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!
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!
See how we calculate recipe costs here.
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!
Yeast is no where to be found in local stores. The owner of a pizzeria kindly gave me wet yeast. What is the measure of wet yeast that would be equivalent of the dry yeast used in this recipe? Thank you.
How nice of them! Here’s a great post on conversion https://www.thespruceeats.com/baking-yeast-dry-and-fresh-yeast-measurements-1446706
How nice of you, too!
Thanks!
I loved this naan-so delicious! Have you tried making this with half all purpose, half whole wheat flour?
We have not yet but you can certainly give it a try!
Hate the style of these posts, first time making bread and used my only yeast not realising you needed to mix it with warm water. I used the recipe up top to find out there’s a more detailed recipe below that called for the water to be warm. Yeast didn’t froth, dough is sitting rising, whether it actually rises or not I’ll comment later. Honestly, leave your life story out of recipes! I just want a simple recipe that doesn’t have a ton of stories with it.
Did nobody ever teach you to read the directions before doing something you’re not familiar with? Always proof yeast with warm water. Cold water may still work (assuming your yeast is healthy) but the rise will take longer
If you look at the part that says “instructions” you can see the simple recipe in a easy to read layout with no story attached
Emma, I recommend you purchase a cookbook. This was easily one of the best naan recipes I have ever made!
Can I freeze the dough balls and and use them another night….?
While I haven’t tried that, you may be able to let it rise in the refrigerator for that amount of time. Letting bread dough rise in the refrigerator allows the dough to continue rising at a slower rate, but I haven’t tested it to know if 4-5 hours refrigerated would be enough or too much.
This was delicious!
My first naan was a bit thick but the second worked out much better. So easy to make too!
Is it possible to get the ingredients in metric? We don’t use cups in Ireland so there was some guess work involved!
I prefer to bake with metric units also so I have a cheat sheet of equivalent measurements taped to the inside of my cupboard cabinet. It’s the best way to go so that you can convert all recipes from around the world. Google ingredients as you go and you’ll find it comes in handy. To get you starred-flour 120g/cup.
This was excellent and so much fun! Just a tip: you can freeze the dough instead of making all of the naan and then freezing them.
At what point do you freeze the dough? Before the rise?
I just tried this recipe. When I’m frying it, I’m not getting all the little bubbles like your photos. It does bubble up when I flip it over and I get that somewhat typical naan bread look, but it’s not quite there. What could I be doing wrong?
My best guess, without seeing your process, is that maybe the skillet isn’t quite hot enough.
Hi, I am new to making naan. Can I let the dough rise for longer than an hour? Say 4 or 5 hours? Thank you!
While I haven’t tried that, you may be able to let it rise in the refrigerator for that amount of time. Letting bread dough rise in the refrigerator allows the dough to continue rising at a slower rate, but I haven’t tested it to know if 4-5 hours refrigerated would be enough or too much.
I don’t have any yogurt on hand, do you think I can substitute mayo? And if so how much?
I wouldn’t suggest using mayonnaise in place of yogurt. The two have very different flavors and properties, so it would probably not work the same.
What can i use instead of yoghurt ? As dont have it now
Beth hasn’t tested it without yogurt herself. It really helps to give it some great flavor. But a few commenters have used sour cream or cottage cheese with success!
Once I get to the small balls stage, can I put the balls in the fridge until I’m ready to cook them?
We haven’t tried that method but you can certainly try it and let us know!
I’ve been doing that and they cook up great! I divided the dough and lightly floured the balls and roll them out on a floured right before I griddle it.
it made amazing naan and it’s easy to do. i cook them in a wok because i don’t have a gas stove, it got very hot and cook them perfectly
HI! I love this recipe and have made it many time. In the time of COVID-19, though, I (like everyone else) have a happy sourdough starter on my counter. Have you ever used sourdough discard in this recipe? I would imagine it would reduce the cost even further as it would eliminate the need for active dry or instant yeast.
I haven’t tried that, unfortunately! I’m sure there’s a way to do it, though. Try Googling “naan with sourdough starter” and I’m sure someone has probably posted instructions already! :)
A google search for “Adding sourdough to a recipe” will bring up results that cover how to make the substitutions. There’s a great article by a flour company that covers how to modify a recipe to use your sourdough.
I am going to try this tomorrow, my question is, what can they be served with?
Above the recipe you’ll see a section titled “What do you eat with naan bread?” and there are some suggestions listed there. :)
I’m using a stand mixer to mix and kneed (with the hook) the dough and finding the dough very sticky unless I add at least 1/2 cup more flour than recommended.
The naan seems to be coming out ok, but I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts on where I might be going wrong here?
I’ve been using this recipe for years and have found myself almost always using more flour than is listed in the recipe. Just make sure that your dough matches the description provided above and you should be fine.