Wednesday, March 9, 2011

Fry Bread Tacos (aka: Indian or Navajo Tacos)

Twelve years ago I had the chance to have a roommate that grew up on one of the Navajo reservations down in Arizona. She introduced my to fry bread. That act alone has earned her enough good karma to make it through life with blessings to spare!! LOL It was fun to watch her make it, too - no measuring at all. Just 2 handfuls of this, a few pinches of that, keep adding things until the texture is right in her hands. And it was always delicious. Me? Well - this is probably as inauthentic as possible, but sometimes you gotta take the easy route, right!? And frankly, my little white kids will never know the difference (until they spread their wings and find a friend to make the real stuff for them!) Ha! Pillsbury dough is all they get for now!

I flaked out on the ingredients photo, sorry. But all you need for the bread is a can of the classic Pillsbury Buttermilk biscuits. None of the fancy stuff.

You can have them as a treat with a little honey and/or powdered sugar and/or jam.

If you're making tacos you'll need some ground beef, cooked up like you would for tacos. And a can of chili beans - not chili - just chili beans. Lettuce, cheese, tomatoes - some of that, too!

Step 1: POP open that can & separate out the biscuits. Use a rolling pin to smash them flat. Go for 5-6 inch circles. They'll shrink back down a little when they hit the oil.


Heat about 1/2" of oil in a skillet & get it good & hot. Do you know how to check if your oil is ready to fry with? Get your fingers wet & flick some water into the pan. If it sizzles & spits back at you it's ready. If it takes a minute to crackle or if it doesn't crackle at all give it another minute to heat.

Add the dough, one or two at a time. Don't crowd the pan.


If your pan is really hot they'll only take like 30 seconds per side. If not, you'll need a little longer. Just watch them - don't let it burn!


Set them on paper towels to let the oil drip down. That's it for the bread! Wanna turn them into tacos!?!

First layer is some of the taco meat. Then the beans.


Next comes the cheese - if you put it against the hot stuff it'll melt!

Top with lettuce, cheese & whatever else you want. I usually just add salsa to that list.


ENJOY!! Yum, yum, YUM!


Fry Bread Tacos:

Pillsbury buttermilk biscuits
Oil for frying
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Taco meat, prepared
Chili beans, from a can/heated
Shredded lettuce
Shredded cheese
Salsa/diced tomatoes

Open biscuits, separate dough into individual biscuits. Use a rolling pin to flatten dough into 5-6 inch circles.

Fill a skillet with 1/2" of oil & heat until flicked water spits back at you. Fry flattened dough on each side until golden; 30-60 seconds per side.

Top with meat, beans, lettuce, cheese & salsa!

5 comments:

  1. Its fried dough! Yum!! We always ate this at carnivals and fairs growing up. Ah, the memories! I love the taco idea too. I will definitely try this. I think Ill put a link from my blog to yours. More people should know about this idea! Thanks for sharing!

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  2. Mmmmm, that looks delish!! I think I might try that myself this weekend. Thanks for sharing!!

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  3. Hi! I just found you from a Pillsbury link on Facebook. This look great! I'm already dreaming up toppings for the fried bread.

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  4. Authentic frybread is NOT hard to make. Here is my recipe.

    4 cups flour
    1 1/2 teaspoon salt
    1 1/2 tablespoon baking powder
    1 1/2 (or more) cups HOT tap water
    1/2 cup vegetable oil
    oil for frying

    Mix flour, salt and baking powder. Gradually add water; mixing until slimey (like snot). Pour oil over top. DO NOT MIX IN. Let sit for a couple of hours on counter. Carefully stretch out a ball of dough. Fry in VERY HOT OIL.

    Soooooooooo good!

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  5. Thank you for sharing-found you from Pillsbury in my facebook. Instead of the beans you used cause my son won't eat them like that. I think i will try this using refried beans (Spread on top the bread then use the hamburger) this is what we use on our tacos. (it also works great to hold the hamburger on-LOL) Will let you know how it turns out. Also, i am like Melissa above- thinking of all the other goodies i could put on top :) Wonder if powdered sugar would taste like a funnel cake? :)

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