This is our favorite fry bread recipe, adapted from www.powwows.com. It is an authentic Navajo recipe for Native American Indian Fry Bread. Fry bread is the bomb. We have tried various mixes, but it is so simple to make without a mix, just flour, salt and baking powder, fried in lard or oil. Fry bread is both a resistance food (made from government rations) and one also made of pride and traditions. So it shares a special place in the heart.
Paul G writes for www.powwows.com: While most cultures around the world have a version of fried dough – sopapillas, beignets, doughnuts etc. none is so versatile as Indian frybread. Dipped in soup or berry gravy, smothered with honey butter or powdered sugar, or served as an Indian taco. Frybread turns into a favorite of all who eat it.
Many American Indian cultures have their traditional bread, usually made from corn or acorn flour. While wheat flour is not indigenous to Native America, since the ration days reservation women have used real ingenuity to use foreign ingredients to feed their families. Rations included flour, oil, and yeast or baking powder. The original recipe for frybread is not recorded, and was probably created in different areas at the same time.
The most famous frybread though is probably the Navajo frybread, below, made as large as the cast iron pans that they are cooked in, then topped with whatever is on hand, for a Navajo taco.
Frybread Recipe
INGREDIENTS
- 6 cups all-purpose flour, preferably Blue Bird brand to be authentic
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 tablespoon baking powder
- 3 cups warm water
- a lot of corn oil for frying, or Morrell Snow Cap Lard to be authentic
INSTRUCTIONS
- Stir your flour, baking powder, and salt together in a glass mixing bowl.
- Then, add warm water and stir into dough.
- Knead the dough on floured wax paper.
- Flatten the dough into palm-size pieces.
- Fry the dough in hot oil (about 350 degrees) for 3 minutes, until it is golden brown.
Top with powdered sugar and honey. Some add cinnamon.
Or for a savory treat, add toppings of ground meat, fried deer venison steak strips, cheese, salsa, lettuce, tomatoes and your other favorite toppings for Navajo Fry Bread, which is a Navajo version of a taco.
Here is a recipe for skirt steak that we really like, and although it’s not Native American, it’s Argentine from our well dog-eared Seven Fires cookbook of Francis Mallman, but it goes really well with fry bread. The Argentine fry bread he references in the recipe is very similar to the Indian fry bread above. Small world of food!
Navajo Tacos Ingredients
Three Other Variations We Haven’t Yet Tried But Look Forward To:
Fry Bread With Cornmeal and Coconut Oil
Yield: About 38
Total time: 1 1/2 hours, plus 4 hours’ cooling and rising
Ingredients
- 1 cup finely ground cornmeal
- 2 (1/4-ounce) envelopes instant dry yeast
- 1 cup raw sugar
- 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- Unrefined coconut oil, for frying (about 32 ounces)
Preparation
1. In a large pot, bring 2 cups water to a boil over medium-high. While whisking, add cornmeal to boiling water. Continue whisking slowly until smooth. Reduce heat to medium, add 1 1/2 cups cold water and cook, stirring continuously to prevent lumps, until thick, about 6 minutes. It should be the consistency of oatmeal. Remove from heat and let cool in pot.
2. Add yeast, sugar and salt to the cooled cornmeal, along with 1 to 2 tablespoons of water to moisten the mixture. Gradually add flour, stirring with a metal whisk or potato masher to get rid of as many lumps as you can. Sprinkle with water as needed to keep dough moist but thick. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise for 3 hours.
3. Once dough has risen, it should be springy and sticky. Heat 1 inch of coconut oil in a cast-iron skillet to about 350 degrees. Test the heat by dropping a small portion of dough into the oil. It should gently sizzle but not splatter. Use two large, oiled spoons to make golf-ball-size portions: Scoop the dough with one spoon and push the dough off into the hot oil with the other. Re-oil the spoons using the oil in the skillet as needed to make new balls of dough. Work in batches, leaving room in the skillet, as the balls will expand in the hot oil.
4. Fry until bottoms are cooked to your desired color (light gold, golden or dark brown), about 3 minutes for golden. Using tongs, flip balls over to cook the other side to the same color, 1 to 3 minutes. Gently lift out of the oil, shaking off excess oil, and transfer to paper towel-lined plates to drain. Eat while hot.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.