It’s been almost fifteen years since I first made this homemade naan recipe and it still blows my mind every time! This homemade naan is oh so soft and pillowy, full of lovely bubbles, and just so extremely versatile. Use it for mini pizzas, wrap sandwiches, dipping in stews and sauces, and more! Plus, this naan bread is very freezer-friendly, so it’s well worth the effort to whip up a batch. I promise, you won’t be sorry!
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What is Naan?
Naan is a traditional flatbread made in South and Central Asian countries. It’s has a unique dough made with yogurt, which gives the dough a slightly tangy flavor, and egg, which keeps the dough extra soft and pillowy. Naan is traditionally cooked on the hot clay walls of a tandoor oven, which helps create the deliciously bubbly texture. It’s often used to soak up stews and sauces, but also works great as a base for wrap sandwiches and pizzas.
Ingredients for Naan
This homemade naan recipe is incredibly simple and delicious. Here’s what you’ll need to make it:
- Yeast: You’ll need active dry or instant yeast for this recipe.
- Sugar: A small amount of sugar helps activate and supercharge the yeast, making the bread extra fluffy.
- Flour: I used regular all-purpose flour for this naan recipe, which makes it extra easy. I don’t suggest whole wheat flour for this recipe as it will be too heavy and dense. If needed, you can substitute up to 50% of the AP flour.
- Salt: A little bit of salt is essential to help the natural flavors of the naan pop.
- Olive Oil: Olive oil helps keep the naan dough tender and gives a deliciously subtle flavor.
- Yogurt: Plain yogurt adds a slightly tangy flavor to the dough and help keep the naan bread tender. You can use Greek yogurt, but you may need slightly less flour as there is a lot less moisture in Greek style yogurt. Do not use sweetened or flavored yogurt for this recipe.
- Egg: Egg also helps keep the dough tender and it helps make it just a little more fluffy. If in a pinch, you can skip the egg, but you may need to add less flour as eggs contain a decent amount of moisture.
Naan vs. Pita Bread?
While both types of bread are in the “flatbread” family, they hail from different regions of the world, their dough is comprised of different ingredients, and they are cooked using different methods.
Naan is a traditional flatbread made in South and Central Asian countries and is made with yogurt and egg which make it a little more tender and fluffy. It is traditionally cooked in a clay tandoor oven, which helps produce the bubbled texture.
Pita is found in the Mediterranean Middle East and is made with a very simple dough using just flour, salt, yeast, and olive oil. It has a dryer texture than naan and usually has one large characteristic pocket rather than several smaller bubbles like naan.
What to Serve with Naan
Naan goes great with pretty much anything. You can eat naan alongside a meal to sop up gravies or dip it into sauces, use it to make flatbread “wrap” sandwiches, top it with tomato sauce and cheese for a quick naan pizza, or use it in place of tortillas for quesadillas. Here are some of my favorite ways to eat naan:
- Dip it in homemade hummus
- Use it to soak up curries, like this Creamy Coconut Curried Lentils
- Use it as a base for mini pizzas
- Serve as a side with Curried Ground Beef with Peas and Potatoes
- Or wrap it around meat and vegetables for a wrap sandwich, like these Homemade Chicken Shawarma Wraps
How to Store Leftovers
After cooking this naan recipe, make sure to let it cool completely to prevent condensation. Once cooled, keep your naan in a gallon-sized zip-top bag. The naan will last 1-2 days at room temperature, or about 4-5 days in the refrigerator. You can also freeze naan for longer storage.
To freeze your naan, first let it cool completely at room temperature, then transfer it to a zip-top freezer bag, label and date it, then toss it in the freezer. Try to use up your frozen naan within a few months. Frozen naan bread thaws quickly at room temperature.
How to Make Garlic Naan
It’s really easy to transform the classic naan recipe below into garlic-flavored naan. Simply add about ½ tsp of garlic powder in with the flour and salt, and then after cooking the naan, you’ll want to brush it with some fresh garlic butter. To make the garlic butter, mince a couple of cloves of garlic and then stir them into a few tablespoons of melted butter.
Homemade Naan Recipe
Servings 8Ingredients
Instructions
- In a small bowl, combine the yeast, sugar and warm water. Stir to dissolve then let sit for a few minutes or until it is frothy on top. Once frothy, whisk in the oil, yogurt, and egg until evenly combined.
- In a separate medium bowl, combine 1 cup of the flour with the salt. Next, pour the bowl of wet ingredients to the flour/salt mixture and stir until well combined. Continue adding flour, a half cup at a time, until you can no longer stir it with a spoon (about 1 to 1.5 cups later).
- At that point, turn the ball of dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the ball of dough for about 3 minutes, adding small amounts of flour as necessary to keep the dough from sticking. You'll end up using between 2.5 to 3 cups flour total. The dough should be smooth and very soft but not sticky. Avoid adding excessive amounts of flour as you knead, as this can make the dough too dry and stiff.
- Loosely cover the dough and let it rise until double in size (about 1 hour). After it rises, gently flatten the dough into a disc and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a small ball.
- Heat a large, heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat. Working with one ball at a time, roll it out until it is about 1/4 inch thick or approximately 6 inches in diameter. Place the rolled out dough onto the hot skillet and cook until the bottom is golden brown and large bubbles have formed on the surface (see photos below). Flip the dough and cook the other side until golden brown as well. Stack the cooked flat bread on a plate and cover with a towel to keep warm as you cook the remaining pieces. Serve plain or brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with herbs!
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Notes
Nutrition
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There is seriously nothing like a warm piece of naan with melted butter on top… 🤤
How to Make Homemade Naan – Step by Step Photos
Start by dissolving 2 tsp yeast and 1 tsp sugar into 1/2 cup warm water. Let the mixture sit a few minutes, or until it becomes frothy. Meanwhile, measure out 1/3 cup plain yogurt (regular or Greek style), 1/4 cup olive oil, and 1 large egg.
Once the yeast mixture is frothy, whisk the yogurt, oil, and egg into the yeast water until smooth.
In a separate bowl, mix only 1 cup of the flour with 1/2 tsp salt until they’re evenly mixed.
Pour the bowl of wet ingredients to the bowl of dry ingredients and stir well.
Continue adding flour, a half cup at a time, until it forms a cohesive ball of dough that you can no longer stir with a spoon.
Turn the ball of dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 3 minutes. Add small amounts of flour as needed (to keep the dough from sticking) until you have a smooth, very soft ball of dough. I used about 2.75 cups of flour total for the dough. Avoid adding too much flour as you knead because this can make the dough stiff and dry, and prevent the classic bubbles.
Shape the dough into a ball, loosely cover, and let rise until it is double in size (the photo is BEFORE it has risen).
After it has risen, flatten it out slightly and cut it into 8 equal-sized pieces.
Shape each piece into a small, smooth ball.
Heat a skillet over medium flame. While waiting for the skillet to get hot, roll out a ball of dough until it is 1/4 inch thick or about 6 inches in diameter.
Place the rolled-out dough in the hot skillet and cook on one side until large bubbles form and the side touching the skillet is golden brown. The bubbles will start small, like in the photo above, but eventually grow and merge together to form larger bubbles.
Flip the dough over and cook on the second side until golden brown as well. Naan is kind of like pancakes in that the first side is smooth and has relatively even brown marks, while the second side (where the bubbles were), has a different texture or pattern in the browned surface.
Here’s that second side flipped back up so you can see the characteristic browned bubbles.
As the naan come out of the skillet, stack them on a plate and cover them with a clean towel to keep them warm.
Brush the homemade naan with melted butter, garlic butter, or traditional ghee!
HAHA omg I started freaking out a little bit when first mixing the yeast, sugar and water. I was like “OMG what did I do wrong??!!?! why wont it froth?!” then I read on the packet of yeast that it says allow it to sit for 10 minutes :P hehe
Could you possibly make a video of making the small balls??? I’m a little confused, it’s probably a lot simpler than what I’m thinking, but it would be very much appreciated to see it done!!
I know, it’s super hard to explain with words, but yes, it is an easy task. :) If I had video making skills, I would definitely do so. Hopefully in the future!
I’ve made this before, and like all of your other recipes, it was a total hit at my house. However, now one of my family members is off dairy and I was wanting to make this to go with the indian creamed spinach. Do you think using coconut milk in both recipes would work out?
Hmm… I’ve never baked bread with coconut milk before, but I do know that it will change the flavor quite a bit. The yogurt gives this bread a subtle but distinct tart flavor (kind of like sour dough) that it won’t have with coconut milk. If you decide to give it a try, let me know how it turns out!
My son is allergic to dairy, and I use coconut milk in most things. When it calls for yogurt or sour cream, I use the So Delicious brand of coconut yogurt. That would probably work for this, though it will definitely give it a coconut flavor. Might be delicious with Beth’s coconut curry chicken.
Wow! Fantastic! This Naan recipe is just great! I made double the recipe, which I will do for now on. The double recipe made about 16 naan 6 x 6 in naan , and trust me this will be eaten fast. Than I simply froze the rest.
GREAT RECIPE! We’ve wanted to make naan for a while, but most recipes are too much work. Thankfully, yours came along because it was excellent. A bit nervous trying it since the last time we used yeast it was a struggle and your instructions were different from that on the actually yeast packet. Worked fine! Only ended up using about 2 cups of flour in the end I think, but still worked great. Had to turn our pan up a bit to make it bubble, but there were no problems frying. Even less problems eating! Thanks!
I’ve made naan before and yours is the most basic recipe I’ve seen. Thanks for making it easy for my friends, I couldn’t make it simpler! I like to add chopped onions to mine but that’s just me. As for your forgetting to get a dough scraper, don’t get it at the store! Go to your local 2nd hand store and you’ll not only help your wallet but you’ll be recycling something as well and if it’s a charity store, helping the cash help a good cause as well. It’s where I go for the small kitchen things. Cheers!
I just made this and it came out REALLY well!!! My Indian food obsessed 5 year old is ecstatic. It is so much cheaper than buying Naan from the local indian grocery, and tastes just as good!! :) I’ll be making this very often. Thanks so much!
Sorry I meant to rate this 5 stars :)
This naan was wonderful – easy to make and everything I needed to make it I already had! I tend to be intimidated by Indian food (lots of spices and usually a lot of steps), so we only eat it on rare occasions when we eat out. I am going to make your recipe for dal next.
I just made this Naan bread for our Sunday Night dinner served with oil and balsamic vinegar and it is absolutely fantastic! Thank you so much for sharing this recipe!
This looks amazing! Do you have any advice on making this with whole wheat flour? Do you think that I’ll have to make any adaptations?
Thank you for the great recipe!
You’ll probably need to use a little less flour as you knead it in because whole wheat flour absorbs more moisture than all-purpose. It might not make bubbles as nicely, either, since whole wheat doughs tend to be a little more dense. If you do try it, please let us know how it turns out! I’d love to know. :)
I tried using whole wheat flour tonight, and they were delicious. I probably used about 2 1/2 c. of flour, but the yogurt I used was not Greek style, so it was more liquid-y. Perhaps that had an impact on how much flour I used. In any case, the recipe worked very well! Success!
After a couple of false starts (mainly due to my total inability to read directions), this recipe turned out beautifully. Thanks Beth!! I’m 24 and this was my first time ever making bread. I’m so pleased at how easy it was :)
I just made these, following your recipe. At the moment they are cooling down before I store them for the next meal. The ‘blisters’ on my bread are not many like yours. But I’m sure they will taste just fine. Thanks for sharing a simple yet tasty recipe.
I love it, taste lovely I also made it with the spicy shrimp and tomatoe pasta! great meal
Turned out perfectly! Just paired it with the parsley/scallion hummus (with a generous injection of sriracha). Thanks for the great recipes.
Found your site after it was mentioned on NPR’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. The host was actually plugging your Dragon Noodle recipe (which I have since made three times in two weeks, in various forms).
I made this naan tonight to accompany a standard beef & bean chili. I was worried because a) I’ve never made bread from scratch and b) I’m feeding my two picky pre-teens who hate just everything these days. I decided to throw caution to the wind, though, and I’m so glad I did.
They cannot stop talking about how great “that bread thing” was! Utter success, and frankly, I’m pretty sure I over-kneaded the bread!
Thank you for your site — I’ve pinned so many new recipes this week it’s ridiculous.