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Video: “Navajo Grandma Fry Bread Dough Recipe Episode 2” by Navajo Grandma onYouTube

Navajo fry bread

Golden, blistered and puffed like a pillow. The bread grandmothers have made for generations.

40 min

Liner notes

Fry bread is the most beloved and the most complicated food in America. It was born in 1864, when Navajo families were forced marched three hundred miles and survived on government flour, salt and lard. The women turned those rations into something warm and beautiful, and their granddaughters still make it under the shade at powwows, at fairs, and on Friday nights. When a Diné grandmother teaches it, she never measures — she feels the dough and knows.

Track 1 · Why it hits
The baking powder is the lift and the hot oil is the oven. Steam builds inside the disc and blows it up like a balloon, which is why the dough must stay soft and relaxed — a tight dough steams, a rested dough soars. The center slit keeps the bubble even so you get craters, not a sphere.
Track 2 · Backstage tip
Pat it with your fingers, never a rolling pin. Rolling pressurizes the dough and it shrinks back. And keep the middle a touch thicker than the rim: thin edges fry to lace, the thick middle stays pillowy.

Ingredients

6 servings

Steps

  1. 1Whisk the flour, baking powder and salt together in a big bowl, then make a crater in the middle.
  2. 2Pour in the warm water a little at a time, mixing with your hand until a soft dough comes together. It should feel like play dough — barely sticky, never dry. Add only as much water as it asks for.
  3. 3Cover the dough with a towel and let it rest for 30 minutes. This rest is what lets the bread puff instead of fighting back.
  4. 4Divide into 6 balls. With oiled hands, pat and stretch each one into a thin disc about 8 inches across — thicker in the middle than the edges. Poke a hole or small slit in the center so it puffs evenly instead of ballooning.
  5. 5Heat 2 inches of oil to 375°F. Slide in one disc and it should sizzle and rise within seconds. Fry 1 to 2 minutes, flip, and fry until the second side is gold and blistered.
  6. 6Drain standing upright on a rack or paper towels and eat as soon as you can bear it.
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