Original Recipe - Chili Cheese Corn Chips

Feel free to share this recipe. I just ask that you link back to this blog, please.

I love Fritos!Jjust three ingredients - corn, oil and salt.

I used to really like the Chili Cheese flavor but going vegan ended that love affair.... altho, to be honest, the chemical crap in those also just turned me off once I started to pay attention to and care about what was in the foods I was eating.

Just look at this ingredient list... MSG! Sugar? Multiple dairy sources? Gross.

• Whole Corn, Corn Oil, Chili Cheese, Seasoning (Salt, Whey, Spices [Including Chili Pepper], Cheddar Cheese [Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes], Whey Protein Concentrate, Wheat Flour, Tomato Powder, Monosodium Glutamate, Onion Powder, Partially Hydrogenated Soybean Oil, Romano Cheese [Part-Skim Cow's Milk, Cheese Cultures, Salt, Enzymes], Dextrose, Sugar, Natural Flavor, Butter [Cream, Salt], Sodium Caseinate, Buttermilk, Citric Acid, Garlic Powder, Extractives of Annatto, Caramel Color, Disodium Inosinate, Disodium Guanylate, and Lactic Acid).

Note: this recipe calls for citric acid. You can find it in the canning section of the grocery store. It's an excellent ingredient to have in your kitchen. It gives food a tang like lemon juice does but in a powdered form. I use it quite often.  I'm sure these will taste just fine without the citric acid but it does give it that little bit of oomph.

If you noticed, there is tomato powder in the original, and even tho I have that in my kitchen, almost no one else will and it isn't always easy to get your hands on that so I decided to make it without the tomato powder to keep it simple. I don't think my version is missing anything without it.

One thing I'd suggest is to make a few spice packets since you'll have everything out anyway... why not make a few baggies of the spice mix and then you just have to dump and shake next time!  Plus, you'll be making these a lot.. I promise you.


Chili Cheese Corn Chips

1 10 oz bag of plain Fritos or similar type corn chip (not the tortilla kind)
2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp nutritional yeast
1 tsp salt (you may want less here depending on how salty the chips are, start with 1/2 tsp and go from there)
1/8 tsp citric acid.

Place all the spices into a small bowl and mix well. Dump the bag of corn chips into a gallon sized baggie and add the spice mixture. Toss the chips with the spices until coated. (don't add any oil, the oil on the chips is enough) Make sure you remove the air in the baggie for storage or they will go stale.. if they even last that long.