Chips and salsa just may be the most crowd-pleasing of sports-watching snacks. Even if you're relying on the convenience of a bag of chips and jar of half-decent salsa rather than making your own, the combination is (unlike your favorite team) pretty much unbeatable.
But even though tortilla chips are always good, are they ever really great? You want them to be like those warm, extra crispy ones from your favorite Tex Mex restaurant. They never are. Why? The key word is "warm." What makes restaurant chips so amazing is that they arrive to your table all toasty, as if they were freshly fried moments before hitting the table. "Growing up in Texas, I always judged a Tex-Mex restaurant on its chips and salsa. There's nothing like that combination of warm chips with cold salsa," Food Director Rhoda Boone says.
The good news? You don't need to make your own chips to score that fresh-made flavor.
Charred Tomatillo Salsa
The oven is your friend
Just spread store-bought tortilla chips on a sheet pan and bake them at 350°F until they're warm, about 5 minutes. "They also begin to get a little toasty on the edges, which I love. And the heat helps bring life back into chips that are just beginning to go stale," Rhoda says.
Hit the chips with some spice
Want to take it a step further? "Sprinkle the chips with a little chili powder before warming them. Then finish them with a squeeze of fresh lime just when you take them out," Rhoda recommends. With or without, you can't go wrong. The point is that you just made the ultimate party snack even more awesome by barely trying.
And while you're at it, chill your salsa
To maximize the temperature contrast between chip and salsa, you can put your salsa in the fridge for a few hours before serving, too. Just make sure to choose a cooked salsa for chilling, rather than a raw pico de gallo. "Raw tomatoes can turn mealy in the fridge," Rhoda points out. Store-bought jarred salsa can always be chilled, too, since it's already been cooked. But the two cooked salsas that Rhoda created will make your warm-chip experience even more memorable.
