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Rueditas, or "little wheels" in Spanish, are a crunchy snack commonly available from street vendors and Mexican markets in California. In some cases they may be called "chicharrones" which may cause confusion with pork rinds, but the things I'm talking about are a wheat product, not pork.

In Mexican markets in CA, you can buy either a precooked bag of these rueditas, or from the bulk bins you can buy raw ones which you then deep-fry.

I think the fresh-fried ones are much tastier, but every time I do it, they are too oily. Mine have an oily sheen, but the pre-cooked bagged ones do not.

One thing I have noticed, while using canola oil, is that getting the oil hot enough to sizzle a splash of water is not hot enough. The canola oil has to be frighteningly close to smoking temp in order to cook these things.

How do the factory producers make their rueditas not have an oily sheen like mine do?

Raw Rueditas from a bulk bin, in a bag. Diameter is about 1 inch each Raw Rueditas from a bulk bin, in a bag. Diameter is about 1 inch each

My frying setup. About 1/2 inch of oil in a pan. My frying setup. About 1/2 inch of oil in a pan.

My cooked rueditas, which are delicious but too oily. My cooked rueditas, which are delicious but too oily.

Aldus Bumblebore
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  • Are you buying pre-made ones and frying them at home, or making your own batter? If you are making your own batter you will need to edit with a recipe and method. – GdD Jun 27 '22 at 09:49
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    @GdD I'm frying the premade ones you get from the bulk bins. No batter. Thank you! – Aldus Bumblebore Jun 27 '22 at 12:46
  • Do you have access to a frying thermometer so you can see how hot the oil actually is? – FuzzyChef Jun 28 '22 at 00:22

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Tips, since I don't have a lot of direct experience here, but I did check three different recipes.

  • Deep-fry instead of shallow frying. All of the recipes I checked showed frying in a deep pot. It's quite possible that, no matter how hot your oil starts out, adding the raw rueditas to the shallow oil cools it too much. Also, any parts of the rueditas that curl up and stick out of the oil will get "splashed", making them greasier. Recipe #3 shallow-fried like you do, and hers were greasy as well.
  • Heat the oil to between 350F-375F. Use a frying thermometer if you can get one. Overheating the oil can cause greasiness just like it being too cool can.
FuzzyChef
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  • Oh you might be on to something with the deep vs. shallow thing. Never even considered that. I have already considered getting an infrared thermometer to help me judge pan temp for things other than frying. Do you think that might be a good alternative to a frying thermometer with a probe? Thank you for the answer! – Aldus Bumblebore Jun 28 '22 at 00:59
  • @AldusBumblebore infrared thermometers might not be the most accurate on shiny things (like metal pans), might want to look into that. – Esther Jun 28 '22 at 18:52
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    I've found that they work well enough for measuring oil temp. – FuzzyChef Jun 29 '22 at 03:19