Back when I came across the recipe for Pickle Juice Chicken – which is wicked tasty and you should try it soon – I came across a post for Indian Fry Bread Tacos from the same video blog: Hilah Cooking.
I was intrigued…
Flour, milk, baking powder and salt, mixed with just a little bit of water to help it all come together before shaping into balls, flattening into disks, and frying in a bit of shortening. What’s not to love?
INGREDIENTS
•3 cups flour
•1/2 tsp Seasoned Salt
•3 tsp (slightly heaping) baking powder
•3/4 cups milk
•Water (1/4 to 1/2 cup)
•Vegetable shortening
Note 1: if you don’t have (or don’t want to make any) seasoned salt, feel free to use plain.
Note 2: I used soy milk in place of regular, and solid Crisco for frying.
Combine the flour with the salt and baking powder in a mixing bowl, then add the milk while stirring with a fork. It’ll be quite crumbly.
While still working with that fork, add just enough water for the dough to come together – the dough will still be a bit powdery, but don’t fret.
Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let the dough rest for about an hour.
When ready to cook, melt a couple of tablespoons of the shortening in a skillet over medium heat and divide the dough into balls about the size of a plum – I ended up with about a dozen.
On a lightly floured surface, press each ball out into a rough disk – they won’t be perfect circles, but you don’t really need them to be.
Cook the disks – one at a time – in the melted shortening for about a minute, then flip and cook for another 45 seconds.
Drain the cooked fry bread on paper towels and stash on a rack in a low oven to keep warm until they’re all done.
Nice.
We had ours with Pinto Beans and Taco Meat and all the fixin’s for dinner and were most pleased – Rich thought the fry bread was kinda like a gordita.
The next morning, I had one of the leftover disks with some Cherry Jam and was reminded of the fried dough you get at the County Fair.
All in all, a bit more effort than heating up a few store bought flour tortillas in the ‘wave and slapping some toppings on; but much more tasty, in my not-so-humble opinion.
One last note: to give credit where credit is due, this is technically known as Indian Fry Bread and is common to many Western Tribes, tho’ most often credited to the Navajo. It is not a pretty origin story, and I do not mean to rewrite history or try to wipe away the suffering of native peoples by simply titling this post ‘Fry Bread’, but around here ‘Indian Fry Bread’ has folk thinking Naan; and then they start looking for the goat curry and the lentils and it was just getting to be lot of explaining…
so Fry Bread it is. And it IS delicious.