Homemade Tortillas

While paging through the June/July Taste of Home magazine, I found a recipe for homemade tortillas made with olive oil. I had not made them for many years so we decided to make them for dinner. We had some chicken breasts defrosted, so a menu plan began to develop.

First I started making Funky Refried Beans, our new favorite way to have refried beans. I had never considered making refried beans, but when I found this recipe a few weeks ago on Tasty Kitchen, I had all of the ingredients so I decided to make them. They are very easy and you need to allow about 20-30 minutes to make them.

In a skillet with a tablespoon of oil, you saute half of an onion until translucent and then you add the chili powder. Note: The recipe calls for making it in a saucepan with a lid but I found it worked just as well in a skillet and it took less time to reduce the liquid. They were just as tender and the beans were when I simmered them in a covered saucepan.

About the chili powder, the recipe calls for New Mexico Chili Powder but I only had regular chili powder the first time I made them and the flavors were really good. I have looked at several stores, including Penzy's and have not been able to find it. I found McCornick Brand Hot Mexican-Style Chili Powder so I bought it and used it for this last batch and they were great. New Mexico Chili Powder is available at Amazon.com, so I plan to buy it there next time I place an order. In reading about the differences in  chili powder flavors, the flavor will be a lot different from the two that I have used so it will be interesting to try. In my opinion, both of the chili powders that I used were great and make these refried beans really good, so use whatever chili powder you have.

Next, you add a can of Rotel diced tomatoes with green chilies and a can of Ranch Beans with a quarter cup of water. You bring it to a simmer, cover and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. I didn't cover mine and they turned out great. Next you use a potato masher and mash them until they look like refried beans. If it has too much liquid, simmer without the lid until they are the consistency that you prefer. It's that easy. 

The beans while they are simmering

This is the beans with some Monterey Jack cheese melted on them. As you can see, this recipe doesn't make a huge amount. This is a 3-cup bowl and it's not full.

Next, I mixed up the tortilla dough. I used 1 cup of White Whole Wheat Pastry Flour and 1 cup of all purpose flour. The dough was too wet and needed more flour. I'm not sure if it was because I used the whole wheat flour or not. The Dear Hubby kneaded the dough and rolled out three tortillas. The recipe makes eight so we have five in the refrigerator for another time. I sprayed the pan with Pam and cooked them for 1 minute on each side.

 One of the tortillas before cooking

Here is the recipe for the tortillas.

 

Dear Hubby grilled the boneless skinless chicken breasts on the grill with a little barbecue sauce and this is what we ended up with for dinner.

 

We spread some of the refried beans on the warm tortilla, sprinkled a little shredded cheddar cheese on top, shredded barbecued chicken on top of that, and then we added avocado and tomato and a dollop of non-fat sour cream to top it off.