A silver sheet pan with California Lavash Naan bread that is topped with pinto beans, ground beef taco meat, shredded American and Colby cheese, shredded lettuce, and diced tomatoes. A white and black Aztec design towel is under the sheet pan. There are four Indian Tacos on the sheet pan and everything is sitting on a wooden backdrop. A package of California Lavash Naan bread is placed in the upper left corner beside the pan of tacos.

Easy Indian Tacos Recipe

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 This is a sponsored post for California Lavash. All reviews and opinions expressed in this post are based on my personal view. 

Indian Tacos

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ve probably heard me mention in my stories that I was born and raised in the Cherokee Nation part of Oklahoma. Being raised in Native American country means I got to enjoy a lot of wonderful, traditional, Native American foods, with my favorite being this Easy Indian Taco Recipe. On Sundays after church, we would make our way down to the Restaurant of the Cherokee’s on the Cherokee Nation campus and they always had a delicious, buffet style spread of food we would all enjoy. While I know there was more food present than just Indian Tacos, that’s the only thing I can remember ever eating there because it left such an impression on me.

Something about the buttery, crispy yet pillow-y  fry bread topped with seasoned ground beef, shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, pinto beans, and diced tomatoes was just magical! If you’ve never had Indian Fry Bread (also referred to as Navajo Fry Bread) it is similar in taste and texture to Mexican Sopapilla’s or Naan bread. While Fry Bread is nothing like our traditional American crunchy taco shells, it really brings something magical into play when paired with our traditional taco toppings. The blend of the different texture of the fry bread along with the flavors of tacos is something I craved as a child and continue to crave as an adult. I promise once you give this Easy Indian Tacos Recipe a try, you’ll crave it too!

 

A silver sheet pan with California Lavash Naan bread that is topped with pinto beans, ground beef taco meat, shredded American and Colby cheese, shredded lettuce, and diced tomatoes. A white and black Aztec design towel is under the sheet pan.

Easy Indian Tacos

Now, if you’re wondering why I chose to use Naan Bread for my Indian Tacos instead of using a traditional Fry Bread recipe, let me explain the mystery. Making Traditional Fry Bread can be something of a process. While it’s not difficult to do, it does require making the dough completely from scratch, then frying it up to just the right consistency to use. That process takes something that a busy mother such as myself doesn’t have much of – time and patience! So, my reason for using Naan bread is simple – it’s much faster and more convenient for me and the taste and texture is almost exactly that of Traditional Fry Bread – without all of the grease since you don’t have to actually fry Naan Bread. Win, win! Anytime I can save both time and effort on my part without sacrificing flavor and texture, I’m all for it. Of course, there’s also bonus points if the option I use is actually healthier than the traditional option, and in the case of this Naan Bread versus Traditional Fry Bread, that is exactly the case.

 

A silver sheet pan with California Lavash Naan bread that is topped with pinto beans, ground beef taco meat, shredded American and Colby cheese, shredded lettuce, and diced tomatoes. A white and black Aztec design towel is under the sheet pan. There are four Indian Tacos on the sheet pan and everything is sitting on a wooden backdrop.

Easy Indian Tacos with Naan Bread

Let’s talk about this California Lavash Naan Bread for a minute. My first discovery of the California Lavash brand was in my Little Rock Whole Foods when I purchased their Lavash Bread. I was so impressed by the quality of their product and the flavor of it (let’s be honest, most flat breads taste like cardboard!) that I reached out to the brand asking if they would be interested in collaborating with me to create some recipes for them using their products. I was delighted and honored when they responded back to me in the affirmative and was even more excited when I received a box from them that included this beautiful Naan Bread!

As soon as I saw this lovely bread, I knew exactly what I would be making with it. The texture and flavor of this bread is so close to the Fry Bread I grew up eating in Oklahoma! For this recipe, you’ll need one package of California Lavash Naan Bread which includes two full pieces of the Naan bread. We will be slicing these two Naan Breads in half to make four individual Indian Tacos, so if you’re cooking for more than four, you might want to grab a couple packages of this bread.

 

An unopened package of California Lavash Naan bread sitting on a black granite counter top.

Making Navajo Tacos

Now that you have your Naan bread, let’s start out with our meat. I used one pound of extra lean ground beef, but if you have ground venison that would work just as well and would make these Indian Tacos even more traditional. I like to use a meat muddler (pictured below) to bread the meat up into fine crumbles, but if you don’t have one of these handy dandy tools, just use a spatula or spoon.

 

 

A large black skillet on a white stove with one pound of uncooked lean ground beef inside the skillet and a red meat muddler in the middle of the meat starting to chop the meat up.

 

Navajo Tacos Recipe

Crank the heat up on your skillet to medium high and start browning the meat. Now that your meat is starting to sizzle, add in your homemade taco seasonings or just 1/2 packet of low sodium taco seasoning. For the Homemade Taco Seasoning use: 1 teaspoon fresh minced garlic,  1/4 teaspoon salt,  1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon dried minced onion, 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon paprika.

 

 

A large black skillet with one pound of uncooked ground beef inside. The ground beef has seasonings on top and the seasonings are dried minced onion, cumin, fresh minced garlic, paprika, salt, and ground black pepper. A red meat muddler is inside the skillet and the meat is slightly broken up. Steam is coming off of the meat because the skillet is on and cooking the meat.

 

Easy Indian Tacos Recipe

Since all of the seasonings have been added to your meat, use a spatula or continue to use your meat muddler to stir all of the seasonings into the meat. Just continue stirring and mashing the meat until it is completely cooked through and in small, fine, crumbles.

 

 

A large black skillet with one pound of partially cooked lean ground beef inside that has been seasoned with homemade taco seasoning. A blue spatula is in the skillet stirring the meat around and steam is coming off the meat as it is being cooked on a white stove.

 

Easy Navajo Tacos Recipe

When your meat is completely cooked through and in small crumbles, turn the heat down to the lowest setting just to keep the meat warm while you move on to the next step. You don’t want the meat to continue to cook and become dry, but you also don’t want the meat to get cold while you work on the next couple of things. Don’t worry, the next steps won’t take you more than 10 minutes to complete – yes, these Navajo Tacos are that fast to make!

 

 

A large black skillet with one pound of cooked lean ground beef inside that has been seasoned with homemade taco seasoning. A blue spatula is resting inside the skillet.

 

Easy Indian Fry Bread

For this Easy Indian Tacos Recipe, I’ll be using my California Lavash Naan Bread for my easy Indian fry bread. Remove the Naan bread from the packaging and place on a standard sized sheet pan.

 

 

A silver sheet pan with two slices of California Lavash Naan bread on the sheet pan. The pan is sitting on a black granite counter top with a silver toaster visible just in the background.

 

Indian Fry Bread

Place the Naan bread in the oven and heat according to the package instructions. I heated my bread at 400F for 4 minutes – no pre-heating of the oven is necessary.

 

 

A silver sheet pan with two slices of California Lavash Naan bread on the pan. The pan has been placed in the oven and the oven is on.

 

Oklahoma Indian Tacos Recipe

The way we always ate our Indian Tacos in Oklahoma was topped with seasoned pinto beans. If you want to buy the dried beans and worry with soaking and cooking them, feel free! However, for the sake of time and convenience in this recipe, I used 2 cups of canned pinto beans – any brand will do! Season the pinto beans with: 1 dash garlic salt, 1 dash ground cumin, 1 dash onion powder, 1 dash paprika, and 1 dash ground black pepper. Or you can use a small amount (about 1 teaspoon) of low sodium Taco Seasoning instead of the seasonings listed above.In the few minutes it takes for your Naan Bread to warm in the oven, season and heat the pinto beans in the microwave for about 1-2 minutes, or on the stove top in a pan.

 

 

A small white bowl that is filled with pinto beans that have been seasoned with garlic powder, ground black pepper, salt, and paprika. The bowl is sitting on a black granite counter top.

 

Indian Tacos Recipe

Once the beans are seasoned and heated, place them in a colander and drain the juice from the beans. Don’t rinse the beans because you don’t want to rinse away the seasonings, but you do want to drain the juice so that when you use them on your tacos the bread doesn’t become soggy.

 

 

A white colander with seasoned pinto beans inside. The beans have been drained of all juices but not rinsed.

 

Navajo Fry Bread

Once the bread is warmed, remove it from the oven and grab a stick of butter. Y’all, for the love of all that is good in this world, please don’t use that fake plastic stuff! Get yo’self some real, honest to goodness butter (salted or unsalted) and just run it over the top of the warm Naan bread. You don’t have to use a bunch of butter, just enough to “glaze” and moisten the top of the bread.

 

 

A silver sheet pan with two slices of California Lavash Naan bread on the pan. The naan bread has been baked and is still warm. A hand is on the left hand side running a stick of butter over the top of the Naan bread on the left hand side. The pan is sitting on a black granite counter top.

 

Fry Bread

Now that the Naan “fry” bread is buttered, use a pizza cutter or knife to slice the two Naan breads into four.

 

 

A silver sheet pan with two slices of California Lavash Naan bread on the pan. The bread has been heated in the oven and buttered on top, with the butter melted. A hand is holding a pizza cutter on the left hand side and slicing into the Naan bread on the left, cutting it in half. The silver sheet pan is sitting on a black granite counter top with a silver toaster and silver toaster oven just visible in the background.

Naan Fry Bread

If you prefer smaller Indian Tacos, you can even slice the fourths in half, creating eight small Indian Tacos.

 

A silver sheet pan with two slices of California Lavash Naan bread on the pan. The bread has been heated in the oven and buttered on top, with the butter melted. The Naan bread has been cut in half, creating four pieces. The silver sheet pan is sitting on a black granite counter top with a silver toaster and silver toaster oven just visible in the background.

 

Sheet Pan Tacos

After cutting the Naan bread in half, top the Indian Tacos with the seasoned pinto beans. I never measured this out; just divide the two cups of beans equally over the tacos.

 

 

A silver sheet pan with two slices of California Lavash Naan bread on the pan. The bread has been heated in the oven and buttered on top, with the butter melted. The Naan bread has been cut in half, creating four pieces. The silver sheet pan is sitting on a black granite counter top with a silver toaster and silver toaster oven just visible in the background. The Naan bread has been topped with seasoned pinto beans.

Fry Bread Tacos

After topping the Naan Bread with the pinto beans, continue with the seasoned ground beef, shredded lettuce, shredded cheese, and diced tomatoes. You can also use plain, nonfat Greek yogurt or sour cream as well as the salsa or hot sauce of your choice.

 

 

A silver sheet pan with two slices of California Lavash Naan bread on the pan. The bread has been heated in the oven and buttered on top, with the butter melted. The Naan bread has been cut in half, creating four pieces. The silver sheet pan is sitting on a black granite counter top with a silver toaster and silver toaster oven just visible in the background. The Naan bread has been topped with seasoned pinto beans, shredded American and Colby cheese, shredded lettuce, ground beef taco meat, and diced tomatoes.

 

Navajo Tacos

And there you have it, in only a total of about 18 minutes, you now have a delicious dinner the entire family will love! I love making these Fry Bread Tacos over the weekend since it’s such a fast and simple meal that my family loves. I love serving these tacos with cheesy rice on the side.

I hope you have enjoyed your time in my kitchen today because I have sure enjoyed having you here! Stop back by soon for a visit and another wonderful recipe.

 

A silver sheet pan with California Lavash Naan bread that is topped with pinto beans, ground beef taco meat, shredded American and Colby cheese, shredded lettuce, and diced tomatoes. A white and black Aztec design towel is under the sheet pan. There are four Indian Tacos on the sheet pan and everything is sitting on a wooden backdrop. A package of California Lavash Naan bread is placed in the upper left corner beside the pan of tacos.

 

 

A silver sheet pan with California Lavash Naan bread that is topped with pinto beans, ground beef taco meat, shredded American and Colby cheese, shredded lettuce, and diced tomatoes. A white and black Aztec design towel is under the sheet pan. There are four Indian Tacos on the sheet pan and everything is sitting on a wooden backdrop. A package of California Lavash Naan bread is placed in the upper left corner beside the pan of tacos.
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Easy Indian Tacos Recipe

Easy Indian Tacos Recipe is a fast and easy spin on Navajo Tacos using Naan bread as the Indian Fry Bread. 

Course Main Course
Cuisine Indian
Keyword Easy Indian Tacos Recipe, Indian Fry Bread, Navajo Tacos
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 8 minutes
Total Time 18 minutes
Servings 4 tacos
Author Amy - The Speedy Spatula

Ingredients

Taco Seasoning for the Meat:

  • 1 tsp fresh minced garlic
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp ground black pepper
  • 1 tsp dried minced onion
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp paprika

Seasoning for the Pinto Beans:

  • dash garlic salt
  • dash ground cumin
  • dash onion powder
  • dash paprika
  • 1 dash ground black pepper

Toppings for the Indian Tacos:

  • shredded American and Colby cheese
  • plain nonfat Greek yogurt or sour cream
  • diced tomatoes
  • shredded butter or iceberg lettuce

Instructions

  1. Brown the ground beef in a large skillet with the taco seasoning.

  2. Season the beans with the garlic salt, cumin, onion powder, and paprika, then heat on the stove or in the microwave until warmed through.

  3. Once the beans are seasoned and heated, place them in a colander and drain the juice from them. Do not rinse them since this will wash away the seasonings, just allow the juice to drain.

  4. Place the Naan bread on a baking sheet.

  5. Heat the Naan bread in the oven for 3-4 minutes on 400F and remove. Once heated, run a stick of butter over the top of the bread, just enough to moisten the bread. 

  6. Cut the bread in half with a knife or pizza cutter, then begin to assemble the tacos.

  7. Start by adding an even amount of the pinto beans to each piece of Naan bread, then add the ground beef, along with any other desired toppings.

  8. Serve while hot and enjoy! 

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