allen, "Flour tortillas are generally used for wraps (or burritos), because they're stretchy." Therefore, if you're making a burrito or any other type of dish that requires a lot of fillings, you might want to rethink using corn tortillas — they may just not suit the types of fillings you're craving.

When you go out to eat at your favorite Mexican restaurant and order a plate of tacos with corn tortillas, you might notice that they come with not one, but two tortillas. This might seem like a mistake to those who don't know better — maybe the chef just accidentally doubled up — but it's actually a great way to use these tortillas. After all, corn tortillas are known for cracking and breaking easily, causing your fillings to spill out all over your plate. By doubling up on the corn tortillas, you can more easily count on the structural integrity of your taco. This is why it may be a mistake not to use two corn tortillas when it comes to tacos.

That being said, you don't have to use two corn tortillas for every recipe. Enchiladas, tostadas, and other tortilla-based dishes that don't have to hold so many ingredients generally don't require two tortillas per serving.

We've all been there: You had a taco night a few weeks ago, and the package of leftover corn tortillas got shoved to the back of the pantry. You've just found them, but they're stale. You should just throw them away, right? Not so fast! There's actually a lot you can do with stale tortillas, so it's a mistake to throw them away, especially if you're trying to fight food waste in your kitchen.

Migas is one of our favorite dishes in which to use stale tortillas. It calls for both corn tortillas and eggs, which you'll scramble together in a pan to create a delicious, nutritious, and filling meal that can be enhanced with a wide array of toppings. You can also use them in soup, either by creating crunchy slivers of tortillas for a texturally interesting topping or by thickening the broth with them. And if you have a bit of oil on hand, you can even make your own tortilla chips — they won't taste stale after you've fried them.