Today on The Stay At Home Chef
I'm showing you how to make Fry Bread.
Different versions and variations of fry bread can be found in cultures and countries around the world,
and almost all of them can trace their origins to poverty and oppression.
For the Indigenous people of the Americas, the story is the same.
The origins of Native American or Indian fry bread can trace their roots back to The Trail of Tears,
where tribes were forced from their lands.
Now they're given government rations to live off of,
but things like flour were not native or familiar to these tribes.
When all you have to work with is things like flour and lard,
fry bread is born out of necessity as it's a high calorie low ingredient recipe.
Some celebrate fry bread as a symbol of perseverance, while others view it as a symbol of oppression.
Some people just view it as a tasty thing to eat.
The feelings and emotions surrounding fry bread are complex,
but the recipe is quite simple.
It starts with 4 cups of all-purpose flour.
To that we'll add 1 teaspoon of salt,
and 1 1/2 tablespoons of baking powder,
then we'll give this a quick stir to evenly disperse those ingredients.
I've spent the majority of my life living near the Paiute, Goshute, Ute, and Navajo tribes.
To me fry bread is a celebration of their amazing cultures.
Once that's mixed together we're going to slowly add in about 1 1/2 cups of hot water.
We'll slowly work this together into a dough.
Now as you work it you may need to add in a little bit more water as you go
in order to form a soft, sticky dough ball,
and at some point you'll probably need to switch to your hands to knead the dough all together.
Now you should end up with a dough that's super soft and stretchy and still a little bit sticky.
Now as long as I keep the dough moving it doesn't stick to my hands,
but if I press my hand in and hold it still, you'll see it sticks to my hands,
but still comes off.
That is the texture you're looking for.
I'm gonna pour a little bit of vegetable oil into a clean bowl,
and then I'm gonna coat my dough ball with that oil and pour a little more on top if you need it.
the oil will prevent the dough from sticking to the bowl and keep it from drying out.
Cover the bowl with a towel and let it rest for about 2 hours.
This is not a risen dough so this is not rising time, this is resting time.
Resting allows for the formation of gluten to give you a nice chewy dough.
Now I already have a bowl here of dough that has been resting for 2 hours.
Pour enough vegetable oil, shortening, corn oil, or lard into a large pot
to cover the bottom with about 2 inches of oil, then get that heating to 350 degrees Fahrenheit,
which is our optimal temperature for frying.
Once your oil is hot enough you'll pinch off golf ball sized pieces of dough,
then you'll start stretching it out into a large oval or circle.
Some methods have you poke a little hole in the center, but that's not how I make mine,
but you can definitely do that if you'd like to.
You want to stretch your dough nice and thin, and this doesn't have to be pretty or perfect or even.
It's just a quick stretch.
Then gently lay the dough down into the hot oil.
Let it fry for a minute or 2 until it's golden brown,
and then give it a flip and let it fry on the other side until it's golden brown as well.
Then once it's done,
remove it from the hot oil and transfer it to a paper towel lined plate or rack to cool.
Continue this process with all of your remaining dough.
I get about 12 pieces of fry bread with this recipe,
but of course how many you'll get out of it will depend on the size of each of your pieces of fry bread.
Fry bread should be crispy on the outside,
you can hear that crackle,
then when you tear into it it should be soft and chewy on the inside.
In the American Southwest you can serve these up a savory style,
and make yourself some Navajo tacos,
or you can go sweet and go with powdered sugar and honey or honey butter,
or you can let us know in the comments how you enjoy it where you live.
Thanks for watching.
You can find the full written recipe in the video description.
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