Tender, chewy, freshly made naan, an Indian flatbread, tastes great on its own or served with your favorite Indian dish. Eat it plain or flavor it with herbs and spices!
In this recipe
-
How to make naan dough
-
Traditional naan in the tandoor
-
How to cook naan without a tandoor
-
Variations on Naan
-
Can you make the dough in advance?
-
How to store and reheat naan
BE PICTURED IN; CHARACTERIZED IN:
If, after butter chicken and chicken tikka masala, there is one dish that has held the place of Indian cuisine for ages, it has to be naan. Or “naan bread” as many call it.
Before I get too deep into the air pockets of this soft, pillowy bread, I want to clarify something. Naan is Bread, just like chai is Tea. So calling it chai tea or naan bread is like calling it a drink tea tea, or the bread bread bread. So let’s drop the “bread” and just call it “naan”!
How to make naan dough
To prepare naan traditionally, a wheat flour dough is prepared and left to rise either with yeast or by adding yoghurt to the dough. I use both for this recipe.
Mixing flour with water and kneading the dough activates the gluten in the wheat flour, making the dough stretchy and the finished bread chewy. Adding yeast helps the bread rise, and yogurt helps with fermentation and improves flavor.
For this recipe, I prepared a dough that is very similar to pizza dough. Lukewarm milk, yoghurt, yeast and other ingredients are mixed into a dough. The dough is then set aside to rise. Once the dough has risen twice, it is cut into portions and rolled flat before baking.
Traditional naan in the tandoor
Traditionally, this twice-risen dough is cooked in an Indian oven called a tandoor.
A tandoor is a cylindrical Indian clay oven widely used in Southeast and Central Asia. Wood or charcoal is placed on the bottom of the tandoor, heating all sides of the cylinder. This configuration allows food to be cooked from all sides at once, giving it a distinctive char and delicious earthy flavor.
To cook naan, the flattened raw dough is brushed with water on one side and then glued to the side of a tandoor oven. Once fully cooked, naan falls off the wall, which is then picked out with tongs and served hot.
How to cook naan without a tandoor
It’s difficult to make a tandoor-style oven at home, so home cooks have come up with all sorts of good ideas – the lack of a tandoor won’t deter Indians from their naan!
In my recipe here, I used a skillet or a saucepan with a lid to cook the naan. I personally use a cast iron skillet and a lid to cover the pan when the naan is cooking.
My mom always used a pressure cooker to make hers. She heated an empty pressure cooker with a lid, and once it was hot she taped the naan to the side of the pressure cooker, put the lid back on for a few seconds, and then cooked the exposed side on the flame.
Feel free to use any of these cooking tools.
Variations on Naan
To add variation to a basic naan recipe, you can sprinkle some sort of “topping” on top of the naan. Here are a few ideas:
- cumin seeds
- Sesame seeds
- Nigella seeds
- Chopped onion, garlic or both
- coriander
You can also just make naan and spread some butter on the bread after baking.
Can you make the dough in advance?
I do not recommend storing raw naan batter for more than a day or two or it may go bad.
How to store and reheat naan
Cooked naan can be kept in the fridge for 3 to 5 days if stored in a zip lock bag. Just heat it up in the microwave, wrap it in a damp paper towel and it’ll be good as new.
You can also freeze the naan, individually wrapped or between sheets of parchment paper. Place them in ziplock bags or in a freezer-safe container and freeze them for up to two months.
Reheat in the oven at 350°F for five minutes or in the microwave for one minute when ready to eat.
Want more great Indian recipes? Try these!
- Indian Chicken Biryani
- Pressure cooker Saag Tofu
- Tandoori chicken
- Lambcurry
- Indian Butter Chicken
How to make naan
ingredients
-
1 cup of lukewarm milk
-
1 1/2 teaspoons active dry yeast
-
2 teaspoons of sugar
-
4 cups all-purpose flour + extra for dusting
-
2 teaspoons kosher salt
-
2 tablespoons olive oil or canola oil + extra for greasing the bowl
-
1/2 cup plain yogurt
method
-
Prepare bowl:
Lightly grease a large bowl with some oil. You put your dough in this bowl to allow it to rise. Set the bowl aside.
-
To make dough:
In a liquid measuring cup or small mixing bowl, combine lukewarm milk, sugar, and active dry yeast. The milk should just be warm to the touch. If it’s too hot you can kill the yeast. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
In another large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour and salt. Add yoghurt, oil and milk-yeast mixture. Use a wooden spoon or your hands to combine the batter. The dough should be soft and sticky at this point.
-
Knead the dough:
Dust your countertop with flour. Transfer the dough to the counter. Knead together until a soft dough forms, about 5 minutes. If the dough feels dry and too tough to knead, gradually add about 1-2 tablespoons of water until the dough is easier to work with.
-
Let the dough rise:
Put the dough in the greased bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a damp towel. Put in a dark, warm and dry place. I put it in my oven (it’s not on) to let it rise, but your countertop is fine. Let the dough rise for 3-4 hours or until it has more than doubled in size.
-
Knead the dough and let it rise again:
Fold the risen dough down. Knead for another minute. Place the dough back into the bowl, cover again and let rise another 45 minutes to 1 hour.
-
Divide the dough:
Dust your countertop with flour. Turn the dough out onto the counter and knead for a minute or two until smooth. Divide the dough into 16 smaller, equal-sized balls (about 2 ounces each).
Using a rolling pin, roll the balls into a teardrop shape. About 2-3 inches wide, 6-7 inches long, and about 1/8 inch thick. They don’t have to be perfectly uniform.
-
Cook Naan:
If you’re using herbs or spices, sprinkle them on one side of the bread now. Brush the other side with water. Place a medium-sized, heavy-duty skillet or cast-iron skillet with a lid over medium-high heat.
Check the heat of the pan by flicking water on it. If it evaporates on contact, it’s done. Once the pan is hot, place the naan in the pan, wet side down.
Cover it with a lid. Let it cook for about 30 seconds or until you see bubbles on it. Turn the naan over, brush with butter or ghee and cook uncovered for a further 10 seconds. Serve hot.
