What To Do With Those Crushed Tortilla Chips?

Avoid throwing away your tortilla chips at any cost. There’s still hope, even if they’re old and sour. It may seem tough to use these crushed tortilla chips, but we have a few interesting and inventive ways that you can use them instead of wasting them, even if they are a bit stale.

Instead of discarding them, you can use crushed tortilla chips in various ways. You can use them to make tortilla “bread” crumbs, as a crunchy and tasty topping for a salad, to make chicken or turkey stuffing, as a garnish on top of your favorite soup, and even to feed some birds and chickens!

If you have crushed tortilla chips and want to do something with them instead of wasting them, you’ve come to the right place! Here are some fantastic ideas on what to do with your smashed tortilla chips instead of chucking them in the trash!

What Can You Do With Crushed Tortilla Chips?

Tortilla chips are a type of snack food produced from maize tortillas that have been cut into triangles, or alternately, flattened into a disc, and are then baked or fried till crispy and golden.

You can do various creative things with tortilla chips, such as make nachos, chips, salsa, etc., but what if your tortilla chips are crushed? While some people may throw them away, we have devised 11 genius ways to use crushed tortilla chips instead of throwing them in the bin!

Make Tortilla Chip “Bread” Crumbs

Use them as a breading alternative to breadcrumbs by pulsing them in a blender or food processor until they reach a fine consistency. You can use these crumbs to create chicken or pork schnitzels, crumbed fish fillets, chicken nuggets, deep-fried cheeseballs, avocado fingers, chicken strips, etc.

Trust us; these dishes have never tasted this good, thanks to the tortilla crumbs, and are the ultimate appetizer for any celebration. Accompany these with a mayonnaise-salsa dipping sauce, and you are good to go!

Make Turkey/Chicken Stuffing

Tortilla chips are much tastier than bread, and you can use the crushed tortilla chips to create a delicious stuffing for a chicken or Thanksgiving turkey. The tortilla chips will also prevent the stuffing from becoming soggy and unappealing.

Replace The Bread In Meatballs With Crushed Tortilla Chips

Instead of using bread to make meatloaf and meatballs, place the tortilla crumbs in a food processor and pulse them until they are very fine. Adding tortilla crumbs to these recipes adds more flavor, and it also adds a bit more texture. If you do not want to use the crumbs immediately, you can store them in the freezer until you need them again.

Use Crushed Tortilla Chips As A Topping

Add some texture to any casserole, mac ‘n cheese, or potato bake. Roast the crushed tortilla chips until golden brown, then sprinkle them over the dish to add even more taste and a delightful crunchy top layer.

Use Crushed Tortilla Chips As A Crunchy Element In Salad

You can use your crushed tortilla chips as an alternative for croutons. To make them extra crispy and spicy, distribute the chips on a baking sheet, sprinkle some paprika or cayenne pepper over and roast them until they are golden brown. Not only does it add a tasty crunch to your salad, but it’s a great way to spice things up a bit!

Give Your Chickens A Mexican Treat

Everybody knows that chickens love corn, so giving crushed tortilla chips to them as a tasty snack is an awesome idea, and if chickens could talk, they would agree. However, ensure that the chips aren’t spicy; original tortilla chips are the safest.

Use Crushed Tortilla Chips As Garnish For Soup

Most of us are familiar with roasted sweet potato crisps as a garnish for soup, but you can use crushed tortilla chips too. You can sprinkle them over as is or roast them for a little while until they are crispier before garnishing your soup.

Use It In/As A Crust

One idea is to use crushed tortilla chips to be baked into the crust of a pizza. Make a straightforward pizza and add crushed tortilla chip to the pizza crust. Another idea is to swap crushed tortilla chips with bread crumbs for any recipe. This is an exceptionally good idea with fish.

Use It As A Thickener Stew

Everybody loves a good winter stew and usually use thickening agents such as corn starch, or even potatoes cut into small blocks so they can cook away into the sauce. But are you aware you can use your leftover crushed tortilla chips? They not only thicken your stew but also add a lovely “corny-ness” to it.

Add Crushed Tortilla Chips In A Tuna Sandwich

Tuna mayo on bread is delicious, but adding a generous layer of crushed tortilla chip takes your tuna sandwich to a whole new realm. It might sound strange to some; however, you may never want to eat a tuna sandwich without it ever again after you’ve tasted it!

Crush Your Tortilla Chips Some More & Enjoy

Besides these great ways to use crushed tortilla chips, who said you couldn’t just eat them? The smaller pieces actually have more flavor than the whole tortilla chips, Lay the packet down, place a cloth over it, and use a roller or bottle to roll over and crush them into smaller bits. When you’re done, simply enjoy your snack!

Helpful Hint – Now that you finally know what to do with those crushed tortilla chips at the bottom of the bag, you never have to discard them ever again. However, if your crushed tortilla chips seem stale, you can revive them by roasting them in the oven until they are crispy.

Be careful not to burn the chips because once they have burnt (even a little bit), you won’t be able to use them like we have suggested in this article, and sadly, you will have to throw them away.

Our Final Words

Now you know you never have to discard those crushed tortilla chips left at the bottom of the bag ever again. We hope you enjoyed this list and give these “repurposed” crushed tortilla chip ideas a try. You will enjoy each one, and so will your chickens!