National Corn Chip Day is a holiday that falls on January 29th and celebrates those delicious pieces of deep-fried cornmeal that are usually made into a scoop or noodle shape. These little pieces of crunchy goodness have been around for decades and are usually eaten alone, with chili, or with some type of dip. No matter how you enjoy them or this day, however, just be sure not to confuse corn chips with tortilla chips. After all, corn chips have a more rigid texture and a more powerful corn taste than tortilla chips do, thanks to the corn in tortilla chips having to undergo the nixtamalization process.

The History Of National Corn Chip Day

Even though we tried as hard as we could, we just couldn’t find out who started National Corn Chip Day. We’re sure that it was probably Frito-Lay or one of the other corn chip manufacturers, but we just don’t have the evidence for it. We do know that this holiday has been celebrated as far back as 2001 or 2002.

The History Of Corn Chips

If you’re a fan of corn chips, then you can thank a man named Charles Elmer Doolin from Texas. Although he didn’t invent corn chips, he did popularize them all over the U.S. This man ran a candy store and he wanted to introduce an additional snack food item to increase his sales, so he thought about selling fried tortillas. Unfortunately, he found that all of the fried tortillas that he tried grew stale too quickly for him to sell out of his store. Then he ran across some fried dough strips sold by a local gas station and he knew that he had come across something that he wanted to sell.

After some discussions with the owner, he was able to buy the patent for the corn chips. He then took the recipe and improved on it. By 1932, he was selling bags of corn chips out of his store. Over the next 18+ years, he continued to sell corn chips and by the 1950s they were popular all over the U.S. He was able to popularize corn chips by using factory equipment to mass-produce the chips, which kept them all of the same quality, and by launching a massive marketing campaign behind the product. The rest, as they say, is history.

Observing National Corn Chip Day

Celebrating this holiday is as easy as opening a bag of your favorite corn chips and enjoying them yourself or with a friend. Or, if you prefer, you can use the corn chips to make a Frito Pie. While you’re enjoying this crunchy snack food, post some pictures of it on social media using the hashtag #NationalCornChipDay. We all want to see how you’re enjoying it.