Easy Indian Tacos Recipe

Name: Easy Indian Tacos Recipe
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 8 min
Total time: 18 min
Yield: 4 tacos
Ingredients: 1 package California Lavash Naan Bread; 1 lb lean ground beef; 2 cups pinto beans; 1/2 tbsp butter; 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; dash garlic salt; dash ground cumin; dash onion powder; dash paprika; 1 dash ground black pepper; shredded American and Colby cheese; plain nonfat Greek yogurt (or sour cream); diced tomatoes; shredded butter or iceberg lettuce

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.

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 Sopaipillas 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!

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! haha! 🙂

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

Fry Bread

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

Naan Fry Bread

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

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.

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.

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 and Blender Salsa along with Tex Mex Queso Blanco Dip.

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. 🙂

-Amy

5 from 1 vote