Easy Homemade Naan Bread

June 10, 2020

Easy homemade Naan bread is soft, pillowy and delicious.
Naan Bread

What is Naan Bread?

Naan bread is a traditional flat bread, from India.

These soft pillowy flat breads are usually baked in a tandoor, a big cylindrical clay oven that can retain high heat.

And the high heat in the tandoor oven is achieve by burning charcoal or wood, hence the smokey taste in both Naan bread and chicken tandoori.


Garlic Naan

What is the difference between Naan and Pita bread?

Naan and pita are both flat bread made from yeast, salt and flour.

However, Pita bread is the poorer cousin to Naan bread.
Pita bread is made of simple ingredients like flour, yeast, salt, oil and water.

While Naan bread is richer in taste, is made of flour, yogurt, milk, egg, salt, yeast with nigella seeds added.

How to make Naan Bread?

Scroll down for Printable recipe and instruction.

Note that I made a simple video (just above the recipe card) to show the whole process.

1) Dry ingredients to make Naan bread

Dry ingredients for homemade Naan bread
2) wet ingredients
Wet ingredients for homemade Naan bread

3) Knead and proof until dough has risen to double in size

Naan Dough rising
4) Divide the dough into 10 smaller balls (or more if you wish for a bite size Naan bread)
Divide Naan dough into 10 balls
5) Roll in between 2 greaseproof paper.
You can opt out and not use greaseproof paper but its easier to clean after. Trust me!
Ready to cook Naan bread
6) Immediately place on hot bbq flat plate.
Cooking naan bread on the bbq hot plate

How Do I cook Naan if I don't have Tandoor oven or BBQ hot plate?


Stove and iron skillet is your next best option!
Or you can cook these Naan breads in your oven. 
Set to high heat, place baking stone and place the dough for few minutes.
Similar to pizza making in oven.
I have cooked Naan in oven before but the result was not what I was looking for.
This option is the last in the list.
Recipe for Naan bread

What do you serve with Naan?


Naan is best serve immediately.
There are many ways to enjoy these soft, fresh from the oven or skillet.
These are some of my recommendations :

  1. Chicken Tikka
  2. Butter Chicken
  3. Beef Korma
  4. Beef Vindaloo
  5. Goan Beef Curry
  6. Muhammara
  7. Potato Masala
  8. Lentils and Indian Drumsticks Curry

How Long Can I keep These Naan Bread?


Naan bread is best eaten immediately.
However we may not be able to finish them all (like us family of 4, we would have some leftover), then best keep in a container, keep it cover.
May be the weather factor here in Perth or any cooler temperate countries, our naan bread seems to 'harden' the next day!
Warm up the naan in microwave and microwave for 20 seconds (depending on your microwave, best read the manual)
Recipe for Indian Naan bread

A quick Video on 'How to Make Naan Bread'






This easy homemade Naan bread is soft, pillowy and delicious.  Serve Naan bread with butter chicken, beef kurma or simple Dhal curry.


What I wrote in 2011 


First and foremost.... my million 'thank you's for voting and supporting me on Babble.com. When I first discovered that I was nominated ... which was 2 weeks ago... From My Lemony Kitchen was at no 300plus... currently as I am typing away... I am at no 94... unbelievable!!! I made it to top 100... thank you... thank you... thank you...
Dont just stop yet... keep your vote coming by clicking here... hugs and  from me..

Its been a long while since we last had Naan... and my first attempt in making homemade Naan was a complete disaster...
After 5 long years, I decided to give it another try ... because... E wanted to have Naan with Chicken Tikka (another post coming...) as her belated birthday treat.
H and I came across this recipe from The Taste of India cookbook.
We had fun making Naan. And at the same time, we wanted to carry out some experiments... to find out the best way to achieve the Best homemade Naan ever... that worked well with our appliances... and of course our palate... 
First ~ we experimented with the dough... made 2 batches within the span of 2 weeks... First batch was hand-kneaded and the second was by my 'old and trusty' Kenwood.

We prefer the hand-kneaded Naan ~ it is softer in texture in comparisons to the machine-kneaded Naan.. or could it be I over-mixed???
Second ~ we experimented with the cooking method ~ we baked a few, in the kitchen oven at the given temperature... how I wish I had Tandoor oven.. , and the rest, we cooked on the BBQ hot plate. 
Result~ all of us prefer the later... Naan is soft, has some texture and 'meaty'. The oven baked Naan came out... all puffed up (just like Puri ~ Indian deep fried bread) and dry.

The 1st photo is the oven-baked Naan and the last photo is the BBQ hot plate version... Can you spot the difference?
Here... I am giving you both methods... of either baked in the oven or using BBQ hotplate...
the choice is yours
The dough has doubled in size.... after few hours.. hand-knead dough.


Turned the dough onto a lightly floured surface
Divide into 10 smaller balls...
 ... this is not authentic way of stretching the Naan... but it is less messy 
The soft and 'meaty' Naan... using BBQ hot plate.

Comments

  1. Beautiful breads! Although I bake a lot and love flatbreads, I haven't yet tried this wonderful speciality... Time to change things!

    Cheers,

    Rosa

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  2. I have been wanting to make my own naan for as long as I can remember. My obsession with naan starts when I was working as a waitress at a North Indian restaurant when I was in college. I should really try ..
    The pictures are beautiful

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  3. Your naan bread looks perfect, very well done. That remind me I haven't make this for a long time to go with tandoori chicken.

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  4. Amelia
    lovely to have it with tandoori chicken... :D

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  5. So easy!!!!!!!! I need to try this!!

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  6. Beautiful naan. I love it. Great with curry....mmmm.

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  7. Leemei
    I pun like naan ... with garlic :D

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  8. MaryMoh
    Sure is... my next post will be Naan and chicken tikka ;)

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  9. I definitely enjoy Naan bread with Indian curries :) ...so hungry now...

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  10. I just made naan this week today! Leftovers are now in the freezer. But hmm.. what's kalonji ah? Looks like black sesame seed to me!

    I heart naan!

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  11. tigerfish
    me too... either Naan with Tandoori Chicken or chicken Tikka

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  12. Sherie
    yay... great mind think alike hehehe ;P
    Kalonji is nigella seeds... it does looks like black sesame seeds or onion seeds...

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  13. I love this post and your photos. I went to India for the first time over Christmas and came back wanting to know how to make Naan, which we ate so much of while there. Thank you for sharing - I'll definitely try this recipe!

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  14. Jessica
    Thank you..
    I would love to visit India, one day... :D

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  15. Just came across your site today on Gojee and am so pleased that I did. This recipe looks wonderful. I love flatbreads of all sorts, especially in the summer.

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  16. Rivki
    That's great and welcome to my kitchen..:D

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