Introduction: Traditional Fry Bread (For Navajo Tacos)

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About: Hello and Welcome to In the Kitchen With Matt. I am your host Matt Taylor. My goal for the show is to teach you how to cook really good food at home for cheap. Eating out everyday can get expensive, but it doe…

In this Instructable, I will show you how to make Navajo Fry Bread. This easy fry bread dough recipe is what is used for Navajo Tacos. Frybread has been around for many many years, and several different cultures have their own version of it.

This is a traditional fry bread used by the Native Americans. This particular iteration was created in the 1860s by the Navajo Nation. They were given flour, salt, baking powder, and lard by the US Government to sustain them on their forced Long Walk (300 miles) from Arizona to New Mexico.

I live in Arizona, about 4 miles from a Reservation. They have fry bread stands located throughout that particular reservation where they sell Navajo/Indian Tacos, although it isn't a Navajo-specific reservation. In Utah and Southern Idaho, they call these scones. So yummy! They are super easy to make, if I can do it, you can do it. Let's get started!

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Follow the super easy steps below or watch the short video tutorial or do both!

Step 1: Ingredients and Tools

Ingredients:

  • 2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 tsp of salt
  • 1 Tbsp of baking powder
  • 2 Tbsp of shortening, oil, lard (optional, usually it was just flour, salt, baking powder, and water)
  • 3/4 to 1 cup of water. Start with 3/4 cup.
  • Oil, shortening, or lard for frying (vegetable, canola, coconut, avocado, etc.)

NOTE: Self-rising flour can be used as well. You can leave out the salt and baking powder in that case.

Tools:

  • Bowls
  • Whisk
  • Wooden spoon or pastry blender
  • Cloth
  • Deep Pot
  • Tongs
  • Plate with paper towels

Step 2: Dry Ingredients

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, salt, and baking powder.

If you want to add a little fat to the dough itself (oil, shortening, lard) you can add it now to the dry ingredients and use a pastry blender to blend it in. But this is completely optional.

Step 3: Water Time

Next, add about 3/4 cup of water to the dry ingredients and mix it in. I like to use my pastry blender, but a wooden spoon works great.

Add more water as needed so the dough is just slightly sticky.

Step 4: Knead and Rest the Dough

Next, add a bit of flour to your work surface and knead the dough for 3 to four minutes until it gets smooth. Add additional flour to keep it from sticking to your hands. But only a little at a time, we don't want to add too much flour.

Once done, place a clean kitchen cloth over the dough and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes up to 2 hours. It is important to let the gluten in the flour relax.

Step 5: Cut and Roll

Add enough cooking oil to a large pot so it is about 1 inch deep. Set the heat to medium. The desired frying temp is right around 350F/176 C.

While the oil is heating cut the dough into 6 to 8 pieces. Then shape them into a ball and finally roll them out thin, pretty close to the same thickness as a tortilla. Maybe not quite as thin.

A Sopapilla is very close to this, although traditionally those are square or rectangle and puffier than Navajo fry bread. Just one example of a similar recipe from another culture.

Step 6: Fry, Toppings, Serve

Now it is time to fry these up. Once the oil has heated to the correct temp, gently drop one in, make sure it falls away from you in the oil.

Fry on each side for a few minutes until nice and golden brown. Then pick it up with tongs and allow the excess hot oil to drain off.

Place on a plate or pan lined with paper towels. And then fry up the rest of them. They should be crispy on the outside and a little soft on the inside. Depending on how thick you make them.

Now it is time to serve them. If you want to make Navajo Tacos you would use your favorite taco fillings, and place them right on top. Usually, beans were used either whole beans or refried beans. Those would go on top first followed by other toppings like ground beef, lettuce, sour cream, tomatoes, black olives, etc. Of course back in the 1860s they didn't have all those extra toppings. These are sold all over the reservation near me, so good.

You can also find them at theme parks, and other places.

A sweet variation, and one of my favorite ways to eat the Navajo Fry bread, is to drizzle a little honey on it and then dust with powdered sugar. So good! But you can put any of your favorite pancake or waffle toppings on it as well. Savory or sweet, it is up to you.

Enjoy!

***Print the FULL recipe here if you like.

Step 7: Video Tutorial