Puffy tacos are a San Antonio thing, and they’re exactly what they sound like. Puffed up, fried corn tortilla shells that are shatteringly crisp. They’re so much fun just to look at, though when I see them now, they remind me of lips plumped with too much filler. I still want to eat them, however, at every opportunity. The reason the tortillas puff up is because they’re fresh, and so there’s moisture in them that steams and expands in the frying oil. If you have older tortillas, they won’t puff up the same, but all’s not lost—you’ll still have a crispy, toasted corn tortillas that are bendable and can be folded into a taco.
From the book SALSA DADDY: A COOKBOOK: Dip Your Way into Mexican Cooking by Rick Martinez. Copyright 2025 by Rick Martinez. Photographs copyright 2025 by Alex Lau. Published in the United States by Clarkson Potter/Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.
