Navajo Tacos
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Navajo Tacos – A simple yet delicious recipe for homemade fry bread topped with juicy flank steak, cheese, tomatoes, and green onions. A delicious twist on the classic taco, fun to enjoy with your family!
These Navajo tacos are so delicious, you’ll dream about them! I don’t know what it is about them, the fried bread, the juicy flank steak or all that cheese. Whatever it is, all these ingredients combined – make for one spectacular taco!
I have plenty of taco recipes on the blog, but this one is different! I made the dough myself, using my easy pizza dough recipe which is foolproof. The fry bread is so good, you’ll want to eat every last crumb. Simple ingredients coming together to create one epic taco!
What are Navajo tacos
Navajo tacos are really Indian fry bread which is a flat dough bread that fried and then topped with some simple ingredients. If you’ve never had some before, you are missing out! Check out my recipe for feta fry bread, if you’ve never tried any type of fried dough; I strongly strongly urge you to go in your kitchen right now and make some.
You can eat it plain, with yogurt, cheese, or of course as a taco, like in this recipe! You can stuff it with meat, veggies, basically everything but the kitchen sink!
Needless to say, this is not an authentic recipe, it’s simply my version of it. Traditionally, Navajo tacos are made with ground beef, so feel free to use that if you choose to, I just love the steak version better.
Ingredients
Dough
- Water – Make sure it’s warm water.
- Salt
- Olive Oil – Substitute for canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil or avocado oil.
- Flour – I used trusty all-purpose flour!
- Yeast – Active dry yeast. You can use instant yeast as well the only difference is that instant yeast doesn’t need to be activated, so just add it along with the rest of the ingredients.
Note: If you don’t want to make your own dough, you could use frozen dinner roll dough – But trust me on this homemade fry bread, it’s worth it.
Steak
- Steak – Flank steak.
- Taco Sauce – Store bought will work fine or you could use my homemade enchilada sauce!
- Salt and Pepper – To taste.
- Spices – I used ground cumin, chili powder and garlic powder.
Toppings
- Cheese – I used Mozzarella cheese, feel free to use your preference!
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Green onions
- Cilantro
Other
- Oil – For frying bread.
How to make Navajo tacos
- Make the Steak – Mix all the spices together, excluding the taco sauce, and rub over the flank steak on both sides. Grill the steak to your preference. After it’s grilled, cover it with aluminum foil and let it rest for about 10 minutes, during which time you can make the dough.
- Make the Dough – Pour the yeast over the warm water in a small bowl, set aside. In the bowl of your mixer, add the flour and salt and mix. Add the olive oil and using the dough hook, mix for about a minute. Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and mix until well incorporated.
- Cut the Dough – Cut the dough into about 6 or 8 equal pieces, depending on how big you want each taco and roll each piece with a rolling pin so that it’s about 1/4 of an inch in thickness.
- Fry the Dough – In a large frying pan heat enough vegetable oil so that it’s 1/2 inch deep. Fry until golden on both sides. When done place over paper towels.
- Coat Steak in Sauce – While the dough is frying, cut the steak into thin slices. Place steak into a bowl and pour taco sauce over and toss so that each piece is fully coated.
- Assemble and Serve – Top each piece of fried bread with the steak and toppings. Serve.
Note: You can probably get about 6 to 8 tacos out of this dough, so if you’re not going to fry all of them, you can freeze half.
Freezing Dough
Store excess dough, sealed tightly, in your freezer for up to a year!
How to serve
Mix up your regular taco night and serve these steak fry bread tacos as an alternative to the traditional! They are a fun take on the classic and they are so yummy! You can also try different meat options, like chicken or pork or try adding some of these additional toppings to amp up your tacos even more!
What else can I add to my Navajo tacos
- Jalapenos
- Corn
- Black Beans
- Guacamole
- Salsa
- Sour cream
- Avocado Lime Crema
- Cotijo
- Hot Sauce
How to store leftover tacos
Store leftovers separately.
Steak
Store leftover flank steak in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days.
Fry Bread
Leftover fry bread might not keep as well and may lose its texture – it’s best to use it up immediately. See above for freezing instructions.
Looking for more recipes like this? Try these!
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Navajo Tacos
Ingredients
Dough
- ¾ to 1 cup warm water
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2¼ teaspoon active dry yeast ((or 1 pkg, 2 1/4 tsp in a package))
Steak
- 1½ pounds flank steak
- ½ cup taco sauce
- ½ teaspoon salt (or to taste)
- ½ teaspoon pepper (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon ground cumin
- 1 teaspoon chili powder
- ½ teaspoon garlic powder
Toppings
- 2 cups Mozzarella cheese
- 2 cups lettuce
- tomatoes
- green onions
- cilantro
- 1 cup vegetable oil (for frying bread)
Before You Begin! If you make this, please leave a review and rating letting us know how you liked this recipe! This helps our business thrive & continue providing free recipes.
Instructions
- To make the steak mix all the spices together, excluding the taco sauce, and rub over the flank steak on both sides. Grill the steak to your preference, I grilled mine to medium rare. After it’s grilled, cover it with aluminum foil and let it rest for about 10 minutes, during which time you can make the dough.
- Pour the yeast over the warm water in a small bowl.
- In the bowl of your mixer, add the flour and salt and mix. Add the olive oil and using the dough hook, mix for about a min.
- Add the yeast mixture to the flour mixture and mix until well incorporated. You can probably get about 6 to 8 tacos out of this dough, so if you're not going to fry all of them, you can freeze half. Cut the dough into about 6 or 8 equal pieces, depending on how big you want each taco and roll each piece with a rolling pin so that it's about ¼ of an inch in thickness.
- In a large frying pan heat enough vegetable oil so that it's ½ inch deep. Fry 1 or 2 of the rolled out dough pieces, depending on how big your frying pan is. Fry until golden on both sides. When done place over paper towels.
- While the dough is frying, cut the steak into thin slices. Place steak into a bowl and pour taco sauce over and toss so that each piece is fully coated. If you need more sauce, feel free to add more.
- To serve, top each piece of fried bread with steak, freshly shredded mozzarella cheese, tomatoes, lettuce, green onions and cilantro.
Notes
- You can probably get about 6 to 8 tacos out of this dough, so if you’re not going to fry all of them, you can freeze half.
- Freezing Dough: Store excess dough, sealed tightly, in your freezer for up to a year!
- Store leftovers separately. Store leftover flank steak in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 4 days. Leftover fry bread might not keep as well and may lose its texture – it’s best to use it up immediately. See above for freezing instructions.
Nutrition Information
Notice: Nutrition is auto-calculated for your convenience. Where relevant, we recommend using your own nutrition calculations.
