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Fry bread or “Navajo Tacos” are crispy pillows of dough with a soft inside. Complete it by adding sweet or savory toppings!

This delicious fry bread recipe is a perfect dinner, topped with taco ingredients like Guacamole and Salsa, or a sweet dessert, sprinkled with powdered sugar!

Fry Bread topped with beef taco ingredients on a white plate.


We love Fry Bread!

This tasty main dish is also called Navajo Tacos (also called Indian Fry Bread or Pop Overs).

It originates from southwestern Native Americans as a result of being relocated from Arizona to New Mexico, and using cooking staples given to them by the government.

Over the years, fry bread has become a unique cultural symbol and a dish we’ve made my entire life.

Why We Love Fry Bread…

  • Family Favorite. This recipe is one we’ve used since I was little, passed on from my Grandma Luna and her mother, my Great Grandma Bean Burro (yes, that’s what we called her).
  • Sweet or Savory. It can be made sweet with honey or powdered sugar or savory with beans and all the toppings.
  • Simple. It may seem hard, but it’s not. Just follow this recipe – it’s NO-FAIL and you get amazing bubbles every time!
  • Freezes. The dough and the bread both freeze well, which is a BONUS!
Fry bread dough in a mixing bowl, ready to roll.

Sweet or Savory

Savory. Everyone in my family eats them a bit differently. We usually serve them up with cooked hamburger and beans, and let everyone add their own toppings: tomatoes, lettuce, sour cream, salsa, and guacamole.

You could even top them with a delicious, scoop of Chili.

Sweet. Others in my family pour honey over them, or slather on butter and jam. A few also like to add powdered sugar and just eat it as is.

How to Make Fry Bread

This fry bread recipe only requires FOUR ingredients! Chances are you probably already have them on hand, they are:

  • flour
  • salt
  • baking powder
  • water (warm)

To make it:

  1. DOUGH. Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a medium bowl. Add hot water.
  2. Mix with your hands until dough forms (dough should be a little sticky). Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
  3. PREP. While the dough is resting, add oil to a large saucepan that is about 1-2 inches deep and heat on MED-HIGH heat (it should be about 350°F when ready to fry).
  4. SHAPE. Break off the pieces of dough into golf-ball-sized balls (about 1½ inches wide). Using a pastry roller or rolling pin, roll the dough onto a lightly floured surface to about 6-7 inches in diameter (the dough should be thin).
  5. FRY. Fry each piece in hot oil until the dough is golden brown and poofs up (about 20 seconds). Continue to fry on the other side, keeping it in the oil. Set on a paper towel-lined plate to drain oil.

NOTE: As always, anything fried is best served fresh, so keep that in mind. 😉

Toppings

Whether you like them sweet or savory, Indian tacos are delicious!

To eat it like a Navajo Taco, check the recipe card below for instructions on making the taco toppings!

Some of our favorite toppings include:

If you want to keep things simple, enjoy it like many of those in my family and just add powdered sugar to it.

Rolling Indian fry bread dough balls for frying.

Recipe tips

Make Indian fry bread perfectly crisp with these tips!

  • Flat fry bread. To help your bread remain flat (instead of curling up on the edges and forming a bowl shape), cut a small slit in the center of each piece right before frying.
  • Oil temperature. Make sure your oil stays at a consistent temperature. If the temp is too low, the bread will be tough. If it’s too hot, the outside will burn before the inside cooks through.
  • Warm. Keep the fried bread warm in the oven (set at 200°F).

Elephant ears v fry bread. Though similar, there is a difference:

  • Fry bread is thick, about 6-8 inches in diameter, and topped with anything from powdered sugar to beef taco ingredients.
  • Elephant ears are thin, bubbly, about 10-16 inches in diameter, and traditionally only topped with cinnamon and sugar.
Frying up a Navajo Taco fry bread in oil.

Storing Fry Bread Dough

Fry bread is best when fresh, so we don’t recommend making it ahead of time. However, you can mix up the dough and store it in the fridge or freezer until it’s time to fry.

  • Dough in the fridge. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or transfer the dough to a Ziploc bag. Store for 1-2 days. Some bakers even recommend chilling the dough for a few hours before frying.
  • Dough in the freezer. Fry bread dough freezes well. Once your dough has been mixed, portion it into 3-inch balls and flash freeze.

Fry. When you’re ready to fry, remove the desired number of balls. Leave each ball in the baggie and thaw in the fridge overnight.

About 30 minutes before fry time, remove the dough from the baggie and let the dough come to room temperature. Fry according to recipe directions.

8 fry bread recipes stacked on a white plate.

storing info

Here are our top tips for storing leftover Indian fry bread recipe:

  • Store cooked bread. Wrap the bread loosely in plastic wrap or an unsealed Ziploc bag. Store at room temperature for 1-2 days.
  • Freeze cooked bread. Once the bread has cooled, pat each piece with a paper towel to remove any excess oil or water. Wrap each piece with plastic wrap and store it in an airtight freezer container. Freeze for 3-4 months.
  • To reheat fry bread. Heat the oven to 350°F. Wrap each piece of fry bread in aluminum foil and bake until heated through about 15 minutes. If you’re in a hurry, throw it in the microwave.
Fry bread served with meat, beans, cheese, lettuce, and sour cream.

for more recipes:

4.99 from 681 votes

Fry Bread Recipe

By: Lil’ Luna
Fry bread or "Navajo Tacos" are crispy pillows of dough with a soft inside. Complete it by adding sweet or savory toppings!
Servings: 8
Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 4 hours 5 minutes
Rest Time: 10 minutes
Total: 4 hours 35 minutes

Ingredients 

Bean Topping

  • 2 cups dried pinto beans rinsed and drained or 1 (16-ounce) can pinto beans, rinsed and drained)
  • water
  • 2-3 slices bacon chopped and cooked
  • 1 pound ground beef cooked and drained

Bread

Other Toppings

  • shredded lettuce, sour cream, chopped tomatoes, sliced avocados, shredded cheese

Instructions 

  • Make the bean topping: Place rinsed dried beans in a slow cooker and cover with water. Cook on low for 4–5 hours, or until beans start to become tender.
  • Add bacon pieces and ground beef to the slow cooker and continue to cook on low for an additional 1–2 hours, or until beans are fully tender. (To make the bean topping using canned beans, combine canned beans, cooked ground beef, and cooked bacon and cook in a slow cooker on low for 2 hours. Set aside.)
  • Make the bread: Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together in a medium bowl. Add hot water and mix with your hands until a dough forms (dough should be a little sticky). Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
  • While the dough is resting, preheat the oven to 200°F. Fill a large saucepan with 1–2 inches of oil and heat over medium-high heat to about 350°F.
  • Break off golf ball–sized pieces of dough and roll into balls about 1½ inches wide.
  • Using a pastry roller and working on a lightly floured surface, roll each dough ball into a thin circle 6–7 inches in diameter.
  • Working in batches, fry each dough piece in hot oil until the dough is golden and puffs up, about 20 seconds, then flip and fry on the other side for 10–20 seconds more. Set on a paper towel–lined plate to drain. Keep the fried bread warm in the oven while frying the remaining pieces.
  • Spread beans over fry bread, top with any other desired toppings, and serve warm.

Video

Notes

Perfect frying. Make sure your oil stays at a consistent temperature of about 350°F. If the temp is too low, the bread will be tough. If it is too hot, the outside will burn before the inside cooks through.
Soak the beans. To lessen the amount of gas in the beans, soak dried beans in a large bowl of water for 8–12 hours (or overnight). Drain and rinse beans before use.
Serving suggestions. We feel this fry bread is best served with beans, but for a sweeter version, you can also skip the savory toppings and serve it with powdered sugar and/or honey.

Nutrition

Serving: 1g, Calories: 450kcal, Carbohydrates: 55g, Protein: 24g, Fat: 14g, Saturated Fat: 5g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g, Monounsaturated Fat: 6g, Trans Fat: 1g, Cholesterol: 44mg, Sodium: 374mg, Potassium: 1021mg, Fiber: 8g, Sugar: 1g, Vitamin A: 2IU, Vitamin C: 3mg, Calcium: 136mg, Iron: 5mg

Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.

Additional Info

Course: Main Course
Cuisine: Indian
Making this recipe? Tag us!
Share it with us on Instagram using the hashtag #lilluna, so we can see what you’re creating in the kitchen!


About Kristyn

My name is Kristyn and I’m the mom of SIX stinkin’ cute kids and the wife to my smokin’ hot hubby, Lo. My mom’s maiden name is Luna, and I’m one of the many crafty “Lil’ Lunas” in the fam. On this site I like to share all things creative - from recipes to home decor to gifts and home decor ideas. Welcome!

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Recipe Rating




232 Comments

  1. Is 130 degree water, correct? After 10 minutes I goop that could only be scooped with a spoon. It was completely unmanageable. I weighed all the other ingredients. Or maybe a cup was just too much water?

  2. 5 stars
    This fry bread was delicious and so simple to make. I ordered a “Navajo chicken sandwich” at a restaurant recently and my husband said he wanted to eat it for dinner last night. I thought it was going to be quite the challenge but it was not. I made this fry bread recipe exactly as written and then baked chicken and made a really simple chipotle aioli, topped with avocado, onion, lettuce and tomato. It was delicious and so simple to make.

    After dinner I fried up four more disc of fry bread and we topped with cinnamon sugar and chocolate sauce.

  3. I’m Blackfoot, and always check out other recipes to see if they are similar. This is the exact recipe for fry bread I was given by my family and have been using forever!
    I’ve seen “frilly” fry bread versions but you have to remember that back then, things had to be kept to the basics because that’s all they had.

  4. 5 stars
    Great recipe, and thank you for the tips on storing the dough for frying later! My question is: how many fry breads should I be getting out of this recipe that is supposed to serve 8 people? I just want to make sure I plan for enough ingredients.

  5. When you click the print icon on the recipe and it brings up the page to select what is to be printed, the ingredients are blank.