Indian Fry Bread

This Indian Fry Bread is easy, made with very basic ingredients (no yeast required), and versatile for so many recipes. We tend to use it as the base for tacos or fajitas. But's it's also amazing with soup or chili and you can even drizzle it with honey and a sprinkle of powdered sugar for dessert!

Indian Fry Bread is a Native American quick bread that’s been around for ages. There are many versions on the internet - some with yeast and cornmeal - some with eggs or shortening.

Simple Indian Fry Bread

This very simple version came from my dear friend Patti. We were living in Idaho from 1996-1999 when our hubbies were both stationed at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho when she shared it with me.

I lost the recipe for several years, but when we reconnected on Facebook, she shared it with me again and I made sure to keep up with it this time!

Yesterday I decided to make Indian Fry Bread for supper for us to have tacos. I shared a pic on my personal profile and some local peeps asked for the recipe so I thought I'd post it here.

With this pandemic dominating our lives and keeping most of us home, many are looking for recipes to use ingredients they have on hand.

Here in rural Mississippi, most people also can't find bread in stores so this might come in handy if you're facing the same crisis and have these pantry items on-hand or can safely get them.

If my memory serves me right, Patti served them with strips of steak (think, fajita meat) with beans and other toppings! 🥙🌮 I remember using Mexe beans over the top when we lived in Idaho but I can't find those in Mississippi.

This week we had ours with taco meat with black beans, cheese, sour cream, lettuce, tomato, and homemade salsa.

Except for my baby boy who is sometimes anti-vegetable. He had his with meat, sour cream, and cheese:

Anyway - because I'm still recovering from surgery, I've been tasking my kids with most of the cooking. For this recipe, my 22-year-old son Joshua made the fry bread dough, my 9-year-old son Asher made the salsa.

My 15-year-son Noah made the taco meat and my other kids got the toppings out, etc. Richy and Asher also rolled out the dough and cut it while I fried the bread myself.

I told my daughter to take pics with my cell phone, so these are not my normal, professional(ish) photos. But they're real and honest and hopefully, helpful.

Indian Fry Bread Ingredients:

So let's get started. The ingredients are simple:

• 5 cups of all-purpose flour (plus extra for rolling)
• 5 teaspoons of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups warm milk
• 2 teaspoons of oil
• ¾ cup oil for frying

Mixing it up is easy. Since there's no yeast, there's no special or fancy way to do it. Mix or sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. We did not sift ours but just mixed it thoroughly with a fork.

Add the warm milk, mix until a dough forms then use your hands to knead it into a ball.

Flip the dough out onto a floured surface.

Rolling out and cutting... or flattening?

It seems the traditional way to do Indian Fry Bread is to tear off small portions/ball and roll out or flatten into circles.

But when Patti first shared the recipe with me more than 20 years ago, she cut them into rough diamond shapes. So that's how I've always done it. Richy rolled it out.

Then Asher helped cut it (with a pizza wheel):

Normally I wouldn't have done pieces quite so small, but we let the kids help and we get what we get. It all tastes the same 😊

Pour ¾ cup of oil into a large shallow pan. Heat to medium heat. I use vegetable oil, but melted shortening or canola oil works well too.

I have this set of Cuisinart pans and they are amazing. I've had them or years and never had a single complaint. Since buying the original set, I've added other pieces here and there.

Anyway... this large saute pan is the one I use to fry our Indian Tacos (and a hundred other things) on a regular basis.

I don't have a specific temperature to suggest - I always flick a tiny drop of water into my pan and if it sizzles, it's ready. I know - so scientific!

Fry each piece for about a minute on each side. If it cooks faster than that, your oil is too hot. I like to set up a cookie sheet lined with paper towels so I can move the cooked pieces straight from the cooking pan to the lined pan to drain.

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Baking Powder

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Tongs

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Cuisinart Large Saute Pan

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Sometimes the bread will bubble up. Sometimes the bubbles are small - every now and then it'll be a huge bubble. I just use a spatula to flatten them when that happens - nothing to stress over!

Lift them out of the oil with tongs or a fork.

Let them drain and cool for a couple of minutes, then they're ready to eat!

As I mentioned up top, there are countless ways to use this Indian Fry Bread.

• Use as bread to serve with chili, soup or stew.
• Use as the bread (tortilla) in tacos or fajitas.
• Drizzle with honey and powdered sugar for a yummy dessert.

Asher made one round piece of Indian Fry Bread for himself... then made it into a smiley face. It was the cutest smiley face ever! ❤️️

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