Navajo Tacos

I thought I’d post about our dinner from the other night.  My kids love this dinner and although I highly doubt it has actual roots in Native American fare, it’s still delicious.  I’d never had nor even heard  of these until I moved to UT, but they seem to be well known here.  Basically you make a bread-like dough, fry it up in oil and top it with whatever you want then eat it.  Here’s a quick step by step with (crummy) pictures too.  Start off by breaking off a piece of dough and making it into a rough ball.

  Then stretch it out gently until it’s the shape you want.  Oblong ones fit best in my pan so that’s how I make them, but any shape you want is fine.  Place them carefully in the hot oil making sure to set them in away from you so you don’t accidentally splash hot oil on yourself.  Let them cook until you can see a little brown around the edges then flip them over so the other side can brown.     Drain them on a paper towel after you take them out.  It makes me feel a little better about all the oil if I drain them like that.  Now, I’m sure there are all sorts of ways people top their Navajo tacos, but in our house we use chili and then add normal taco toppings like lettuce, cheese, sour cream, and salsa to them.  I had some cilantro so I used a little on mine because I love the stuff and would probably put it on just about anything.  I think the reason my kids love these so much is because it has built in dessert too.  For a really simple dessert  top a “scone” or fry bread or whatever you wanna call it with butter (it has to melt and pool a little bit) and then powdered sugar.  Beware though that powdered sugar and boys equals one big mess it doesn’t matter if they are three or twelve. 
But it sure is fun!  If you want to get really super yummy and a little more fancy put some nutella, sliced bananas, and whipped cream on a hot scone—that’s heavenly for sure, but I never have nutella on hand so powdered sugar is what we normally do at our house. 

The recipe we use for our “scones” is one I got from the boyfriend (now husband) of one of my college room mates.  I usually make double of this recipe so we have leftovers for the next day.

Butch’s Scones

1 Tbs Oil

1 Tbs sugar

1 Tbs yeast

1 c water

1 tsp salt

1 c white flour

1 c wheat flour

Mix together water and yeast and let proof (unless you use instant yeast then it doesn’t have to proof) then add the rest of the ingredients with the flour last. knead until you get a soft but not too sticky dough. Let rise anywhere from 2-20 mins (I let mine rise while the oil is heating up and it's perfect) Shape them, and cook in hot oil.