Nevada. Who needs a plate when you have frybread?

Nevada. Nevada’s Las Vegas is home to 150,000 hotel rooms -- more than any other city in the world. Could it have so many hotel rooms so that people can see the single largest public work project ever recorded in the U.S.’s history, the Hoover Dam?

Or it could have something to do with having a good time and eating too much food at the all-you-can-eat buffets? Maybe. But since buffets could share more than just food in the time of COVID-19, we decided to go with a different Southwestern approach: the Navajo Taco.

---

Sizzle that meat.

Navajo tacos were originally created when the US government sent Native Americans to New Mexico. Since these people couldn't grow their staple vegetables and beans, the government gave them canned and dry goods, like flour. This is where to frybread was born.

Navajo tacos include all of the delicious Mexican meat and toppings often found in your average taco, except it's on a crispy and chewy piece of tasty deep-fat fried flat bread.

We started by sauteing some onions, and then we added the burger into the pan with the onions. We browned the burger and threw in some beans. Then paprika, cumin, chili powder, salt, black pepper, crushed red pepper, garlic powder, tomatoes, and green chilies gave it a nice spice.

---

Knead, knead, knead some more.

The dough started as some flour, water, baking powder, and salt. Then I kneaded the dough for five minutes. As I’m sure you can guess if you’ve read some of my previous entries, I didn’t enjoy this. Never have, probably never will.

Once we kneaded the dough, we started to heat the oil to 350, then put the dough in a bowl, and put saran wrap on said bowl. Once the oil had heated up, we took the dough out of the bowl, and broke it up into eight golf ball sized pieces.

One at a time, I rolled out the dough to eighth inches in diameter, then put them into the oil to fry. Almost instantly, the dough puffed up and grew bubbles inside themselves. It was really neat to watch!! The dough fried for a few minutes, until it was golden brown. When the are done frying, we put the now-flatbread first onto a paper towel, and once dry, into the oven to keep them warm.

---

The tacos are served.

Time to serve up. I chose the biggest and best looking frybread to use as a base for the rest of the topping. We scoped on some meat and topped it with cheese, lettuce, sour cream, and olives. I accidentally poured olive juice all over Dad's taco. Sorry, Dad!

Wow, they were delicious!! I rate them as number four on my States on My Plate meal board, only to Illinois' deep dish pizza, Oregon’s maple bacon donuts, and Washington’s cedar plank salmon.

Want to try them for yourself? Here's the recipe we used: https://houseofnasheats.com/navajo-tacos-indian-fry-bread/