Arizona Cheese Crisps

Arizona cheese crisps are open faced tortillas topped with cheese. These crisps originated in Tucson, Arizona and hence the name Arizona cheese crisps. These crisps were made popular by El Charro Cafe in Tucson. Tortillas are baked until crisp, topped with cheese and further baked for few minutes until the cheese melts. This is the simplest form of cheese crisps but these can be topped with poblano peppers and / or chorizo. One can even get more creative and garnish with one of their favorite herbs such as scallions or cilantro.

Yes, Arizona cheese crisps is my second dish with tortillas. Thanks Valli for challenging us to make tortilla based dishes. I discovered this new dish which I was unaware of. I am more familiar with its sister, nachos but not cheese crisps. The minute I saw these on the list and how it is prepared, I instantly decided to make this for this BM.

This is a quick and easy recipe that can be put together in 10 minutes + time to preheat the oven. Like with any cheese dish, these crisps taste great when served hot or warm but taste equally good at room temperature. These can be served as a starter at a party, midday snack, after school snack, movie night snack, game day snack or just a snack to satisfy hunger pangs.

My plan was to make these crisps for my breakfast this morning but ended up making them after a light breakfast. We usually eat an early dinner, 6 - 6:30 pm and I find it very difficult cooking for the blog and click on an empty stomach. I had to eat a light breakfast to get my brain cells working to style my food for the photo shoot. 🙂

I made cheese crisps with 2 small flour tortilla and from what I have read online, corn tortillas are best for these crisps as corn tortillas are thinner than the flour tortillas. Today I topped my crisps with jalapeño peppers. I should make it again with chorizo topping when Mr. U is home. He might like it. If one likes cheese and like tortilla chips, then they ought to try these crisps.

Total Time: 20 minutes
Pre-Heating: 10 minutes
Bake Time: 10 minutes
Yields: 12 small crisps
Serves: 1-2

Ingredients:

• 2 small Flour Tortillas (Can also use corn tortillas)
• 1 - 1 ½ tsp. Butter, melted
• ⅓ - ½ cups Cheese (I used Mexican Blend of )
• 6 - 8 Jalapeno Slices (I used pickled jalapeno)

Preparation:

• Pre-heat the oven to 350 F.
• Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil.
• Place the tortillas on the baking sheet.
• Melt the butter in the oven for 20-30 seconds.
• Brush the butter on topside of the tortilla.
• Bake for 6-8 minutes until the edges turn light golden brown.
• Remove the tortilla from the oven, sprinkle about ¼ cup of cheese on each tortilla.
• Tear each jalapeno pepper into two and arrange on the tortillas as I did for one of the tortillas as seen in the picture or tear the jalapeno slice into 3-4 pieces and sprinkle. I did the later for the second tortilla. You can see the slice of the second tortilla/crisp in the middle image, on which I sprinkled smaller pieces of jalapeno.
• Bake for another 2 ½ to 3 minutes until cheese melts.
• Remove from the oven and sprinkle some scallions or cilantro to garnish. I did not garnish mine but it could add more flavor to the crisps.
• Slice the tortillas with a pizza cutter and serve hot.

Suggestions:

• I used Mexican style cheese blend of monterey, cheddar, asadero and queso quesadilla cheeses. You could use just cheddar cheese, blend of cheddar + monterey, blend of cheddar + monterey + oaxaca or any good melting cheese.
• I would recommend using ¼ cup of cheese per tortilla. I used a little less on one of the tortillas and I liked the one which had more cheese better.

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