Gorditas are some of the easiest treats to make, and even more fun to eat.
I love making them because they are easy – not to mention it’s a great way to use up all the leftovers in the fridge – including refried beans. … rotisserie chicken or shredded beef, along with diced onions, tomatoes and a little lettuce.
Give your leftovers a new meaning and a second life.. and you can eat a wonderful meal.
A gordita is a small, thick tortilla – and while there are many ways to make them in Mexico, we make ours with corn flour, and we bake them on a cast iron griddle. In some areas of Mexico, gorditas can be sweet, or savory, fried or baked – and it can occasionally be stuffed with a filling – like we did for ours.
In some ways they are similar to that of a fried Pupusa – which is what you would see in El Salvador – with the exception that gorditas don’t have to be fried to be delicious.
They are relatively easy to make, too – a little water, corn flour and a griddle – make sure you have your filling warm and ready to stuff inside the gorditas when they are done.
We use our tortilla press to press out the gorditas – you’ll want about a 4 inch diameter, about the size of a hockey puck. If you don’t have a tortilla press, you can use a glass baking dish – no matter what you use, you’ll want a zippered bag to keep the dough from sticking, and allow the gorditas easy transferability to the griddle.
- 1 1/2 C. corn flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 1/4 C. + 2 Tbsp water
- 1 C. refried beans
- OR, 1 C. chicken or pork
- Mix the corn flour with the salt and water until a thick (but moist) paste.
- The dough doesn't have to be sticky - but you may have to add a tiny bit more water to moisten the dough if it's still dry. If you work too slow you will need to keep it moist buy laying a moist towel on top of the bowl.
- Divide the dough into 9 balls, and cover them with a moistened kitchen towel or wet pper towel.
- Heat up your cast iron griddle on medium heat.
- In the meantime, take out your tortilla press (or, if you don't have one, you can use a glass dish).
- Cut open a ziploc bag to line the tortilla press, by keeping the bottom fo the bag in tact but opening up the sides on the seam. This will prevent the gorditas from sticking to your tortilla press.
- Take one ball of dough, lift up the tortilla press, lay down the baggie, and place the ball there - gently press down to firm up the gordita. You don't want to press down too much but you want to press down enough so that it is similar to a 4" hockey puck.
- Remove the plastic from the gordita and place on the hot griddle to cook.
- While the gordita is cooking, keep the rest of the dough moist - flrepeat with each ball of dough on the tortilla press.... periodically checking the griddle.
- Each gordita should spend about 2 minutes on each side cooking on the griddle - you'll want to see brown spots - flip, then cook on the other side. The gordita should slightly inflate, then remove from the griddle and keep slightly warm.
- Once removed from the griddle, keep warm.
- Once the gordita is cool enough to handle, use a paring knife to make an incision in each (do not open the whole thing) - just enough to add a filling.
- Serve the gorditas while hot with green or red salsa.
[…] flavorful salsa that you can serve alongside tortilla chips or on your favorite mexican dish (gorditas […]