This post may contain affiliate links. Please read our disclosure policy.
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!
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!
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:
- DOUGH. Sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together in a medium bowl. Add hot water.
- Mix with your hands until dough forms (dough should be a little sticky). Cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
- 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).
- 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).
- 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:
- meat + beans
- sour cream (or dressing like Cilantro Ranch or Cilantro Lime Vinaigrette)
- salsa (Black Bean and Corn Salsa, Salsa Verde, or any other favorite!)
- guacamole (or sliced avocado)
- cheese
- lettuce, tomatoes + olives (or Pico de Gallo)
If you want to keep things simple, enjoy it like many of those in my family and just add powdered sugar to it.
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.
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.
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.
for more recipes:
Fry Bread Recipe
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
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup hot water 130°F
- vegetable oil for frying
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
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
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I love these!! It is fun to make these at home. Brings the fair right to your home
This turned out great and was pretty easy to put together ! Instead of bacon I put ham in and cooked in crockpot and I put a little bit of taco seasoning in my hamburger added salsa and cilantro and cheese ! Not a lettuce person but that’s what is good about this recipe you can add or take away
Yes, you can definitely customize it a bit! I’m so glad you enjoyed the recipe. Thanks for sharing what you did!
These look so good, however I have always been intimidated by frying. Given the importance of keeping the frying temperature consistent and not frying at too low or too high of a temp, can you advise me as to what the best temperature is for frying? Thank You in advance for your help!
Frying can seem intimidating, but once you get the hang of it, it’s so fun! And so tasty! 🙂 I’d suggest heating the oil to the 350-365 degree range.
Where did you get the small roller? I need that in my life 😅
It’s so handy! You can find it on Amazon.
Yummy! I’ve been told that the Dineh people (Navajo) make the hole in the center to let out the evil spirits. Also, they really like to use the Bluebird brand of flour if you can find it.
Oh that’s really cool! I didn’t know that. Thanks for sharing!
How many fry bread would you say this recipe yields?
This recipe is for about 6 servings…. but the number of fry breads depends on how large you make the bread. You could roll them out smaller and have a couple each or you could make them larger and only have one. Whatever your preference is!
First time making it and we enjoyed it very much I’m making it again for tonight this is going to be a recipe that I make again and again
That makes me so happy to hear! Thanks so much for trying the recipe! I’m glad you enjoyed it.
I’ve tried this recipe twice and I like the bread. My dough is always really sticky. I use the exact amounts according to the recipe. Is there a way for it to be not so sticky?
Weather and location really can affect baking, so you could try adding a little more flour in until it isn’t quite so sticky. You don’t want to use too much or the fry bread will be dense, but you could add it tablespoon at a time until it is a better consistency and see if that helps!
Hi! I thought I followed the directions snd measurements correctly, but my dough is so sticky it will not form into balls. It’s sticks to everything. Any suggestions? Thank you!!!
I would suggest adding in a little flour until the dough doesn’t feel so sticky. You don’t want too much flour, but weather/altitude/etc. can affect the amount of flour needed, so if you feel like it’s too sticky, add small amounts of flour (1-2 tbsp) at a time until you get a better consistency.
To anyone who has never made these….the dough is a fine recipe, but PLEASE take a tape measure and see what a1/2 an inch really looks like. Its MANY times thicker than these should be. If you look at the video you will see that they MIGHT be 1/16 of an inch, paper thin, by they time they are fried.
Thanks for your feedback!
That’s a great point and I agree. Mine were not as thick as recipe suggested and turned out great. 👍
One/third of my screen is adds. Several are distracting videos. Others change. They pop up in your text. I do not know whether to click for your links in fear that I will be linking to an ad site.
Can’t stay.