Billy Alexander may be an internationally-renowned Indigenous chef and culinary tourism ambassador, but he’s also a dad who likes to makes pizza pockets for his family. But his aren’t just regular pizza pockets – they’re made with an Indigenous twist. “I try to fold some of our Indigenous roots into whatever we make at home,” he shares in Joanna Fox’s new cookbook Little Critics: What Canadian Chefs Cook for Kids (and Kids Will Actually Eat). Replacing pizza dough with frybread, a native North American fried dough bread, does just that while preserving all the great guilty-pleasure flavours of a good pizza pocket.
Frybread Stuffed Pizza
Billy Alexander makes his pizza pockets with a quick from-scratch frybread dough.
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour plus more for dusting
- 1 tbsp baking powder
- ½ tsp salt
- 1½ cups warm water
- 2 cups pizza sauce
- 40 pieces mini pepperoni
- 454 g mozzarella shredded
- 3 cups vegetable oil
Instructions
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt and mix until combined. Make a small well in the middle of the flour mixture and add the warm water. Gently fold the flour mixture into the water, using a light touch, until the dough is completely homogeneous. Do not overmix the dough, as this will make it dense and heavy.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and lightly knead it. Divide it into six to eight pieces, depending on the size you want. Roll each piece into a circle ¼-inch thick and make a small depression using your thumb in the centre of each.
- Spread some pizza sauce over the surface of each circle. Add some pepperoni, about five to six pieces for each, and a small mound of mozzarella. Fold over one edge of the dough overtop of the filling and seal the edges together.
- In a large cast-iron skillet, heat the oil until it reaches 350°F. Working in batches, carefully transfer the frybread to the oil and fry until each side is puffed up and golden, about 2 minutes per side. Transfer the frybreads to a paper-towel-lined plate to absorb excess oil, then keep warm on a baking sheet in the oven at 250°F. Continue frying the remaining breads.
- Serve whole or cut in halves with any extra pizza sauce for dipping. Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.
