Native American Frybread (Indian Frybread with Indian Taco Recipe)
Recipe for Native American frybread, or Indian frybread and a look into its history. You get a bonus recipe for taco meat too, to make Indian taco!
- Prep time
- 10 min
- Cook time
- 15 min
- Yield
- 8 servings
- Difficulty
- HARD
Ingredients
- 300 g (10.5 oz) AP flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp white sugar
- 250 ml (1 cup) warm water ((place it in the microwave oven for 1 minute, then get everything else ready))
- vegetable oil ((enough to come up about 1/2 an inch up your frying pan))
- 1 large onion
- 1 tbsp EV olive oil
- 500 g (1.1 lb) lean minced beef ((5%-10% fat))
- 2 tbsp sundried tomato paste
- 125 ml (1/2 cup) water
- freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp chilli powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp onion powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cumin
- 1/2 tsp dried Mexican oregano (or regular)
- iceberg lettuce
- freshly grated cheddar cheese
- tomatoes, (chopped)
- avocado, (chopped)
- chopped, pickled jalapeños
- 8 tsp white sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon ((more or less, to taste))
Instructions
- 1
Place the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl, and mix lightly.
- 2
Pour in ¾ of the warm water, stirring with a wooden spoon as you do so.
- 3
Mix it all with the spoon, until you get a soft dough that comes away from the bowl. Add more water if you need it, stop as soon as the dough comes away from the bowl. You'll have a fairly soft, sticky dough.
- 4
Sprinkle some flour over the dough, cover with clingfilm and leave to rest for 30 minutes.
- 5
Flour your work surface liberally and tip the sticky dough onto it.
- 6
Dust your hands with some flour and flatten the dough slightly. Divide it into 8 parts. Take 2 tiny, tiny pinches of the dough and set aside to test the oil later.
- 7
Take one piece and either roll out with a rolling pin or use your fingers to flatten out to about 15cm (6 inches) in diameter. The thinner the dough, the less chewy and crispier the frybread will be.
- 8
Place the flattened bread onto a floured plate and rub some flour over it. Then cover with a damp tea towel. Move on to the next portion, and repeat the process. Pile your dough onto each other, being sure to dust each bread with flour to stop from sticking. And be sure to cover with the damp cloth to stop them from drying out.
- 9
Heat the oil in a wok or frying pan on medium-high heat, making sure that it's about 1½ cm (½ an inch) high.
- 10
Double line a plate with kitchen paper to soak up excess oil, and set aside.
- 11
When the oil is shimmering, drop in a tiny piece of dough. If it comes up immediately, you know the oil is hot enough. If not, repeat in a minute or two.
- 12
Flip your pile of frybreads over, so we will start with the first one we rolled out. This is the one that has had the most resting time, which means that the gluten has had a chance to relax.
- 13
Pick the bread up, dust off excess flour by transferring it from hand to hand a couple of times, then slowly slip it into the hot oil. It will begin to puff up immediately. Cook for 1 minute, then flip over to the other side. Cook until a golden brown colour, then lift and place on the paper lined plate.
- 14
Repeat with the rest of the breads. Serve with taco and topping or the cinnamon sugar.
- 15
Chop up the onion.
- 16
Heat the oil on medium heat and fry the onion for 1 minute.
- 17
Increase the heat to medium-high and add the mince. Brown the mince for 2 minutes, breaking it up with a spatula.
- 18
Tip in the taco seasoning ingredients and fry for 30 seconds.
- 19
Add the sundried tomato paste and stir to mix.
- 20
Add the water and mix well. Cook on low heat for 10 minutes, until the water is all gone and you have a dry mix. Finish off with the black pepper.
- 21
Mix the sugar and cinnamon together.
- 22
If making Indian taco, just pile the frybread with the meat, followed by the taco topping of your choice: cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, etc.
- 23
If having it sweet, just sprinkle as much of the cinnamon sugar as you fancy.