This easy Navajo Fry Bread Recipe makes a delicious fry bread that can be used for Navajo Tacos, also called Indian Tacos and a variety of other foods. Our family’s favorite! You can make these traditional or quick fry bread by rolling out Grands biscuits.
Navajo Fry Bread Recipe
4 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 cups water
1/2 cup milk
oil for frying
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl. Stir in the water and milk. Knead several times. Roll out into 5-inch circles. Make a small hole in the center with your fingers. In a skillet, fry in several inches of hot oil at 375°. Dough will puff and bubble. Turn when golden brown. Drain on paper towels and serve hot for tacos or with honey. Serves 6.
Navajo Fry Bread Recipe – Quick and Easy Version
From: JO ANN G.
I was in a rush this evening, so I thought I would use Grand biscuits, instead of making the version here. I just rolled them out with a rolling pin and put a small hole in the middle and followed the rest of the recipe. My family loves it! We also had
fried apples for dessert, and I crushed up some homemade (plain)granola bars on it. It was YUMMY!
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grandma says
This is called bannock by the natives in Canada.
you can add blueberries, smoked salmon, cheese and almost anything you enjoy to the batter.
You can also bake it around wieners as a change from hot dogs.
When camping or around a fire wrap some of the dough on the end of a cleaned stick and cook it that way. Great fun for the kids and adults alike.
It is an old family favourite that my children still want when they get home.
D.T. says
my mother made this recipe and used self-rising flour and added milk…super simple and tasty.
Del says
I make this without milk. Also this recipe can be used to make torillas on a pan without oil.
Sheri says
We have and sometimes still make this when we run out of bread and want some some quick! I had that recipe on my refrigerator door for years and years!
Thank you for reminding me! Honey butter goes well with this! And many other things. We make ours smaller. Sometimes we sprinkle with powdered sugar like doughnuts. Cause that’s what they are! Quick, quick!
Stacey says
Nice, this is the same recipe I use when I make my fry bread and Pow Wow soup. We are not fully Native American, as it was my maternal great grandmother who was full blooded Cherokee; but I still want them to appreciate the NA culture, to include some of the foods. Thank you for sharing this you guys. Oh and we serve it like tostadas or taco or drizzle with honey and cinnamon for desserts. This is good stuff ya’ll.
Stacey says
Geez, that was about as clear as mud, wasn’t it? lol When we serve it with the Pow Wow soup, it’s served as a bread. Otherwise it’s served like tostadas/tacos or with the honey/cinnamon.
Stacey says
Them being my children. Sheesh, I think it’s time for bed now..lol.
Elizabeth C Mcginnis ( Liz ) says
Stacy,I really enjoyed your post. My father’s mother was full blood Cherokee. What I would like to know is, what is Pow Wow soup? I also would like to know where it originated. You can contact me on my E Mail,Thank You .
Louise Mantooth says
Do these frybreads store very well? If so, what is the best method. There’s only the two of us now – empty nesters – and I don’t want to waste the flour. That being said, can this recipe be cut down, maybe half?
Jill says
They don’t store at all you need to really serve them hot. You can very easily cut the recipe in half or fourths as needed but if this still isn’t enough you can buy bags of frozen dough and use one frozen roll flattened for each serving. This does cost a little more.
Judy Coleman says
You can also use the same recipe without the milk sir sopapillas. Then after you fry them add honey.
toni lua says
I have a similar recipe from my Navajo friend. It uses all water and a few Tablespoons of powdered milk. It also puffs better if you let it rest for 30 minutes before you fry it.
Elaine says
Do you roll them out and then let them rest or before you roll them out?
Jill says
That is what is nice about this recipe Elaine, you don’t need to let them rest or anything just roll them out and fry them up.
Emily says
This recipe looks easy to make. I’m Cree/Scottish from northern Ontario Canada. Bannock actually is a scottish bread we adopted many many decades ago. The Hudson Bay Company employees came from Scotland and introduced bannock to the Crees. Its actually called bannock in Scotland. 🙂
Mary Jane says
Ditto to the comment from Grandma at the beginning of this post. We love bannock here, and I was pleased to learn that the Scottish people brought it to Canada. I am Scottish descent. Another form of fry bread, is to just take some raw dough from a batch of yeast bread, on bread baking day, and fry it and serve it as you would bannock. The yeast bread version is best after the dough has risen at least once. A great treat on bread baking day.
Mary Jane says
My grandmother would always save some extra dough when making bread, to fry up for us. We ate it with butter and salt. So yummy! I’ve had fry bread both ways, but the yeast dough is by far my favorite..:)
Em says
Love this recipe. In a pinch, I’ll just fry up store-bought flour tortillas.
Beverly M. says
Why do you put a hole in it? Doesn’t that make the fillings come out?
Jill says
I don’t know the technical reason but almost all recipes say to do this. I think it helps in the cooking and to maybe keep it from puffing up way to much in the center while cooking. You make such a small hole that by the time it is done cooking it is closed over.
KarenV says
I think it’s done so the bread doesn’t fry up into a puffed up ball.
Ely says
You put the toppings on AFTER you fry… not before. The hole is to keep it from becoming a puffed ball when it fries (the hole is tiny)
Virginia june says
I worked with Native American high school students and we had fried bread sales on campus to raise money a couple of times a year until we were banned because we became too much of a competition with the cafeteria. I found that we could mold the dough into balls and place them on a flowed pan and cover them with plastic wrap and freeze them. Thaw the dough at room temp. and fry as usual. This also helped give us a head start on the crowds as we were getting set up. Such precious memories I have about Native Tacos and the students.
JD Smith says
Good to know, thank you Virginia!
Linda Certuche says
I made this for supper a couple of nights ago and used what we had for filling which was chicken, leftover salad along with sour cream, salsa and cheese. It was a big hit. I had about half of the bread leftover so the next morning I sprinkled it with cinnamon sugar and baked until crispy. The Wildbunch aka my children and grandkids loved it for supper and again for breakfast.
Susie says
This worked well with gluten free flour, and only 1/3 inch of Avocado oil. This bread is now a new favorite of ours! I’m gonna try frying left overs in a little butter and cinnamon for breakfast.
Gayle Otteman says
If you used self rising flour would you still use baking powder?
Jill says
You would not use the baking powder and cut back on the amount of salt