Lighten Up - Tortilla Chips & Chili's Copycat Salsa

Who doesn't love tortilla chips and salsa, especially Chili's restaurant style salsa?  We eat lots of tortilla chips in our house so I thought I would cut out some extra calories and fat by baking my own tortilla chips, instead of buying the prepackage chips that are usually fried.  Homemade tortillas chips are incredibly easy to make and can be flavored with just about any type of seasoning, or simply with salt.  This is a great way to lighten up this popular snack chip.  Homemade salsa is another easy thing to make at home, and when I saw this Chili's copycat recipe on Pinterest I couldn't wait to give it a try.  Homemade tortilla chips and salsa are the perfect appetizer, snack, or even a hostess gift to bring next time you are invited to dinner at a friend's house.  Making your own is very cost effective too.  I was able to make two jars of salsa and bag of tortilla chips for under $4!

Homemade Tortilla Chips & Chili's Copycat Salsa
recipe adapted from Six Sisters' Stuff

Ingredients:
1 package flour tortillas (any size)
about 2-3 tablespoons canola or vegetable oil
2 cans (14.5 oz each) peeled whole tomatoes, drained (or one 28 oz can)
1 small (4 oz) can diced green chilies
1 fresh jalapeno (you can remove the seeds if you don't want too much heat)
1/2 yellow onion, chunked
1 clove fresh garlic
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon sugar
juice of half a lime

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Using a pastry brush, grease a baking sheet with canola (or vegetable) oil.  Set aside.

Lightly brush one side of a tortilla with the oil (using the pastry brush you used for the baking sheet).

Stack another tortilla directly on top of the first one, and brush with oil.

Continue with one or two more tortillas, till you have 4 in a stack.

Using a sharp knife, cut the stack into quarters.

Cut the quarters in halves, to make eighths.

Spread the cut tortillas, greased side up, on the prepared baking sheet.  You might need to use a second baking sheet to fit them all.  Sprinkle the tops with salt or your favorite seasoning.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes, until the edges start to lightly brown. Watch them carefully because they can go from lightly browned to burnt very quickly!  Remove from oven and let cool on baking sheet for 1 minute.

To make the salsa you will need a food processor or blender.

Add the onion, garlic and fresh jalapeno (if using) to the food processor and pulse until minced.

Add the tomatoes, green chilies, cumin, salt, sugar, and lime juice.

Pulse just until the tomatoes are no longer chunky.  Be careful not to "over" process this as it will be come very runny if you go too long. Give it a taste to see if it needs more salt or more kick.  Add salt or more jalapeno if needed and pulse one more time quickly.  And there ya have it!

Serve the salsa with your homemade tortilla chips and try, just try, not to eat them all yourself. It's hard. This salsa does taste just like the salsa from Chili's, which is one of our favorites!  I am so pumped that I can recreate it at home.

The salsa tastes so fresh, and the tortilla chips are light and crunchy and so amazing that you will want to make this all the time.  The chips are very flavorful, even without being fried.

This also makes a great snack to bring to a party, dinner, or to give a gift.  Keep the salsa refrigerated until serving.  It will stay good in the fridge for about 3 weeks, but I doubt it will last that long if you have little snackers in your house like me.
Enjoy!