Naan
This might possibly be the post with the shortest title EVER on TKP. NAAN. Good ol' regular tasty-as-heck naan. It really doesn't need any other descriptor in the title!
I made you guys a naan without yeast a few months ago, to go with the life-changing butter chicken, and even though that's great for a night when you need naan NOW... real naan is better. Yeasty naan is so. darn. good! It's fluffy and soft and tasty and absorbent and pretty much perfect for dipping in this. And this. And this. And there we have a paragraph with links to every Indian recipe on this blog - which happen to be some of my favorites! YUUUM.
This naan has melted butter and Greek yogurt and honey - all three of which would be great ON naan, but are also great IN naan. Yum. Now I want a piece with all three on top... Ooooh yeah!
The only quasi-intimidating part of this recipe is the whole "put it on an open flame" part. Trust me though, you want to do this. It'll give it those nice charred (aka flavorful) bits and puff up to make sure the inside is cooked well. DO IT. I honestly just set mine down on the stove grate above the flame, leave it for a bit, flip, and remove! Easy. You'll get the hand of it. Then you'll start doing it with your flour tortillas and no utensils. Sorry fingers! Who needs fingerprints, anyways?
Serve this up with anything saucy. Or slather some butter on it and call it a breakfast. Or made the healthy slow cooker butter chicken I posted Monday! You'll have the Greek yogurt for it, anyways! xo
Naan
- Prep Time: 1 hour 15 mins
- Cook Time: 15 mins
- Total Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
- Yield: 10 1x
Ingredients
- ¾ cup water heated to 115°
- 1 tsp. honey
- 2 ¼ tsp dry yeast
- 2 ½ cups AP flour
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt
- 2 Tbsp melted butter
- ½ tsp salt
- melted ghee and cilantro for garnishing (optional)
Instructions
- Stir together the water and honey before adding the yeast. Let the yeast proof until foamy (about 10 minutes).
- Combine the flour, yogurt, melted butter, salt, and yeast mixture and stir to combine (or use a stand mixer with a dough hook). Continue to mix until smooth (about 5 minutes). This dough will be VERY wet and almost paste-like — THIS IS OKAY. Do not expect to be able to work it with your hands.
- Cover, and let rise until doubled in size (about 1 hour).
- When the dough has risen, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 10 equal pieces. Again, this dough is very wet. It should be workable, but handle it carefully. Gently shape the dough into balls, then roll out into ¼" thick rounds.
- In a nonstick skillet over medium heat, cook the rounds one at a time. Cook on the first side until bubbles appear, then flip and cook for another minute. After both sides are cooked in the pan, use tongs to cook the naan over an open gas flame until puffed and charred (about 30 seconds each side).
- Immediately brush with ghee, if using, garnish with cilantro, and set aside. Repeat until all naan has been cooked.
Naan bread on an open flame! Well, why not? I put my corn tortillas on an open gas flame frequently enough. 🙂 These sound super simple and super tasty!
I don't have a gas stove or BBQ .... how would I "char" the naan bread?
Hi Betty! I'd put them in a pan on the stove over fairly high heat and cook on each side until there are some blackened spots! Enjoy!
I did mine lower and slower on a cast iron with butter at medium for about 3:30. Came out perfect.
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Or possibly use a torch if you have one handy 🙂
I can't wait to try this recipe. How, what is APRIL flour?
All purpose flour
What I meant was what is A P flour?
Hi Dorothy! AP is all purpose flour! Enjoy!
It's 20 below zero.. to cold to go out. What can I use instead of yogurt
Hi Dona! You could try milk (but less than the yogurt, so it's not too runny!), or potentially sour cream! Lemme know how it goes!
I was out of yogurt, so i had to use what I had in the fridge. I substituted equal parts of mascarpone and cream. It turned out great!
Is it okay if the dough was sticky while kneading it?
Definitely! This is a pretty sticky dough!
All purpose flour= AP
By the way charred food is very attractive, it is why Americans love so much their BBQ but do you know that the carbonization developed by an open flame on food is scientifically recognized as carcinogenic . So be careful !
Living in this world is carcinogenic...so don't sweat it.
Could I use this recipe with the rapid rise yeast you use in breadmakers? I assume the time you let it sit and rise would just be shorter...?
Hi Elizabeth! I supposed you could, but I really have zero experience here... so I'm not totally sure! Let me know how it goes if you try it! xo
I substituted sour cream 1:1 for Greek yogurt and it worked just fine. This is a great recipe that produces tasty, brown-spotted naan without a tandoor. Amazing!
I also used a cast-iron skillet instead of traditional non-stick.
So glad you liked it, Eric! Thanks for the note on sour cream — good to know it works! xo
Thank you for this recipe, Mary!
I tried cooking Indian for the first time today- your butter chicken recipe with this naan bread. Spent more than 3 hours in the kitchen (i had to grind my own garam masala mix in mortar) , but I would say it was worth it. I LOVED the bread, but it could have something to do with a fact that I love all sorts of breads and meals involving dough., haha.
I did have to adjust the recipe a little bit, though. Had to put more flour in the dough because I felt like it wasn´t dense enough after proofing. Then I let it proof for 20 minutes more and it came out just great. I also don´t have a gas stove but it still turned out looking really nice and authentic after cooking in a pan.
Definitely making the bread again. And I can´t wait to try out more of your recipes!
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Thanks for the feedback, Majka! I'm glad you enjoyed your meal!! xo
Amazing and so easy. I have a stove top grill plate, so I just cooked the naan right on that, and let it char while it cooked. Tender, crispy, and so good. I almost made the no yeast version, but then remembered I had grabbed some yeast on my last grocery trip so threw this together while I roasted cauliflower and baked some curry spiced meatballs. I'll be checking out some other recipes too!
Wonderful!! So glad this worked out for you, Shae! I hope you find some other favorites here! xoxo
I had to add a lot more flour for the dougg to form otherwise it was like a paste.
Oh I'm glad it wasn't just me...looking at the comments to see if anyone else had this problem. Did yours still turn out okay?
I also had to add a LOT more flour. I thought maybe I'd done something wrong so am a bit relieved to see that others had the same issue.
Easy and great recipe - best I have tried so far. Love the burning part - although the smoke alarm got a work out. Adds a real touch to them.
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Ha! Glad the smoke alarms are working, at least! Thanks, dianstu! xo
This dough was far too sticky to work with, had to add twice as much flour to create a ball! Won't use this again. I live in a very dry climate so that isn't contributing to the moisture.
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Sorry for your experience, Adrianna!!
This is a question if you don't mind. I'm a teacher and I'm wanting to help share some culture and cuisine with my students. Would the dough be ok made a day ahead of time, stored in the fridge, and then cooked in class or would it be better to just make all of the bread before hand and just bring it in at room temperature. Thanks
Hi Jacob! I think you could make it the dough day before — I'd skip the rise altogether though. Mix it up, put it in the fridge, and it will slowly rise overnight in the fridge. Then, it should be ready to go (you may not even need to bring back to room temperature, unless it doesn't look very risen). Good luck! xo
Sounds amazing! I can’t wait to try this recipe. Can I freeze the dough after I portion it out?
Hi Kat! You definitely can. I'd let it come back to room temperature before you proceed! Good luck!
Great simple naan bread. I was in a rush and only let it rise for 1/2 hour and they still turned out great.
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I am just leaving my house for some fresh greek yogurt and yeast! I am going to make your butter chicken with the yeasted naan! Been SO LONG since I have had any good Indian food since I moved away from NY to the midwest! The drooling has started already! Will let you know how it turns out! THANK YOU!!!
Yay! I hope you enjoy it, Linda!! xo
I've tried 3 other recipes that did not come close to this. This and also your quick naan. Both are amazing! thank you very much 🙂
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Glad you like it, Thomas! xo
Hi! Was the 115 water temperature in Fahrenheit or Celsius? Massive thank you in advance sorry if silly question !
Fahrenheit!
was super worried when half the dough was stuck to my hands (i don't have a mixer, so it's all done manually), so added a few tablespoons of flour, but it stayed sticky. popped it in an oily bowl and let it rise for an hour. seemed like 10 pieces was a bit of a stretch, but we ended up with 8 fairly largeish naans. fried on a tawa on highish heat nd shmeared garlic butter on them as soon as they were done.
we ate ours with butter chicken, but you don't need to eat them with anything. just tear 'em up and devour. 🙂
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Fabulous recipe but I too had to add one more cup of flour to make the dough workable. Also, I didn't bother to roll in balls to make rounds because naan don't need to be round, any old shape will do! Will definitely be making these again - and again - and again 🙂
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Wow. Divine. I am already sad about not having it now. Had it with a tomato and eggplant curry. I will add more flour next time, though. Also, I presume the 115 degrees means Fahrenheit. For non-americans this might be confusing. Even though i should have realised that there is no way i can boil water to 115 degrees celcius, i still tried by added boiling water to the yeast, and of course you meant tepid or warm water. Thankfully still worked fine.
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I made this for the first time today and it's a brilliant recipe. I needed a little extra flour for kneading and found that the bread cooked best in a hot pan with a light spray oil. I brushed it with melted garlic butter and it was a huge hit. Thank you.
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Worst Naan recipe I have ever tried to make. Followed recipe and the dough was so wet and sticky it was impossible to work with. Added more flour. Still too wet. Added even more flour. Finally was able to work with it but when cooked, it was dry and tasteless.
I won't make this again.
Hi Katie. I'm sorry for your experience. As I note in the recipe, this dough is incredibly wet and paste-like — you should not be able to work it with your hands at first. Once it has risen, it's more workable but you do need to be incredibly careful / use a light touch.
I followed your directions to the letter except substituting sour cream for the yoghurt. It was so bland…what did i do wrong? Should I have used salted butter?…there was nothing sweet about it from the honey…i put garlic powder in a couple and tasted garlic but without salt or something it didnt have that garlic pop, maybe i shouldve used fresh garlic(i didnt feel like chopping it)….PLEASE HEEEEELP I LOVE NAAN! Ive seen some versions with eggs…
Hi Iya. The honey is not intended to make this recipe sweet — it's simply to feed the yeast, and shouldn't be discernible in the final product. Did you use the salt I listed in the recipe? What kind of flour are you using? The higher quality ingredients you use, the better this will taste. You could add more salt if you need it. I'm personally not familiar with naan ever having eggs in it, but I could be wrong.
Strangely, MY dough was very thick and not wet or pastey at all unlike many other commenters. It was too thick to form bubbles when cooking. I was worried it would be too thick to cook inside but I cooked about 2 minutes per side, then a quick 10 second char and they were perfect.
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