Navajo Tacos/ Fry Bread Tacos

Before going in to details recipe let me tell you how it is actually, specially for those who are not yet lucky to test it.

As the name suggests and the picture shows, its a crispy fried bread layer at the bottom, creating kind of a bowl or small plate like shape. on top of that add your choice of proteins like chicken/ mutton/ lamb/ paneer/ mushrooms etc. Then add beans mashed plus non mashed both. then add your choice of salads. and top of that spread your choice of sauce.

So basically the fried bread you any way have to do, rest you can alter based on your choice. If you are vegetarian the go for one type of protein, if you dont like Lettuce then go for other salad vegetables like that you can customize your topping according to your choice.

So hope by now you have got an overall idea of the dish. Lets jump into the authentic recipe, that I followed.

Navajo Tacos

Ingredients:

1. All purpose flour.

2. Baking powder.

3. Semolina.

4. Salt.

5. Chicken.

6. Black Kidney Beans.

7. Onion.

8. Garlic.

9. Green Chilli.

10. Curd(preferably without much water content)/ yogurt.

11. Lettuce.

12. Coriander leaves.

13. Tomatoes.

14. Carrot.

15. Lemon.

16. Mayonnaise/ Sour cream.

17. Bell pepper.

18. Sweet Chillis.

19. Oil of choice.

20. Hot Sauce.

21. Water.

Procedure:

Soak 1&1/2 cup of beans over night.

Next morning drain out the water, and wash those for couple of times in running water, and put on the flame to boil the beans.

Take 150 gms of chicken fillets preferably white meat(breast) portion. Marinate this with 1 table spoon of curd, salt and chilli powder as per your test.

Lets make the dough till the beans becoming really soft.

Take 3/4 cup of flour, add 3/4 table spoon of semolina, 3/4 table spoon of baking powder, 1/2 tea spoon of salt. Mix these dry ingredients well and then add 1 table spoon of oil and 1 table spoon of curd in it. Again mix these well. Then gradually add warm water in it and keep kneading. we will require a really soft dough, so water content will be bit high. However the water will not be so high that instead of dough it becomes a sticky or running mix. Once the dough is ready brush some oil on it, and keep it covered as of now.

Now brush/ spray some oil on the marinated chickens. Then grill the marinated chicken fillets, at 350 F for around 30 minutes. We need really dry grilled meat, but not like a crispy chips obviously.

Chop a cup of onion, 3 - 4 sweet chilli, 3/4th of a bell pepper.

Put a table spoon of oil in a hot pan and saute these chopped vegetables.

Hopefully by now Beans are really soft(if you are using pressure cooker, then 3 - 4 whistles will be enough for good quality beans). Drain the excess water out. Take 2/3 table spoon of beans separately in a bowl and add rest in a grinder to make a smooth paste.

Mince a clove of garlic, and 1/2 cup of onion. Add some oil in a pan saute the minced garlic and onion and then add the bean paste in it and mix it well, until the excess water is evaporated.

Take a clove of garlic, and 2/3 green chillis. Smash these using a mortar and pestle.

Take 3 - 4 table spoon of sour cream/ mayonnaise and table spoon of curd. Mix these well with a a spoon, then add salt as per your taste, and also add the smashed garlic and chillis.

Now julienne(cut in thin slices) some carrots and onions. Chop some Tomatoes, and iceberg Lettuce. Dice some coriander leaves.

Take out the grilled chickens and chop those in small pieces.

Now the most important and challenging task, - frying the bread.

take out the dough, brush some oil on a big and cleaned kitchen top surface. then using a rolling pin, try making a round flat bread.

Now here keep in mind, based on the size pan you will use to fry the bread, you need to decide how much dough you will use.

layer should be thin enough, however it should not be that thin, so that while taking this out from the surface to the pan, it will tear apart or create holes in it.

Now put 1/2 inches of oil in your pan, and make it hot. then put the flame to mid, and place the flattened bread in the oil. as the time passes after 40/ 50 sec you will see the middle portion is creating a dome shape or a shape of an up side down bowl. this is because if the vapor covered under the bread. Thats why avoiding any hole or tear is important here during flattening the bread. Once this side is done till yellowing brown turn it to other side. fry that side too till golden brown. take the bread out of the oil,and put it on tissue paper.

Now keep in mind this fried bread is really crispy, so while turning it over or taking out of the oil, do it carefully, otherwise it will break apart.

Now it all about putting everything on dish.

First put the bread. Then add the chicken pieces, the the paste of beans, then whole beans and saute vegetables, then lettuce, onion, carrot, tomatoes. Then dress it with the white sauce we did prepare, and add some hot sauce to your test.Sprinkle some coriander leaves and black salt. And finally not a cherry, but a slice of lime on top, and you are all set with a dish of Navajo Tacos.

Enjoy!!