Indian Tacos~Fry Bread

If you have never had an indian taco before........WHAT'S THE MATTER WITH YOU???? No....really.....I insist....you must try one......it is a necessary part of life...it should be a priority....if you have a bucket list.....eating one of these should be on there!!! Ok....I feel better now. I've done my duty stressing the importance of placing this marvelous wonder on your taste buds. Gotta give a huge shout out to my neighbor Marcie she is THE AWESOMEST fry bread maker. She taught me how to do it and shared her recipe with me!! THANK YOU MARCIE!!!!

Now to talk about making fry bread! I'm not gonna lie....it took me 3 trys before I got it right. But I do know the secret now!! Alot of recipes call for flour, baking powder, sugar, salt....blah blah blah......you don't need to measure all that stuff out!! You need self rising flour and water!! THAT'S IT!! Remember KISS!! (keep it simple silly) I could seriously just make a giant batch of fry bread and eat it all day long.....although....one thing to note is these taste U~MAZING fresh outta the fryer....but lose their glory as they sit and cool. Anyways....Ive never measured when Ive made these so I'm gonna do my best to give you a recipe for the fry bread part.

Let's talk beans. Depending on where you check/look for recipes for the toppings you will find the MANY different ways people make these. Some people keep the meat and beans separate and some combine them. I'm a combiner!! I just like the taste better and I think it makes your meat go further!! As far as toppings go...traditional are lettuce, cheese and tomatoes. I like to throw on cilantro and onions too and guacamole. Last night I was out of cilantro.....I know I know.....how could that happen....I should be banished from blogging about food....but I was....and I apologize.....please find it in your hearts to forgive me!! Oh and there is no guacamole in the pic either....but I have a perfect excuse for that too!! I was so excited to eat mine and so was the fam, that we all ate ours and I didn't take a pic first. So I had to make another one to photograph and we had eaten all the guacamole by then!! :)

Fry Bread

4 cups self rising flour (no substitutions!!!!)
1 1/2 cups warm water (or enough to make a nice sticky dough, it should form into a nice rounded pile but if you touch it, it should stick to your fingers!!)

Mix water and dough and let sit for at least 30 minutes and up to an hour. Flour the top of your dough and a clean surface very well. Grab a larger than a golf ball but smaller than a baseball sized dough ball and flatten on your floured surface. Should flatten to about 6" round. Fry in a deep fryer or a deep pan with about 3 inches of oil in it. Make sure the oil is very hot before dropping dough in. Fry until golden brown, then flip and do the same for the other side. They cook quick, approx 2-3 minutes on each side.


Beans

1 lb ground beef
1 lb pinto beans, washed thoroughly
1 can diced tomatoes
5 cloves garlic
1 pickled jalapeno, seeded
1 T chicken bouillon or salt as needed for taste
1 med onion, diced
1/2 lb of bacon cut into 1" pieces

Cook ground beef and diced onion over med heat until ground beef is cooked completely. Add in washed beans, tomatoes, garlic, jalapeno, bacon and enough water to cover beans completely. Add in bouillon or salt. Simmer, adding water as necessary, for approx 2-2 1/2 hours or until beans are tender. The water will have thickened into a 'sauce' at this point. You should let the water boil down to where it is level with the beans.

Assembly

Place one fry bread on a plate. Top with bean mixture, lettuce, tomatoes, cilantro, onions, guacamole and sour cream. If you don't want to use fresh tomatoes you can eliminate those and just top with salsa or whatever toppings you like!!

Chicken w/Tomato & Tomatillo Salsa

This is going to be one of a several part series. I would tell you how many parts......but I just don't know yet!! So bear with me.......

Tonight I'm making chicken burritos for dinner, sounds easy enough right? Well........I like to be difficult...just ask my husband!! This salsa that I cooked the chicken in came out sooooo good I keep pausing my typing and going to take a bite!! :)

Anyways....back to my being difficult....I'm also making, homemade refried beans, homemade guacamole, and some sauteed bell peppers and onions to put in the burritos. Not to mention grating cheese and making a little cilantro and onion mixture!!

6-8 boneless skinless chicken breasts
2 roma tomatoes, seeded
5 tomatillo's washed
6 cloves of garlic, or less if that's too much for you, but I love garlic
1/2 of an onion
2 canned green chile's
1 chipotle pepper
1 T of chicken bouillon or just add salt to taste
1 qt of water

You can do this two ways. You can throw everything above in a large saucepan and cook it until the chicken is cooked through. Then remove chicken and add the sauce mixture to a blender and blend until smooth. OR you can put all the ingredients except the chicken in a pot and boil until the tomatoes are mush, then blend, then add chicken and cook until cooked through. Lastly, shred the chicken and add back to sauce. Whichever way floats your boat!!

Carne Asada, Arroz y Frijoles con Guacamole......bueno comida!!

Have you ever gone to a Mexican restaurant with the anticipation of having a great, authentic meal and left....hugely disappointed, unsatisfied and barely full cause the food wasn't even good enough to stuff yourself?? Yeah well that happened to me recently and I swore I was gonna come home and duplicate the meal and it was gonna knock my families socks off!! Nothing worse than paying good money for something you can make 10 times better!!

This dinner came out fabulous!!! It was by far the best guacamole and carne asada I have ever made!! I love it when that happens!! And well...beans and rice....I can do in my sleep.

Carne Asada

carne asada meat (they usually sell it sliced like that at the grocery store)

1 lg lemon, zested and juiced

2 limes, zested and juiced

1 Tbls chili powder

3 tsp salt

4 cloves garlic, mashed into paste

1 1/2 tsp oregano

1 1/2 tsp cumin

1 tsp chili flakes

1 tsp black pepper

3 Tbls oil, I used canola

Put meat and all ingredients in a large ziploc or large bowl or plastic container and mix until all meat is coated!! Refrigerate at least several hours or preferably overnight. Cook either on the bbq or in a frying pan or on a griddle.

Guacamole

 

The problem with guacamole nowadays is people want to add too much stuff to it. I think it tastes best in its simpliest form!! And.....fresh garlic is key!!

2 avocado's

 

2 cloves garlic, made into paste

small handful cilantro chopped

salt to taste

1/2 lime juice

Mix all ingredients, I don't like to completely mash my avocado's I like it kind of chunky. But you can do what you like!!

Make mexican rice.....I think the key to rice is frying it before you cook it!! Just fry it with oil, onion and tomato for about 7-10 min, then add your liquid and salt.

 

Beans

Boil your pintos with an onion cut in half, 3 cloves of garlic, a jalapeno, and salt until beans are cooked. Approx. 1 1/2 to 2 hours. I usually reserve about a cup of whole beans then throw the rest in the food processor. Then mix them all together. Then in a frying pan I heat some oil and add 1/2 of a very thinly sliced onion. Brown the onion, then add the beans and fry.

I served this meal with corn tortillas....of course!!