Navajo Tacos

I made these navajo tacos from Real Food For Less Money last week. I had bee looking for ways to use my sourdough starter and was intrigued by these. You use your starter for the fry bread, which serves as the shell. It is a puffy pastry-type bread that you place on your plate and then topped with the chili and any of your favorite toppings such as lettuce, shredded cheese, tomatoes salsa, sour cream, onions, etc. These are delicious! We all really loved them! And they weren't as complicated as I thought they might be at first. The prep actually went pretty quickly. I'll definitely make these again!

Navajo Tacos

The Chili
1/4 to 1 pound of ground beef
Coconut oil (if needed)
1 onion- diced
1 clove garlic-minced
2-3 cups of cooked pinto beans with juice (I just used some of my home-canned pintos)
1 can tomato paste
1/2 to 1 cup beef broth, or water
salt and pepper

In skillet, cook the beef and 1/2 of the onion. Reserve the other half for taco topping. When beef is done, add the garlic, beans, tomato paste and 1/2 cup broth. Let this mixture simmer for 30 minutes or so while you cook the fry bread adding additional broth as needed. You will want the chili to be on the saucy side. The fry bread will soak up the sauce.

Sourdough Fry Bread

Start early morning or the night before
1/2 cup sourdough starter
1 cup milk
3 Tablespoons kombucha, apple cider vinegar or whey (I used whey)
3 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Mix all ingredients until combined. Cover with a cloth and let sit for 7-24 hours.

When ready to fry, stir in 1/4 teaspoon sea salt. The dough will be fairly sticky and should stir easily. Don't over work it, just get the salt blended in.

To fry, in a large skillet or pan, heat about an inch of coconut oil. While it is heating shape your dough into patties using flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking to your hands. When your oil is hot enough (a small piece of dough will sizzle), carefully put the patties in the oil to cook. Gently flip them over when they are brown on the bottom side. This usually takes 2 minutes or so. Cook until brown on second side. Put them on a cloth to drain while you finish cooking up the batch.

To Assemble, put the fry bread on your plate. Add a ladle of the chili. Top with lettuce, onions, tomatoes, cheese, salsa, sour cream or anything else that you enjoy on your tacos.

As a bonus, any leftover fry bread makes a sweet treat when drizzled with or dipped in honey. They reheat very good in the oven and fairly well in the skillet or a toaster.