Frybread Written By: Shantel Whitford Prep Time: 15 minutes Cook Time: 1 hour Print Recipe Ingredients 5 cups of water 3 Tbs yeast 1/2 cup sugar 3 Tbs canola or vegetable oil 1 tsp salt 12 cups flour 1 bottle canola or vegetable oil (reserve 1/4 cup for hands) Instructions Water should be warm but not hot, at about 140 degrees. Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the hot water and let it sit for 5 minutes until it gets foamy. Add oil, salt, and flour and mix until just incorporated. Do not over mix. Let this sit for an hour on the counter. In a large pan or skillet heat the oil to about 350 to 375 degrees. Cover your hands in the remaining oil and pull off balls of dough. If your frybread is going to be used with stew, then pull off golfball-sized pieces of dough. If you'll be making Indian tacos then pull off balls of dough that are the size of an apple. Using your hands flatten the dough on the counter to the desired size. Let the flattened dough sit on the counter for 5 minutes or so before frying. Gently drop the dough into the heated oil and fry on each side until it's light brown. Make sure the frybread is cooked in the middle, and ensure that they are not too thick or that your oil is too hot. Drain frybread on paper towels and enjoy! There are many different family recipes for frybread. Some use baking powder, and the one I make uses yeast. I have been making frybread for most of my life. It's one of my family's favorites, and whenever I cook for visitors it is always their request. I made just half a batch the other day, and compared to the batches that I make at pow wow (by the 25-pound bag of flour) it seemed so small! When making large batches, like at pow wow, we have to mix it in 5-gallon buckets and have three fryers going all at the same time behind the food stands just to keep up with the demand. Frybread is a staple at any kind of gathering for us; whether it is to be used to make Indian tacos, dipping it into your stew, or making a frybread burger - there's no wrong way to eat it! There is an art to making frybread, and it takes some practice. But once you have it down, it is a pretty quick and easy process. My husband's favorite way to eat frybread is when I stuff it. Sometimes I wrap it around a hot dog and fry it kind of like a corndog. One of our favorites is stuffing it with the meat, potato, and vegetables from stew (draining away the liquid first), adding cheese, then frying it like a hot pocket. We have also made dessert by stuffing the frybread with apple pie filling and rolling them in cinnamon and sugar. The ways you can enjoy frybread are endless!
