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It’s so easy to make these Navajo Tacos with Indian Fry Bread right in your own kitchen. The Southwestern staple tastes just like what you can get at local restaurants in Arizona and New Mexico.
Featured with this recipe
No matter where you are—whether it’s a 4th of July party or a chili cook-off—you can find me eating a Navajo taco on a thick paper plate next to my siblings and friends. As a youth, we’d bring them to the park or just outside on the grass so we didn’t make a huge mess. And almost always, my favorite combination was chili and ground beef, but sometimes I would get one with just beef instead. I loved how perfectly spiced the meat was, how crisp the lettuce and tomatoes were when they got mixed in with everything else on the taco, and how creamy that sour cream tasted next to all that melted cheese!
What are Navajo Tacos?
Basically, Navajo tacos are pillows of homemade fry bread, topped with your favorite taco toppings, like ground beef, cheese, lettuce, tomato, etc. They’re super easy, filling and a fun alternative to Taco Tuesday. Here’s what you need:
For the Indian Fry Bread Dough:
- Flour – 2 ½ cups all purpose flour
- Salt – 2 teaspoons salt
- Baking powder – 2 teaspoons
- Dry Milk – ½ cup dry milk
- Warm Water – 1 ½ cups or so
- Vegetable oil or canola oil – for frying
For the Navajo Taco Toppings
- 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.
- Cheddar cheese – 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.
- Lettuce – shredded
- Sour cream – four tablespoons
- Olives – optional
- Salsa – optional
- Tomatoes or Pico de gallo – optional
Substitutions for the Fry Bread Dough
- 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.
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
Frequently Asked Questions About Navajo Tacos
Navajo tacos are just like a regular taco, except instead of using a corn or flour tortilla, you use the pillowy soft fry bread. They’re served open faced instead of folded.
The best way to serve a Navajo Taco is on a sturdy plate and eaten with a knife and fork.
The first Navajo taco was created by a man named Lou Shepard, who worked for the tribe in the 1960s as manager of the Navajo Lodge, a tribally owned motel and restaurant located across the street from what is now the Navajo Education Center. It’s always served on the traditional fry bread.
READ MORE: Easy Ground Beef Recipes
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 ol’ 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 with Indian Fry Bread
Video
Ingredients
Indian Fry Bread
- 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 cup dry milk
- 1 1/2 cups warm water
- oil vegetable oil or canola oil for frying
Navajo Taco Toppings
- 3 cups chili (homemade, see link below or canned)
- 1 cup cheddar cheese shredded
- 2 cups lettuce shredded
- 4 tablespoons sour cream
- olives (optional)
- salsa (optional)
- tomatoes or pico de gallo
Instructions
For the Indian Fry Bread
- Heat oil to 375 degrees in a frying pan or electric skillet.
- Combine all ingredients in a bowl.
- Mix dough thoroughly, you may have to add more flour to get a soft dough consistency.
- Divide dough into 4 balls.
- Roll each dough ball out on a floured surface making a thin circle.
- Lift it like a pizza dough off the surface.
- Fry the dough in hot oil.When you see the dough turning a golden brown – about 20-30 seconds. Flip over and cook the other side. It's normal to see big bubbles in the dough.Remove from oil when both sides are a golden brown.
- Drain off excess grease on a paper towel.Keep warm in oven (200 degrees) until ready to serve.
Navajo Taco Toppings
- 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
- You can use Grands Biscuits dough or frozen roll dough (thawed) instead of the Homemade Fry Bread. Roll out the biscuits or dough into a thin circle.
- Heat oil in a skillet to 375 degrees. Fry the dough for about 30 seconds on each side until golden brown.
- Drain off the excess oil and or pat it off with a paper towel. Keep warm in the oven at 200 degrees until ready to serve.
This is the same recipe my mother in law gave me and it’s absolutely a hit with my husband and guests!
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! 🙂