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Reviewed / Lindsay D. Mattison
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Reviewed / Lindsay D. Mattison
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Compared to a crock, the ENdeas tortilla warmer is better at maintaining a great texture. This one also retains heat for an hour. It's a great buy. Read More
The Imusa is a fabric pouch where you load tortillas and they stay soft and warm for an hour. You can't use it for much else, but it's effective. Read More
The Uno Casa tortilla warmer looks nice on the table and retains heat well. Because it's oven-safe, it works for other cooking and serving tasks, too. Read More
Holding up to 24 burrito-sized tortillas, this microwave-safe warmer helps you feed a crowd. Wrap your tortillas in a tea towel for best results. Read More
If you need a tortilla warmer with a large capacity, this one does a decent job of keeping a big stack warm, though they may come out soggy. Read More
Taco night is always my favorite dinner of the week. There’s nothing like filling the table with bowls of meat, cheese, and toppings and making your taco to order! If there’s one thing I learned, it’s that the tortillas have to be warm or they won’t be soft and pliable. Unfortunately, they don’t stay that way for long after they leave the stovetop. Covering the warm tortillas with a clean dish towel works in a pinch, but it’ll only hold the temperature for a few minutes. You need a tortilla warmer—like our favorite ENdeas Two-Sided Reversible Tortilla Warmer (available at Amazon) —to keep them warm for longer than five minutes.
There are a few different styles available, from fabric pouches to containers made from ceramic, plastic, terra-cotta, or hand-woven materials. We wondered if any of them were better than our go-to hot-holding method of wrapping tortillas in aluminum foil. So, we picked up eight of the top-rated tortilla warmers and put them to the test. Only three of them lasted longer than the foil, but most of them created a better tasting tortilla.
The ENdeas is the best tortilla warmer we tested.
Retains heat for nearly an hour
Easy to load tortillas
Not highly verstaile
Adequate heat retention
Large capacity
Microwave safe
Somewhat soggy results
Adequate heat retention
Good capacity
Allows for too much condensation
Oven and microwave safe
Fits larger tortillas
Allows for too much condensation
Loses heat quickly
Beautiful hand loomed cloths
Loses heat quickly
Not microwave safe
Clunky lids
None that we could find
Lid prone to condensation
Difficult to clean
Small and loses heat quickly
We placed five hot tortillas in each warmer and timed how long it took them to reach room temperature.
Hi, I’m Lindsay Mattison, a trained professional chef and total taco fanatic. I love making tortillas from scratch, and I used to keep them warm in an aluminum foil packet as they came off the range. A few years ago, I got a cheap plastic tortilla warmer that I thought was a huge upgrade, but after running these tests, I think I’m a tortilla pouch convert!
We knew that a tortilla warmer would work better than wrapping tortillas in a clean kitchen towel–that only holds the temperature for about five minutes–but we wondered if it could rival our go-to method of holding tortillas in aluminum foil. We pre-heated five tortillas and placed them in each warmer, timing how long it took them to reach room temperature. Most of the warmers lost their holding ability at around 25 minutes, while the aluminum foil packet lasted 30 minutes. Two of the warmers lasted as long as an hour!
But it’s not all about time: The quality of the tortilla is equally as important. We monitored the tortillas as they sat in the warmers to see if they became excessively dry or grew soggy over time. The steam from the hot tortillas created condensation in many of the warmers, but the open-air environment kept the tortillas from becoming as water-logged as the ones in the aluminum foil.
Finally, we wanted to know if the warmers could fit 10-inch burrito-sized tortillas, and how many tortillas we could stack in there at once. All of them could fit enough 6-inch tortillas to feed a family of four, and a few of them were large enough to supply a party.
There are a variety of materials used for tortilla warmers. Ceramic and terra cotta models are usually oven- and microwave-safe, while the plastic and fabric pouches can only be used in the microwave. We awarded bonus points for oven-safe warmers, but we don’t actually recommend heating up your tortillas in the oven. The very best way to heat tortillas is in stacks of five, meaning you’ll have to heat multiple batches if you’re feeding a crowd. Heating tortillas five at a time is no problem in the microwave, but using the oven would be a huge a waste of time!
Our preferred method of heating tortillas is using a cast-iron skillet. Place them on the preheated pan (dry, with no oil) and cook them for 30 seconds on each side. Remove them to your tortilla warmer with tongs and they’ll turn out perfect every time! Alternatively, you can place them in the tortilla warmer (or, wrap them in a damp paper towel) and microwave five at a time in 30-second bursts until they’re warmed through. The least efficient way is using the oven, where you’ll have to wrap stacks of five tortillas in aluminum foil and cook them at 350° F for about 15 minutes.
No matter how you warm them, the tortilla warmer comes in handy to keep them soft and pliable until you’re ready to wrap. You can also use a tortilla warmer to keep flatbreads like pita warm, or you can use them to hold pancakes and waffles after they come off the griddle while you’re cooking brunch. They’re great for camping, so pick up an extra one and toss it in your camping box!
Lindsay is a professional chef, recipe developer, writer, and developmental editor. After years of working in restaurant kitchens, she turned to writing to share her passion for local, organic, and seasonal ingredients with home cooks and food enthusiasts.
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