Make Your Tacos Taste Restaurant-Style By Remembering This Tortilla Trick

Chances are, if you're an amateur chef, the tacos you make at home will not stack up against professional restaurant quality. That's okay: Your tacos with leftover burger meat or easy one-pan fish tacos will still get the job done. What really separates your home tacos from restaurant ones, though, besides the years of experience? The Takeout spoke to Maycoll Calderón, the executive chef of Cuna at The Standard, East Village in Manhattan, who noted one small thing about tortillas that can help bridge the gap.

When asked how to make store-bought tortillas taste closer to restaurant grade, Calderón's answer was simple: heat. According to him, "Heat transforms tortillas. The best way is over an open flame or a hot comal — just 15 to 20 seconds per side until they puff slightly. That little bit of char and heat brings the corn back to life, restoring aroma and elasticity that's lost in packaging." A comal is a very old style of flat griddle used in Mexican and Central American cooking, and modern ones are not expensive if you want to heat up tortillas the traditional way. However, even heating tortillas on a flat surface like a regular skillet with no butter or oil makes a big difference. It slightly browns the tortillas and allows them to stretch without breaking or splitting easily.

Whether you go with a comal, skillet, grill, or any other dry, flat surface, Maycoll Calderón said you'll see signs that the tortillas are ready: "You'll know they're ready when they soften, become flexible, and release a bit of steam. If they start to stiffen, they've gone too far. Wrap them in a clean cloth to keep them warm and moist at the table — just like in restaurants." You may only need about 30 seconds over medium heat before you start seeing some cooked brown spots appear, just like the ones on restaurant tortillas. And even though the skillet should be dry, some folks do briefly dip the tortillas in water first to help create that steam, which will soften up the tortillas.

In any case, please don't microwave the tortillas. You can make hard-shell tortillas using nothing but a microwave, but if your goal is restaurant-style tortillas, then you're not using hard shells. You want your heated tortillas to have flexible sturdiness but not grow so stiff that they crack up and begin letting the fillings slide out. You'll get all of that from a soft tortilla gently browned on a flat surface and loosened up with steam. The tortilla is quite literally holding everything together — make it count.