Homemade Naan Bread

This homemade Naan Bread recipe delivers perfect taste and texture that will rival what get at your favorite Indian restaurant. They're simple to make and ready in just a few hours!

This naan bread has that soft and slightly chewy texture you'd expect from a good naan bread.

The rich subtle flavor shines through as well. The taste is so good, you'll find yourself eating them on their own.

Until recently, we used to buy naan bread at the store (just like everyone else), and serve it alongside our favorite ethnic dishes:

• Butter Chicken - so good!
• Greek Marinated Lamb Chops with Tzatziki sauce
• Red Vegetable Curry
• Easy Spicy Hummus

We even spread ham salad and egg salad on them.

But what tends to happen with most foods we really like is that we start thinking...

"...can't we make this at home?"

After all, we make homemade Dinner Rolls, Rustic Bread, and even a really awesome Pizza Dough at home. How much different can it be?

Well, we found out it isn't very different at all, and the best part is that it the results are AMAZING! This naan is even better than what we were buying.

Bonus: it only costs about $0.10 per naan!

That's—as they say in the business—a WIN-WIN scenario.

So follow the simple steps outlined below and impress your family with this incredible homemade naan bread today.

Ingredients for naan bread

You will notice this homemade naan bread uses basic staple ingredients:

Bread Flour	Instant Yeast
Melted Butter	Egg
Water	Sugar
Milk	Salt

How to make homemade naan bread

1. Make the dough

In a stand mixer bowl, add the water, milk, yeast, egg, salt, and sugar. Then whisk for 30 seconds to dissolve the sugar and salt, and to beat the egg.

Then add the flour on top.

If you're not using a food scale, make sure to use the 'fluff, spoon, and sweep method' to measure your flour.

Next, with the dough hook attached to your stand mixer, mix on LEVEL 1 for two minutes.

Scrape the sides of the bowl periodically to ensure that all flour gets mixed in.

After two minutes of mixing, the flour will have fully hydrated. This means we can add the fat to the dough.

In this case, our fat will be melted butter.

Add the butter and mix on LEVEL 2 for five minutes.

If you notice the dough sticking to the bowl, add another tablespoon of flour and continue to mix until it no longer sticks. Repeat as necessary.

2. Rest the dough

Scrape the dough from from the hook back into the stand mixer bowl using a flexible spatula or your hands. No need to dirty another bowl!

Naan bread dough is tacky and slightly sticky. If some sticks to your fingers, just work the dough back and forth between your hands. This should remove it.

Then cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow it to rest at room temperature until it has doubled in size.

This will take 1-2 hours. Warmer homes will have a faster rise time.

If your house is below 72ºF, let your dough rise in your oven with the light on. This provides a little extra heat to assist with the fermenting.

3. Divide the dough

Using a flexible spatula, scrape the dough out of the stand mixer bowl and onto an UNFLOURED, smooth work surface.

Then, with your hands, shape it into a 6 x 8 inch rectangle.

Using a pizza cutter, knife or bench scraper, cut the dough into 12 roughly equal pieces.

4. Form the naan dough balls

With each piece of dough, we will be performing a 'fold, seal, and rotate' method to form tight little dough balls.

Follow the 6-steps below for all 12 pieces of dough.

Step 1

Begin by flattening one of the pieces of dough on an UNFLOURED surface with your finger tips.

Step 2

Fold one edge of the dough over to the other edge. Then press to seal the edge with your finger tips.

Step 3

Rotate the dough 90 degrees with the seam facing up. The seam should be perpendicular to you.

Then fold one edge of the dough over to the other edge. Then press to seal that edge with your finger tips. Same as STEP 2

Step 4

Again, rotate the dough 90 degrees and repeat this 'fold, seal, and rotate' sequence two more times.

You should notice that the tautness of the dough increases with each fold.

Step 5

Now, it's time to seal the bottom of the dough ball.

Just turn the dough ball over and use your fingers to fold the seams in together to a point.

Step 6

After you have shaped your dough into a tight little ball, set it aside and cover with plastic wrap.

After all 12 are done, they will look like this.

5. Allow dough balls to rest

Let your dough balls rest 30-60 minutes until they roughly grow 50% in size.

6. Prep the stovetop and pre-heat the pan

First, set the cast iron pan over your largest burner and pre-heat it on medium for 5 minutes.

Next, arrange a small ramekin of neutral oil and brush nearby. You will need access to these while you're cooking your naan.

Then, set out a cooling rack where you can place your fully cooked naan.

7. Roll dough into a disc shape

Once your pan has fully pre-heated, you can begin shaping your dough.

Again, all this is done on an UNFLOURED surface.

Begin by shaping it with your fingers

Using your fingers and hands, press and shape your dough ball into about a 4-inch flattened disc.

Then move it to your work surface, where you can finish pressing it out.

Now get out the rolling pin!

Start from the center of the dough disc and roll outward to the edges.

Go in multiple directions until you get a thickness of about 1/16 to an ⅛ inch thick. This will take about 7-10 rolls.

Don't worry about the exact shape after rolling the dough out! When it hits the hot pan, it will tighten up a bit and smooth out any pointy edges.

8. Oil, peel, and cook

First, oil your hot pan

Before cooking the rolled out naan, brush a very thin layer of the high smoke point oil on the bottom of the pre-heated cast iron pan.

Next, peel the dough from the counter

The dough will stick a bit but should peel off in one piece.

Then place the dough into the hot pan but...

Make sure the dough that was against the counter top is now facing up in the pan.

In other words, the top part of the rolled out dough is now face down in the hot pan. I find it just cooks better this way.

Allow this to cook for 45-60 seconds. It should start to bubble up a bit when it's close to done.

Flip it over

The first side should be browned similar to the image below.

If you find it browning too fast or slow, adjust your burner temperature accordingly. You want this color to happen in the 45-60 second range.

Allow the second side to cook another 45-60 seconds.

If you notice it puffing up too much, don't be scared to use a spatula and press the naan down a bit to deflate these bubbles.

When it's done, place it on a cooling rack to rest. Notice that you can see where the (now deflated) bubbles were in the pattern of browning below:

And after you cook all 12, your rack will look like this...

How to store naan bread

Whether you decide to store your naan at room temperature or in the freezer, make sure they are completely cooled before doing so. We don't want those beauties getting soggy!

Room temperature storage

If you will be eating your naan within 3 days, just store them in an airtight bag or container.

Freezer storage

Anything not consumed in 3 days should go into your freezer.

Wrap each individual naan bread in plastic wrap, then place all of them in a large one gallon freezer bag. Then simply pull out what you need at dinner time.

They will last up to 3 months this way.

I always make a double batch to freeze them. They re-heat perfectly.

How to re-heat naan bread

Naan can be re-heated from a frozen state or from at room temperature. Below are a couple of ways to do this.

Toaster

Just drop your naan in your toaster and let them go 1-3 minutes.

The time is determined by how you like them. A shorter time will leave them warm and soft. If you like a little crunch on the outside, let them go a little longer.

Oven or toaster oven

If you need to re-heat more than just a few naan, use your oven.

Make a single layer of the naan directly on the middle cooking rack of a cold oven. Turn your oven to 350ºF and as this pre-heats, your naan will warm up nicely.

They will be done in 2-4 minutes depending on how soft or crunchy you want them.

How to serve naan bread

Personally, I don't add any extra flavoring to the naan. I just warm it up and serve it alongside our favorite foods.

But, if you want to kick it up a notch, brush on some garlic butter sauce right after re-heating the naan.

Garlic butter sauce recipe

4 Tbsp	Butter, unsalted
1	Garlic Clove, minced
⅛ tsp	Salt, fine
2 Tbsp	Fresh Parsley, finely chopped

In a saucepan, simmer the butter, garlic and salt over medium low heat until the garlic becomes fragrant, about 2-3 minutes.

Turn off the heat and stir in the parsley, then immediately brush on the freshly re-heated naan bread and serve.

That's it! We hope you love these easy naan breads as much as we do.