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Homemade Naan

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This homemade naan recipe is easy to make, perfectly soft and chewy, and always so delicious. I’ve included a garlic naan recipe option below too!

Homemade Naan

Have you ever tried making homemade naan? ♡

This soft, pillowy, buttery, irresistible flatbread has long been one of my favorite sides to order out at Indian restaurants. But while naan bread is traditionally baked inside blazing-hot Tandoor ovens in India, a homemade version is actually quite easy to make on the stovetop in a hot skillet!

My favorite homemade naan recipe is made with basic bread ingredients (flour, water and yeast) plus a generous dollop of yogurt, egg and baking powder to make the bread extra soft and chewy. I also prefer to use touch of honey as a natural sweetener for the bread. And if you feel like making garlic naan, I’ve included an (optional, yet oh-so-highly recommended) garlicky butter sauce that you can brush on the warm bread immediately after baking, plus I always like to sprinkle on some fresh parsley and a pinch of flaky sea salt too.

I’ve also gone back and revised this recipe to include full instructions for how to make it either 100% by hand or with with the help of a stand mixer. And I have also included options for adding in extra herbs, cheese, and/or nigella seeds to your naan bread too.

Thousands of our readers have made and loved this homemade naan recipe over the years. So if you haven’t tried it yet, grab a skillet and let’s make a batch together!

Homemade Naan | 1-Minute Video

Homemade Naan Dough Cut Into Wedges

Homemade Naan Bread Ingredients:

Before we get to the full recipe below, here are a few quick notes about the ingredients you will need to make this homemade naan bread recipe:

  • Warm water: In order to properly activate the yeast, the water will need to be around 110°F. (I recommend measuring the temperature with a cooking thermometer, but it should feel warm but not hot to the touch.)
  • Honey: To add just a touch of sweetness to the bread. (Alternately, you can an equal amount of sugar or another sweetener if you prefer.)
  • Active dry yeast: You will need one quarter-ounce packet. Or if you buy your yeast in bulk, approximately 2 1/4 teaspoons.
  • Flour: I use plain all-purpose flour for this recipe. But if you decide to test with an alternate flour, please leave your feedback in the comments below.
  • Baking powder: To give the naan some extra rise and softness.
  • Salt: A hint of salt is added to the bread dough, but then I also like to sprinkle a bit of flaky sea salt on top of the naan just before serving.
  • Yogurt: Any type of plain yogurt (including plain Greek yogurt) will work.
  • Egg: To bind the ingredients together and make the dough a bit richer.
  • Garlic butter sauce (optional): Melted butter sautéed briefly with garlic and parsley, which you can brush on the warm dough after baking.

Homemade Naan with Garlic Butter

Naan Bread Tips:

Full instructions for how to make naan bread are included below, but here are a few quick tips to keep in mind for this recipe:

  • Measure the temperature of your water: In order for the yeast to properly activate, the water/honey mixture needs to be around 110°F. This temperature should feel warm but not hot to the touch. But just to be sure, I recommend using a thermometer to check the water so that it is not too hot (which would kill the yeast) or too cold (which would not allow the yeast to activate).
  • Be sure that the yeast is fresh: If the yeast does not bubble up and foam in the first steps of the recipe, it may be a bad batch or expired.
  • Don’t worry about making perfectly sized (or shaped) naan: It’s ok if the dough isn’t divided into eight perfectly equal-sized pieces. Just eyeball it and try to roll them out to the same thickness, more or less, and they will cook evenly. Also don’t stress about making perfectly-shaped ovals unless you want to. ;)
  • Thinner vs thicker pieces: I prefer my naan to be fairly thick and chewy, so I typically roll the dough out to be around 1/4-inch thick. But if you would like thinner naan with even more bubbles, you can roll yours out even thinner.

Homemade Garlic Naan In A Stack

Possible Naan Recipe Variations:

There are about a million variations (both traditional and non-traditional) that you can try when it comes to homemade naan, so please feel free to get creative and have fun with this recipe! A few of my favorite options are to…

  • Add garlic butter: I honestly never make this recipe any more without it — the garlic butter option included below adds so much flavor!
  • Add fresh herbs: Fresh cilantro or parsley are traditional herbs often used in naan. But feel free to experiment with any other fresh or dried herb blends that sound good! I’m partial to occasionally sprinkling some everything bagel seasoning or za’atar onto my naan, which I highly recommend.
  • Add cheese: This is definitely more non-traditional, but I love occasionally adding a handful of shredded cheddar cheese to the naan dough, or sprinkling on some freshly-grated Parmesan just before serving.

Stack of Homemade Naan Bread

Ways To Use Naan Bread:

There are so many great ways that you can put this recipe to use! For example, feel free to…

  • Serve it solo: As a simple side dish or for dipping in curries, soups, stews, dips…you name it.
  • Flatbreads or pizzas: Use the naan as your base and load it up with your favorite toppings to make naan pizzas.
  • Sandwiches or paninis: Use the freshly-baked naan to make sandwiches or grill them to make paninis.
  • Wraps or tacos: Fill the naan with fillings (falafel and chicken souvlaki are two of my faves) to make naan wraps or tacos.
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Homemade Naan Wrapped In Towel

Homemade Naan

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 4.9 from 169 reviews
  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Cook Time: 75 minutes
  • Total Time: 1 hour 30 mins
  • Yield: 8 servings 1x

Description

This homemade naan recipe is easy to make, perfectly soft and chewy, and always so delicious. I highly recommend adding the garlic butter option listed below!


Ingredients

Scale

Naan Ingredients:

(Optional) Garlic Butter Ingredients:

  • 1/4 cup salted butter
  • 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
  • finely- chopped fresh cilantro or parsley
  • (optional) flaky sea salt

Instructions

  1. Activate the yeast: Briefly stir together the warm water and honey in the bowl of a stand mixer.  (Or see notes below about how to make the dough by hand.)  Sprinkle the yeast on top of the water and give it a quick stir, then let the mixture rest for 5-10 minutes until the yeast is foamy.
  2. Mix the dough: Add the flour, yogurt, salt, baking powder, and egg.  Using the dough attachment, mix the dough on medium-low speed for 2-3 minutes until smooth.  (The dough will still be slightly sticky, but should form into a ball that pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl.  If it’s too sticky, add a bit more flour.)
  3. Let the dough rise. Remove dough from the mixing bowl and use your hands to shape it into a ball.  Grease the mixing bowl (or a separate bowl) lightly with cooking spray, then place the dough ball back in the bowl and cover it with a damp towel.  Place the bowl in a warm location (I set mine by a sunny window) and let it rise for 1 hour until the dough has nearly doubled in size.
  4. (Optional) Make the garlic butter: During the last 10 minutes of the dough’s rise time, heat the butter in a small sauté pan over medium heat until melted.  Add the garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.  Remove the pan from heat and stir in some chopped herbs, if desired.  (You can also strain out the garlic chunks if you prefer the garlic butter to be completely smooth.)
  5. Roll out the dough. Once the dough is ready to go, transfer it to a floured work surface and shape it into an even(ish) circle.  Cut the dough into 8 equally-sized wedges and roll each wedge into a ball with your hands.  Then use a rolling pin to roll out the dough ball until it forms an oval about 1/4-inch thick.  (I recommend multi-tasking this process — rolling out the next dough ball while you cook one on the stove.)
  6. Cook the dough. Heat a large cast-iron skillet or non-stick sauté pan over medium-high heat until it is nice and hot.  Add a piece of the rolled-out dough to the pan and cook for 1 minute, or until the top of the dough begins to bubble and the bottom turns lightly golden.  Flip the dough and cook on the second side for 30-60 seconds, or until the bottom is golden as well, then transfer the dough to a clean plate.  (If you are making garlic naan, brush one or both side(s) of the dough with the garlic butter once the naan has cooked.)  Sprinkle the naan with a pinch of flaky sea salt, if desired. Then lightly cover the naan with a clean towel so that it stays warm.  Repeat with remaining dough until all of the naan pieces are cooked, adjusting the heat of the pan if needed to keep it hot (but not overly-hot so that it burns the bread).
  7. Serve. Serve warm and enjoy!

Notes

To make the dough by hand: Instead of using a stand mixer, complete step 1 in a large mixing bowl. Add the flour, yogurt, salt, baking powder, egg, and stir the mixture until combined.  Then turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead by hand for 3 to 4 minutes, until smooth.  (The dough will still be slightly sticky, but should form into a ball that pulls away from the sides of the mixing bowl.  If it’s too sticky, add a bit more flour as you knead.)

Source: Recipe adapted from All Recipes. I also updated the photos and recipe (making the garlic butter optional; everything else is the same) in November 2020.

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406 comments on “Homemade Naan”

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  1. My son has a corn all and I was able to swap the baking powder with a corn free version. I made this recipe so he could do a pizza build-able for lunch at school, I will make again as the entire family is eating it as fast as I could make it. Thank you for sharing this!!!❤️

  2. My mom used whole wheat flour, and it was awesome. A few weeks ago I had made vegan homemade coconut yogurt, and she used that in replacement of dairy yogurt. Now, mind that we are both dairy and meat eaters, however, I wouldn’t have known she used my yogurt until she told me. Non dairy eaters can eat it can dairy eats would never know the difference! Excellent recipe! I roasted some garlic heads in the toaster oven with oil olive and salt for 30 mins. The browned garlic pieces are AMAZING with the whole wheat naan.

  3. Just tried this recipe, substituted milk for yoghurt and hand kneaded and they were delicious!!

  4. Could you please provide the exact amount of the ingredients? In grams. Thanks!

  5. I started making naan about a month ago. My first recipe that I used was good, but I didn’t save it. It used yogurt, but no egg. While searching for it, I stumbled on to your recipe and decided to give it a try. I loved using my mixer, and the egg made it even fluffier. I love this recipe and will continue to use it.

  6. Best naan I’ve made yet! My dough didn’t rise the first time (it was still amazing) so I activated the yeast with sugar instead of honey the second go round and viola! I think this is the 5th recipe I’ve tried and I will look no further! Thanks for this!






  7. Made this on a whim on a sunny Sunday afternoon. The dough was super easy and I had some special organic yogurt with cream on top as well as honey from a fiend to add. Great flavour. I didn’t measure the amounts and rolled out a few pieces then grilled them on the bbq next to the veggies. I brushed each piece with melted butter on both sides and grilled them on medium high heat. Going to freeze the rest of the dough for later and grill on charcoal next time. Too windy today. Thanks!

  8. So good! I used 1 cup of whole wheat flour and 2.5 of AP and it turned out great.






  9. Thanks for this simple recipe. I’ve prepared the dough and am read to shape it into little balls but I don’t plan on cooking until tomorrow. Hoping it keeps well in in the fridge and cooks nicely. I’ll be adding be garlic butter tomorrow with fresh parsley.

  10. Hi again,
    I’m wondering if it’s possible to use sourdough starter in place of yogurt.

  11. Wow I did 1/2 whole wheat flour and didn’t have yogurt so mixed a bit of vinegar into some 2% milk. These are incredible!! They are soft and pillowy and we ate them with regular butter and couldn’t stop! Next time I will take the suggestions of some honey in 1/2 the dough and the garlic butter on the other half. Yum!!






  12. This recipe was fantastically easy, deliciously tasty, & I was so impressed with myself for following it! I used sour cream, instead of yogurt, because I only had a honey-vanilla yogurt at home. I used my KitchenAid Mixer to mix & knead the dough and a cast iron pan to cook it!

    I had no idea that I could make such amazingly delicious naan at home, I had previously thought a Tandoor was necessary & am just delighted.

    I think next time, I’ll be making Naan Pizza, as pizza dough is so difficult to roll out & this was so easy!

    THANK YOU!






    • I’ve just tried this recipe with Gluten free flour, and it’s perfect! The best texture I have ever had!






  13. My absolute favorite nana recipe. It turns out pillowy soft and yummy every single time with minimal effort and ingredients.






  14. Can you multiply this recipe?

  15. It turned out amazing, the best recipe i have tried so far






  16. The recipe performs beautifully and is enjoyed by all. I increase the volumes by 1.5 (I still only use one egg though). Then I make 12 Naans instead of 8. None ever goes to waste.