Indian Fry Bread and Indian Tacos - Preparation Instructions

For today’s State Fair Recipe, I’m going to show you how to make Indian Fry Bread, a Native American quick bread that’s fried and served either on its own, drizzled with honey, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, or topped with ground beef and other taco ingredients.

In the second part of the post, I’m going to go ahead and show you what the fry bread looks like as a base for Indian Tacos. However, the fry bread in the Indian Taco photos is not the right fry bread. It’s the wrong fry bread. It’s the wrong fry bread because I messed it up. But I’d already made the taco toppings and was running out of time, so I went ahead and finished the tacos, planning to make a better batch of fry bread later.

And that’s what I did. So basically, the fry bread and the tacos were made on different days. And more importantly: the day I made the tacos, I was wearing black leggings. The day I made the right fry bread, I was wearing jeans. Important distinction. Didn’t want to leave anything out.

First, here’s the fry bread. There are so many different recipes and methods and if you’re looking for the authentic, 100% correct way to make Indian Fry Bread, you don’t want to rely on me. Others can show you the way much better than I can.

But it really is a cinch once you get the hang of it. And it’s so, so, so, so good.

THE FRY BREAD

Add flour to a bowl.

Then add baking powder.

Some recipes call for yeast, and some don’t have any leavening at all. But the baking powder seems to work best for me.

Next, add some salt.

Now just stir the flour mixture together…

While you slowly drizzle in some milk.

Give it a stir for a little longer to incorporate the milk as much as possible…

Then slowly drizzle in about 1/2 cup of water as you continue to stir gently.

Stop just when it comes together; don’t stir the heck out of it. And add more water if you need to—just enough to make it finally come together.

And now. This really makes a difference. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it sit for 30 minutes…45 if you have it. This really makes a difference in how the dough handles, and how it fries up, which I learned the hard way the other day when I made fry bread and it didn’t turn out as well.

This also makes a difference. With my other batch of fry bread (the one I made the other day) one of the mistakes I made was using canola oil to fry the bread. But it just didn’t do the trick like Crisco. (And confession: I didn’t quite have enough Crisco so I topped it off with some lard. Yes, I said lard.)

When you’re ready, grab a little bunch of dough.

Using your fingers, begin pressing in the center of the ball and continue to press, stretching slightly as you go. I like the texture of the fry bread using this method much better than if I use a rolling pin…but it could be because with the rolling pin I always tend to roll it out a little thin. I like the lumpiness of pressing it. But I’m weird and don’t know anything.

Fry them on one side until golden brown, about a minute or so (make sure your grease is hot enough)…then carefully turn them over (I use tongs so the oil won’t splash) and continue frying them for about 30 to 45 seconds.

Remove them from the pan…

And let them drain on paper towels.

If you want a bigger piece, just start with a larger ball of dough.

Mmmm. Good one. This’ll make a nice taco, man.



Plenty of surface area for all those ingredients!

Just drain them on paper towels until you need them.

Now, here’s what you can do from here:

Eat them as they are. Simple and yummy.
Drizzle on honey.
Mix softened butter and honey together and spread it on.
Sprinkle on lots of cinnamon sugar.
Sift on lots of powdered sugar.

Or you can make Indian Tacos!

INDIAN TACOS

FLASHBACK: This was my fry bread a few days ago. It tasted really good. It was just missing a little bit of puffiness/texture. I didn’t let the dough sit and rest, and I think I messed with it too much. Oh, and I used less baking powder.

I’d fried up a bunch of ground beef the day before (I do this sometimes. Habit of mine.) so when I heated it up I added in some different seasonings: cumin, chili powder, salt, pepper. You can add some Mexican red sauce, too, to make it drippy and saucy and wonderful.

I didn’t do that, though. I was too busy wandering around in the smoldering aftermath of my freaky fry bread.

Then I chopped up some lettuce…

Some tomato…

And green onions.

And piled on the meat…

The lettuce…(and here’s where you imagine all of this happening on top of one of those golden brown puffy things at the beginning of this post.)

Tomatoes…

Sour cream…

Green onions…

And salsa. Yum!

Now, it does look like the fry bread is thin and crisper here, but really, they were soft enough to fold. And shove in my mouth. So scrumptious.

But imagine those glorious taco toppings on this beauty. Too delicious for words!

Here’s the handy printable for the fry bread. Feel free to weigh in with your own fry bread experiences—would love to hear your tips!

 

Recipe

Indian Fry Bread

Prep Time:

 30 Minutes

 

Cook Time:

 10 Minutes

 

Difficulty:

 Easy

 

Servings:

 6

Print Recipe

Ingredients

• 3 cups All-purpose Flour
• 1/2 teaspoon Salt
• 3 teaspoons Baking Powder (slightly Rounded Teaspoons)
• 3/4 cups Milk
•  Water As Needed To Get Dough To Come Together
•  Vegetable Shortening Or Lard For Frying

Preparation Instructions

Stir together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Stir with a fork as you pour in the milk; keep stirring for a bit to get it to come together as much as possible. Add just enough water (about 1/4 to 1/2 cup) to get it to come together. Cover the bowl with a dish towel and let it sit for 35 to 45 minutes to rest.

When you're ready to make the fry bread, heat about 1 to 2 inches shortening/lard in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Grab a plum-sized piece of dough (or larger if you want larger fry bread) and press it into a circle with your fingers: place it on a clean surface and begin pressing in the center and work your way out, stretching it as you go.

When the circle is about 4 to 7 inches (however big you want it) carefully drape it into the skillet. Allow it to fry on one side until golden brown, about 1 minute, then carefully flip it to the other side using tongs. Fry it for another 30 to 45 seconds.

Remove the fry bread to a paper towel-lined plate and allow it to drain while you fry the other pieces.

Serve warm!

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