Navajo Tacos are easy to make and fun to eat! Pillowy fry bread piled with chili, cheese and your favorite toppings.
Navajo Tacos
Navajo Tacos are such a staple of our childhood. We ate them at 4th of July parties, county fairs, chili cook-offs and lake trips. We would eat them outside on the grass or on a picnic table so we didn’t make a huge mess, and almost always on a thick paper plate. The chili would seep through but we didn’t care. It was summer food and it didn’t matter if we got it all over the place. Light Indian Fry Bread piled high with either chili or ground beef or a mixture of both, lots of shredded lettuce, tomatoes, olives and cheese and smothered in sour cream is one of my most treasured meals of my youth.
Ingredients in Navajo Tacos
- The base of a delicious Navajo taco recipe is our soft Homemade Fry Bread. This from scratch recipe is super easy and always turns out light, fluffy and delicious! Use the fry bread on for scones too! Top with honey and butter or cinnamon sugar. YUM!
- If you’re pressed for time, use biscuit dough in place of fry bread dough. You know, the refrigerated dough in a can. You can use pre-made pizza dough too. Just flatten out the biscuit dough into round discs and then fry up in hot oil as directed in the recipe card below.
- Frozen dough is another quick alternative to Navajo fry bread. I love using Rhode’s frozen dinner rolls because the dough balls the perfect size for mini Navajo tacos. Let them rise on a cookie sheet covered in plastic wrap, then form each piece of dough into flat discs, then fry just like you would a the biscuit dough or homemade dough.
- Then, you’ll need chili. We make a huge batch of our Easy Homemade Chili, use some for this recipe, then freeze the rest for later. You can use a can of your favorite chili for an easier dinner too.
- Shredded cheese is next. Do yourself a favor, and shred it from the block. The pre-shredded cheese is convenient but doesn’t melt as well and just doesn’t taste as good.
- Top with shredded lettuce, tomatoes, sour cream, anything you like.
Toppings for Navajo Tacos
This recipe is perfect for anyone who has little time but a big appetite! They’re really simple to throw together and so delicious. For toppings, I know some people like to use re-fried beans instead of chili. That’s not the way I was brought up, so I can’t in good faith encourage this sort of behavior. You can have refried beans AND chili, but never JUST re-fried beans. The chili is what makes them so good! So here are our favorite toppings for Navajo tacos, and of course add your own to the mix!
- Refried beans (if you must)
- Seasoned ground beef – brown in a large skillet in a little vegetable oil, then season with cumin, chili powder, and paprika. Or you can use your favorite taco seasoning.
- Shredded chicken
- Cheddar cheese
- Shredded lettuce
- Diced tomatoes
- Onions
- Green onions
- Green pepper
- Black Olives
- Sour Cream
- Salsa
- Ranch Dressing
- Paprika
- Garlic
- Sliced Avocado or Guacamole
More Hearty Chili Recipes
This dish is a complete meal all on its own. We rarely serve anything alongside our Navajo tacos, except a big old napkin, and maybe some ice cream for dessert. Here are a few more hearty recipes guaranteed to fill you up!
How to Make Navajo Tacos
Navajo Tacos
Ingredients
- 4 servings Homemade Fry Bread (see recipe notes) prepared
- 3 cups chili (homemade or canned)
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 2 cups lettuce shredded
- 4 tablespoons sour cream
- olives (optional)
- salsa (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare Homemade Fry Bread. See recipe notes for more options.
- Prepare or heat chili. For an easy chili recipe, try our Cheater Chili.
- Layer ¾ cup chili, ¼ cup cheese, ½ cup lettuce, 1 tablespoon sour cream, olives, and salsa on each piece of Homemade Fry Bread.
- Serve on a sturdy plate!
Notes
Nutrition Information
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I have always wanted to learn how to make Navajo tacos thanks so much for showing me all your tips now I can make them at home.
Looking at that chilli is making me so hungry!! This the perfect weekend dinner. I admit that I hadn’t heard of fry bread before now, yum!! I love the colours and textures too.
Thank you for this recipe, sounds delicious and will make it for my son birthday
I am saving this recipe to make for our upcoming Tacos’ party. Five girls will make their Tacos recipes, their husbands will choose a winner. I am sure I will win with your recipe. Thanks!!!
A perfect take on tacos for our Taco Tuesday -my family’s favorite dinner night of the week! SO FRESH and delicious.
They look SO yummy. I remember these from my childhood. How about a gluten free option? Thanks
We haven’t made fry bread with a GF dough before but I am sure you can just substitute the flour with a GF flour. Just keep checking for consistency when using GF flour. Hope this helps!
If you have a fry bread recipe why don’t you include it with the recipe, instead we get this is somewhat embarrassing, because there is no recipe.
Thank you for letting us know the link is broken! It is now fixed. You can find the fry bread recipe here:
https://www.favfamilyrecipes.com/fry-bread/
I can’t wait to try this..Sounds delicious!!
I got a similar recipe from the blog You wash and I’ll dry. She puts a spicy sour cream on her version and it really makes these AWESOME!!! We eat Navajo tacos very often, so delicious!!
Help! Quick question. I have the “flaky” rendition of the Grands biscuits in my fridge. Will that work or is there a specific “style” of Grands biscuits that I need to use?
I’ve made these before using Rhode’s frozen roles. You defrost them in the refrigerator… flatten out… and fry. YUM! 🙂