Beer Tortilla Chips ‘n Salsa

So if you don’t know, I’m on the wagon this month.  To keep things rolling on Simply Beer, I’ve decided to expand my culinary (Stop laughing) skills. Since it’s Cinco de Mayo, I’m going to make something with that in mind, Beer “tortilla” chips and salsa.  Since this is a beer site and I’m not a chef nor have the time to make many things from scratch, everything is store bought.  I loved doing this experiment, because it was so simple.

Here is what you’ll need:

• frozen Empanada shells. (80 chips per 10 shell bag)
• Beer, your choice.  I used Captain Lawrence Imperial IPA
• olive oil, peanut oil,  OR some sort of cooking oil
• salsa, I like fresh garden salsa

First take out the empanada shells, I suppose you can use dry tortilla shells too.  Let them thaw for an hour at room temp.  With a knife cut the shells into 8 nice triangles. (Tip: cut the triangles before separating each shell)

next, pour 8-10 oz of you favorite beer in to a bowl.  I used a Imperial IPA to draw some of the bitterness into the chip to balance with the spice of the salsa.  Take all the cut triangles, make sure they are separated and add them to the beer.  Let this sit for an hour.

This step i added after trying this experiment based on some research.  Take out the chips and place them on a cooling rack to dry.  Once the surface of the triangles have dried a bit move on the next step.

Step four, fry the little bastards!  In a pot or frying pan, heat up your oil.  You want the oil to spatter when you drop a drop of water in it.  If you want to know what temp you can ask Alton Brown, cause I don’t cook much with measuring gauges…. You basically want to fry them till there is a light golden brown.  The chips in the pictures were over cooked, good, but over cooked.

When you take them out of the pan, place them on a paper towel to soak up the grease.  Once they have cooled, eat them with your favorite salsa.

What changes would you make to this recipe?