The $3.49 ALDI Find I Can't Stop Eating—They're the Best I've Ever Had

How good it feels in these turbulent times to say with complete confidence that we are living in the golden era of tortilla chips. For us tortilla chip lovers, things have never been better. When I was growing up, there were maybe five brands—we always had Tostitos around—and tortilla chips were not the default pantry snack they are today.

Now, though, dozens of brands and flavors of tortilla chips stand shoulder to shoulder on store shelves, vying for our attention and loyalty. I have a rotating cast of favorites, but now I’ve come across the best chips I’ve had, ever. And to my surprise, I found them at ALDI.  

A New Gem in a Mediocre Chip Aisle

ALDI is a great place to buy chips for cheap when you need a lot to feed the masses, but I’ve always found its budget-friendly Clancy’s store label chips to smell like rancid oil. Its Simply Nature chips are decent, but nothing to write home about. Since I shop primarily at ALDI, I simply cut back on chips, but I missed them!

Then, a few months ago, I found a new tortilla chip in ALDI town and I am now totally smitten. They blow everything else out of the water.

What are these incredible chips? El Milagro Totopos in an unassuming brown paper bag. While they’re not exclusive to ALDI, they are easily the best chips to ever grace the store. Sturdy and toothsome, every bite is packed with crunch.

It’s All About the Tortilla

What makes these tortilla chips so delicious? They’re all about the tortilla. El Milagro is a Chicago-based tortilla company (Simply Recipes Senior Editor Meg Scott is a fan), and their tortilla chips start with their outstanding tortillas.

According to the back of the El Milagro bag, they use stale tortillas just as traditional tortilla chips cooked in Mexican homes do. “We at El Milagro use this aging technique that gives El Milagro Totopos their authentic taste and crunch.”

It never occurred to me that run-of-the-mill commercial tortilla chips don’t start with the same corn tortillas you’d use for, say, tacos or enchiladas. El Milagro Totopos, meanwhile, are clearly made from quartered corn tortillas.

They’re huge, too; each chip is at least two good bites. And they’re rigid enough to stand up to heavy-duty salad and dips. Their pure corn flavor is what I love most about them, though. Other chips are merely shingles in comparison. 

These chips are amazingly good out of the bag; I’ll bring one home with plans to make nachos, but I wind up eating many of them as-is with utter satisfaction. I had them topped with curry rice salad for that double-carb thrill. I made salsa with fresh summer tomatoes, and we devoured them. My boyfriend is the most devoted connoisseur of chips I know and has the physique to prove it. One bite, and he was convinced of the superiority of El Milagro's chips.    

ALDI sells El Milagro Totopos chips for $3.49 for a one-pound bag, a very good price compared to what competing stores sell them for. Whether they will always be on ALDI store shelves is anyone’s guess—it’s never wise to get too attached to an ALDI item—but I’ll buy them there as long as I’m able.