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Fry Bread Recipe
Fry Bread or “Navajo Tacos” are crispy pillows of dough with a soft inside. Complete it by adding sweet or savory toppings!
Prep: 20min
Total: 275min
Serving Size: 1 g
Nutrition Facts: servingSize 1 g, calories 450 kcal, Carbohydrate 55 g, Protein 24 g, Fat 14 g, Saturated Fat 5 g, Cholesterol 44 mg, Sodium 374 mg, Fiber 8 g, Sugar 1 g, Trans Fat 1 g, unSaturated Fat 7 g
Ingredients:
- 2 cups dried pinto beans (rinsed and drained (or 1 (16-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained))
- water
- 2-3 slices bacon (chopped and cooked)
- 1 pound ground beef (cooked and drained)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup hot water (130 degrees F)
- vegetable oil (for frying)
- shredded lettuce, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, sliced avocados, shredded cheese
Instruction:
- Make the bean topping: Place rinsed dried beans in a slow cooker and cover with water. Cook on low for 4–5 hours, or until beans start to become tender.
- Add bacon pieces and ground beef to the slow cooker and continue to cook on low for an additional 1–2 hours, or until beans are fully tender. (To make the bean topping using canned beans, combine canned beans, cooked ground beef, and cooked bacon and cook in slow cooker on low for 2 hours. Set aside.)
- Make the bread: Sift flour, baking powder and salt together into a medium bowl. Add hot water and mix with your hands until a dough forms (dough should be a little sticky). Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
- While dough is resting, preheat the oven to 200 degrees F. Fill a large saucepan with 1–2 inches of oil and heat over medium-high heat to about 350 degrees F.
- Break off golf ball–sized pieces of dough and roll into balls about 1½ inches wide.
- Using a pastry roller and working on a lightly floured surface, roll each dough ball into a thin circle 6–7 inches in diameter.
- Working in batches, fry each dough piece in hot oil until the dough is golden and puffs up, about 20 seconds, then flip and fry on the other side for 10–20 seconds more. Set on a paper towel–lined plate to drain. Keep the fried bread warm in the oven while frying the remaining pieces.
- Spread beans over fry bread, top with any other desired toppings, and serve warm.
How to make Navajo Fry Bread
FAQ
How did Native Americans make fry bread?
Having to adapt to new sources of subsistence, many tribes learned to cook with traditional U.S. Army rations. Using the provided white wheat flour, Native cooks hand-flattened and deep-fried the dough into a distinctive, golden bread. Fry bread has many variants.
Why is my fry bread not fluffy?
Fry Bread will come out hard if you over mix or knead the dough. Mixing or over kneading will develop the gluten too much and result in tough fry bread.
What is Native American fry bread made of?
It may be made with yeast and cornmeal, and some recipes add shortening, lard, or another fat, or include an egg. This recipe is made with all-purpose flour and baking powder, creating a very simple fry bread with no extra fat or eggs.
Is fry bread and bannock the same?
Fry Bread, also known as Bannock has been a staple in First Nations communities all over North America for centuries. It is a flat dough bread, typically deep fried in some sort of fat, like lard or oil.
What is Navajo fry bread made of?
Fry bread is a flatbread that’s fried in oil, shortening or lard. Several tribes have their own variation on fry bread, but most Navajo-inspired fry breads are made with flour, water and salt and don’t contain any yeast, using baking powder as the leavening agent.
Is frybread native american?
The common story of fry bread is that before it became a staple of powwows and family dinners, it was a survival food, usually traced to the Navajo people (who call themselves the Diné).
