Easy 3 Ingredient Tortilla Recipe (Homemade Flour Tortillas)

Learning to make this 3 ingredient tortilla recipe will take your taco night to the next level. Store bought tortillas just can’t compare! These simple ingredients come together to form tortillas that are soft, pillowy, and become a star, rather than a supporting side in your next meal. Not to mention, they are as easy as they are delicious!

Homemade tortillas are one of my favorite ways to save trips to the store and keep unfavorable ingredients out of our food. Store-bought versions contain hydrogenated oils and preservatives that allow them to be shelf-stable for longer periods of time.

You can double or triple this easy recipe to freeze your own fresh tortillas ahead of time, or to feed a crowd. One you see the difference, you’ll have a hard time ever going back!

Be warned, the first time you make this homemade flour tortilla recipe, you will have a hard time saving them all for dinner! My kids are known to run up and grab one as fast as they come off the stove to snack on before dinner… I might be guilty of this too. They’re that good!

3 Ingredient Tortilla Ingredients

• Flour – I use unbleached, all-purpose flour.
• Fat – I use avocado oil, but have also used olive oil, lard, and coconut oil successfully.
• Salt – I use pink Himalayan salt. Use what you have. A fine salt or sea salt is best.
• Water, warm is best – I’m not counting this as an ingredient, but yes, you do need some.

Tools You May Need

These 3 ingredient tortillas come together very easily with just a bowl and spoon. However, if you are married to your stand mixer, feel free to use that! Sometimes I just feel like washing the bowl of my stand mixer keeps me from wanting to cook, whereas a glass mixing bowl feels like less work… All that to say, I’ve done both!

• A large bowl or the bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer to mix the dough
• A wooden spoon or the dough hook of your stand mixer to mix the dough
• A rolling pin or tortilla press to roll out your tortillas. I use a rolling pin, but you can achieve thinner tortillas using a press.
• Cast iron skillet (or non stick skillet) to cook your tortillas
• A clean kitchen towel to cover your cooked tortillas as you finish the rest of the batch. This will keep the homemade flour tortillas moist and tender without drying out until you’re ready to eat.
• A bench scraper or knife to cut the dough.

How to Make this 3 Ingredient Tortilla Recipe

Combine salt and flour. Stir the dry ingredients.

Add oil and warm water. Stir to combine.

Knead the ball of dough a couple of times until it comes together and is smooth. I usually knead about 15 times.

Rest – allow the tortilla dough to rest for 10 minutes.

Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces on a lightly floured work surface. Using a bench scraper makes this very easy.

Roll the pieces into 8 equally sized balls of dough.

Rest the balls of dough for an additional 20-30 minutes to allow the gluten to relax. Allowing the dough balls to rest will make rolling them out easier. Without a rest, the tortillas will spring back instead of being easily rolled out.

• Note: if you wish to make your tortilla dough ahead of time, you can store the balls of dough in the fridge until you are ready by covering them well with plastic wrap.

Preheat your cast iron over medium heat to medium-high heat.

Roll out your tortillas using a rolling pin or a tortilla press. I shoot for about 8-inch rounds.

• Note: you can also store your tortillas in the fridge in the pressed stage with pieces of parchment paper between them in an airtight container, plastic bag, or in plastic wrap.

Oil your hot pan lightly with lard or avocado oil before putting in your tortillas to cook.

Cook the tortillas once your oil begins to smoke slightly for 1-2 minutes per side. Pay close attention to the doneness of the tortillas. They will puff up a bit with air bubbles just before being ready to flip. Once flipped, there should be beautiful brown spots where the tortilla was fried in the oil.

Cover the fresh tortilla with a clean kitchen towel to keep warm and moist while the rest of the tortillas are cooking. This will ensure that you have soft tortillas when it’s time to eat.

Serve & Enjoy!

FAQs

Are Homemade Tortillas Worth It?

I would say YES! 100%.

Not only will you save a bit of money making these simple tortillas at home, but you will also avoid extra ingredients that you may not want your family eating.

Instead, this 3 ingredient tortilla recipe is just that: only 3 ingredients that most of us already have in our kitchens.

Substitutions

• Flour: I only have tested this recipe with an all-purpose flour, however, with some tweaking it could be made with something like whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour tends to absorb more liquid, so you’d just need to add a little water at a time until the texture softens.
• Salt: Any salt should work as long as it has a finer texture. A course sea salt won’t distribute as evenly. However, the warm water will help it dissolve a bit, so it could be used in a pinch.
• Fat: if you don’t have the oils I listed above in the ingredients section, you could technically substitute for vegetable oil. I personally don’t use vegetable oil in my kitchen, but if that is what you have, don’t skip out on making this recipe for that reason alone!
• Water: it is not absolutely necessary to use warm water, but it does help things come together best. At the very least, be sure to use room temperature water and not cold water for this recipe.

Serving Ideas for this 3 Ingredient Tortilla Recipe

The easiest and most “classic” way to serve these homemade flour tortillas is in a taco/burrito bar. Serve them warm, under a towel to keep them moist, with your favorite toppings.

We like shredded cheese, lettuce, diced tomatoes, avocado, hot sauces, sour cream, and a warmed up jar of meat like our pressure canned ground venison.

You can also use them to make wraps for a fun twist on a kiddo’s lunch! We love doing peanut butter wraps with banana or homemade jam.