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
Video
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!
Thanks for reminding me of my favorite Indian flatbread; I usually crave eating on the weekend. I liked your instructions for making it, mainly loosely covering the dough and letting it rise until double in size (about 1 hour), which was new to me. I remembered eating this at one of the best restaurants in Chandigarh. Keep Sharing like this.
So pita bread is middle Eastern but naan bread is just Indian?
Those are the general areas where they originated, but you can find them in several countries throughout those two regions.
Great and easy to follow.
Do you have a recipe for NAAN that does not use Yeast?
Unfortunately, I don’t. Try Googling “no yeast naan” because I’m sure somebody out there has come up with a good way to do it! :)
This was the recipe that introduced me to your site and it remains a family fave! I’ve tried MANY different naan recipes over the years and nothing comes close. It also gets the seal of approval from my Indian friends :-)
This was not the best recipe I have tried…tried this one because of the high rating…the olive oil ruins it…will go back to my original recipe!
Thanks for the post!
Cool recipe! Now all my kids want this instead of pizza.. Love it! <3
This has become a favourite in the family. Thanks for the recipe. Super easy to make ❤
I concur. Super good and super easy to make. I’ve been substituting 50% whole wheat flour (slightly reducing total flour based on the feel of the dough while kneading) and freezing most of it in 60g balls — using it up over a month or two.. I use it both as naan and as pita (though, being enriched, it’s quite a bit more caloric).
Do you defrost the dough overnight in the fridge? I’ve made this recipe many times but don’t have experience with freezing and thawing dough. Thanks!
Yes, I pull out 2 or 3 balls at a time and leave them in a bag in the refrigerator. They defrost surprisingly fast — maybe 2 or 3 hours.
Hi, can I use rye flour or any other flour substitute for this recipe? I’ve got a ton of arrowroot as well. Thank you
Unfortunately, I’ve never worked wtih rye or arrowroot flour, so I don’t know how they would perform in this recipe. You definitely need something with gluten to achieve the correct texture, though.
Delicious and super quick and easy.Thanks for the receipe.
This is a delicious naan recipe. Made it for the first time for dinner to go along with lentil curry. Didn’t have yogurt, so I substituted with ricotta cheese which I thinned with a tbsp of milk. This was the only change I made and it was delicious, tender, and moist. My 2 yr old gobbled up an entire piece of naan all by himself. Will be my go to naan recipe going forward.
I’ve made this recipe countless times. No adjustments needed. It is my go to naan recipe. Comes out perfect every time. Thank you!
Why do you never say which flour you have to use
I use all-purpose flour unless otherwise specified. :)
I feel like this recipe is so versatile, I use half whole wheat and half all purpose flour and it comes out great! Also my favorite go to for mini pizzas, yumm 😋
Can you double the recipe? Or Best just to do the recipe 2 times to keep the proportions the same?
Yes :)
Extremely easy and yummy recipe for a beginner.
I’ve done this several times strictly to recipe, but now I’m contemplating sweet naan with flavored yogurt. Hmm…
Did you ever try this? I have honey vanilla yogurt in the fridge but I wanna make this naan.
Whenever I make this naan I use Greek honey vanilla yogurt and it makes it slightly sweeter but not overly sweet.
Can you use the stand mixer dough hook to knead this, or is it too short a knead to make the mixer a good choice?
Unfortunately, I’m not sure. I don’t have a stand mixer with a dough hook, so I’m not familiar with the particulars of using one.
Yes. I always make these in my stand mixer and they turn out wonderfully.
Hey we have the same name