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!
Can I make this dough the night before? Do I let it rise first, or just mix it into a ball and then put in the fridge?
You might be able to mix and knead the dough the night before and then let it rest in the fridge. Refrigeration slows down the rising process, but I’m not sure if over night will still be too much time even when refrigerated.
I have done that and even left it overnight and longer in the frig. Took it out the next day to warm up before rolling. Turned out great.
This is second time making these and I absolutely love them. I got part way into recipe when I realized I didn’t have any eggs… I decided to just carry on and see how they turned out and they were just as good as the first batch I made a few months ago.
Good to know!
Great naans. Turned out exactly as pictured.
I love your website and this is the recipe I keep coming back to. This naan is so good, my family is always excited when I make it! Thank you for making the recipe so easy to follow and so delicious!
Dear Beth,
Looks like a pretty easy and cool recipe. We love naan in our family! Who does not? :)
Planning to make them very soon. Can you tell me what kind of four u used? Stronger? Bread flour?
From ex I always use ‘designate’ flour for best results. Cake flour for cakes weak flour 9% protein), stronger (11% proteins) for pancakes.
I guess in this recipe we should youse stronger, right?
Thank you.
Xoxo,
Marilena
I like to keep things simple, so I only buy all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour. For this recipe, I used regular all-purpose flour. I’m not sure what the protein content of that is.
YUM! 2nd batch a did white and wheat flour and used regular plain full fat yogurt. JUST AS DELICIOUS as the first batch. For this 2nd I controlled myself and froze all the dough balls. Take one into work wrapped in plastic. By lunch it has unfrozen – I stretch it out and pop it into the toaster oven to bake – (easy cuz I work verrry close to the lunch room). Spread it with butter and sprinkled with salt – what a lunch – one naan, hot from an oven – delicious! THANK YOU! Hoping to never buy bread again ;)
Can you use instant yeast instead of dry active?
Yes, that will work fine for this recipe. :)
I just tried these today for a quick lunch–we’ve been craving lots of “around the world” food and I wanted pitas, but the hubby wanted naan. I’m so glad we decided on naan, to be honest. This is beautifully easy, delicious, and actually pretty quick besides the waiting. I burned the first one (our stove is fickle) and even that tasted fine after I clipped the burned parts off. I can’t wait to do this again; it’s definitely going to become a staple in our house now that we know!
I’ve made this recipe two times in the last month now. The first time, I made it right, and it came out pretty well (although I think the taste and texture is closer to pita than to naan).
Last night, I was in the process of making it again when I realized that I didn’t have any yogurt. It was too late for me to run out and get some, so I subbed the yogurt for a scant half cup of ricotta and eyeballed a quarter cup of milk (I use 1%). The dough was a little slower to rise and was stickier to work with, but the taste and texture were still good once they were cooked. I also considered pineapple cottage cheese that I had in my fridge, but I didn’t want the pineapple flavor with my falafel.
This is just a thought for anyone else in a similar bind that pretty much any soft dairy mixed with milk to get yogurt consistency should work. :^)
As a side note, this happens to me almost every time: I make a recipe from Beth once, love it, and then forget one ingredient when I go to make again. I’ve found every recipe I’ve done so far to be super flexible, and I haven’t had something I didn’t like yet. Thanks for the great recipes that are budget conscious and super flexible!
That’s what I love most about cooking – happy accidents! You learn so much about food and the science of cooking when you make mistakes or forget ingredients. It’s always fun. :) Also, I’m now obsessed with the thought of pineapple with falafel. I think it would be really good! Ha!
These look great, can’t wait tot try them. Could they be frozen? Then maybe reheated in the oven with a little oil brused on them? Thanks
Yes, they freeze wonderfully. You can also reheat by wrapping them in foil and placing them in the oven. That should help keep them from drying out.
So, I’m a terrible baker and I’m terrified of anything that requires yeast, but I heeded the advice of a previous commenter and went for it. My first attempt at the yeast failed because I didn’t use warm water, (duh). I started again and I wasn’t seeing the bubbles in the yeast- sugar-water like the picture. I then realized that I didn’t actually measure the water, but eye-balled it. (was that the problem?!) I said “F-it. I’m making it anyway”. Then, the dough stayed sticky no matter how much flour I added (unmeasured, again). I just started kneading and adding, and I think the only part I got right in the recipe was kneading for three minutes. It did rise. It rolled out beautifully, and the naan was picture perfect! Fluffy, tasty, and I can make bread!!! If a complete hack like me can make this fresh naan recipe, seriously, anyone can! Thanks, Beth! (ps: “yes” to a bench scraper!)
Awesome!! Half of learning to cook is working through those mistakes. I’m glad you kept going! :)
I made these tonight, and even though the recipe wasn’t measured exactly, the result was still great, just like store bought. I’m teaching my mom the recipe next week to pair with her pork molé and lentil dinner.
Made these again tonight, doubling the recipe because we had guest. They are absolutely rocking plain, but my mother came up with the genius idea of putting minced garlic, butter and cumin seeds together, melting it (the butter, but with the other ingredients in the bowl too) and using that instead of plain butter – AMAZING. We brushed it over the naans as soon as it came off the pan and grinded some salt too. Spectacular and well loved by everyone who has tried it :)
What size/brand/type of pan did you use and where did you get it? Thanks!
It’s a large stainless steel skillet that I got used from a garage sale of restaurant equipment, so I don’t know the brand. But, it’s very thick and heavy, which helps heat evenly.
I just made this, I had never had Naan or made it. It came out wonderfully, I used olive oil as well thanks for the recipe.