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This homemade naan recipe makes soft, chewy flatbread with beautifully blistered spots and a buttery finish. All you need is a hot skillet—no tandoor required.
Naan is a soft, pillowy flatbread traditionally baked in a tandoor, a blazing-hot clay oven that gives it those characteristic bubbles and charred spots. Of course, most of us don’t have a tandoor at home, but I’ve found that a good, hot skillet does a wonderful job. The trick is to keep the dough soft and slightly sticky, then cook it over high heat so it puffs up and develops those beautiful golden, blistered spots.
This homemade naan recipe is one of my favorite breads to make because, aside from the rising time, it’s surprisingly quick and easy. And there’s nothing quite like brushing a warm piece of naan with melted butter and serving it alongside chicken curry, butter chicken, or chicken tikka masala.
“My search for the perfect naan bread is over—this recipe is the best!”
What You’ll Need To Make Homemade Naan
- All-purpose flour: The base of the dough. For best results, spoon it into your measuring cup and level it off.
- Sugar and salt: Sugar adds a touch of sweetness and helps the yeast along, while salt brings out the flavor.
- Instant or rapid-rise yeast: Helps the dough rise and gives the naan its pillowy texture. You can use active dry yeast instead, but allow a little extra time for rising.
- Warm water, plain yogurt, and olive oil: Bring the dough together and help keep the naan soft and tender.
- Anise seeds (optional): Add a subtle licorice note. You can substitute nigella, poppy, or sesame seeds, or leave them out.
- Melted salted butter: Brushed over the naan after cooking for a rich, buttery finish.
- Chopped parsley (optional): Adds color and freshness. Use cilantro if you prefer. For garlic naan, stir minced garlic into the melted butter before brushing it over the cooked bread.
- Jump to the printable recipe for precise measurements
How To Make Naan
Make the dough: Whisk together the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, combine the yogurt, olive oil, and warm water, then add to the dry ingredients. Stir with a fork until the dough starts to come together, then knead gently with floured hands until you have a soft, slightly sticky ball. There’s no need to knead it until smooth.
Let it rise: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover. Leave it in a warm spot until it’s about doubled in size. The dough should look noticeably puffier and feel soft and airy.
Divide and shape: Turn the dough onto a well-floured work surface and divide it into six pieces. Dust with flour as needed to keep the dough manageable, then roll each piece into a thin oval. Don’t worry about making them perfectly uniform—a slightly irregular shape is part of naan’s charm.
Cook the naan: Heat a dry cast-iron or heavy nonstick skillet until very hot. Add a piece of dough and watch for large bubbles to form on the surface and golden-brown spots to appear underneath. Flip and cook until the other side is browned and blistered, with a few darker charred spots. Adjust the heat as you go; I usually lower it to medium after the first naan.
Brush and serve: Brush each naan with melted butter as soon as it comes out of the skillet, then keep it tucked in a clean kitchen towel while you cook the rest. Sprinkle with parsley, if using, and serve warm.
storage & Freezing Tips
Naan is best enjoyed fresh from the skillet, but leftovers can be stored in a resealable plastic bag. To reheat, wrap the naan in aluminum foil and warm in a 350°F (175°C) oven until heated through. Naan also freezes well for up to 3 months. Once completely cooled, wrap each piece tightly in plastic wrap and place them together in a freezer bag. To reheat from frozen, wrap the naan in foil and warm in a 350°F (175°C) oven until hot.
Naan Recipe Video Tutorial
Homemade Naan
Ingredients
- 2 cups all purpose flour spooned into measuring cup and leveled-off, plus more for rolling (see note)
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon instant dry yeast/rapid-rise yeast (see note)
- 1 teaspoon salt
- Heaping ½ teaspoon anise seeds (optional)
- 3 tablespoons plain yogurt
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- ¾ cup warm water (about 100°F/38°C)
- 2 tablespoons melted salted butter, for brushing on finished naans
- 1 tablespoon chopped fresh Italian parsley (optional), for serving
Instructions
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, yeast, salt and anise seeds (if using). Set aside.
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the yogurt, olive oil, and ¾ cup (180 ml) warm water (about 100°F/38°C).
- Add the yogurt mixture to the dry ingredients and mix with a fork until the dough begins to come together. Lightly flour your hands and knead gently to form a soft, slightly sticky dough, adding more flour a little at a time if it’s too wet to handle. Stop kneading as soon as the dough comes together.
- Lightly oil a clean bowl or coat it with nonstick cooking spray (the bowl should be large enough to allow the dough to double in size). Transfer the dough to the prepared bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a damp kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm place for 1 to 1½ hours, or until roughly doubled in size.
- Place about ½ cup (65 g) flour in a small bowl. Lightly dust a work surface with some of the flour and turn the dough out onto it. Sprinkle a little flour over the dough and your hands.
- Shape the dough into a long rectangle and cut it into 6 equal portions, dusting with more flour as needed to prevent sticking. Roll each portion in the bowl of flour to coat lightly.
- Warm a large cast iron or heavy nonstick pan over medium-high heat until very hot.
- Using a rolling pin, roll one portion of dough into an oval about ⅛ in (3 mm) thick and 9 x 4 in (23 x 10 cm). Gently toss the dough back and forth between your hands to shake off any excess flour, then carefully lay it in the dry skillet.
- Cook for a few minutes, until air bubbles form across the surface and the bottom is golden brown with blackened spots. Flip and cook 1 to 2 minutes more, until the bottom is lightly browned and blistered in spots.
- Remove the naan from the skillet, brush with melted butter, and place in a tea towel-lined dish to keep warm.
- Repeat with the remaining naans, adjusting the heat lower if necessary as you go (I usually find it necessary to lower the heat to medium after the first naan). Sprinkle with parsley, if using, and serve warm.
Notes
- I use King Arthur flour, which is higher in protein than some other all-purpose flours. If using a flour with a lower protein content, such as Gold Medal, you will likely need to add a few more tablespoons of flour.
- Active dry yeast may be used instead of instant/rapid-rise yeast, however, the dough will take longer to rise. To give active dry yeast a boost, you can dissolve it in the lukewarm water and let it sit until frothy, about 10 minutes. After that, add it to the flour, sugar, salt, and anise seeds, and proceed with the recipe.
- To keep the cooked naan warm, place them in a 200°F (96°C) oven.
Nutrition Information
This website is written and produced for informational purposes only. I am not a certified nutritionist and the nutritional data on this site has not been evaluated or approved by a nutritionist or the Food and Drug Administration. Nutritional information is offered as a courtesy and should not be construed as a guarantee. The data is calculated through an online nutritional calculator, Edamam.com. Although I do my best to provide accurate nutritional information, these figures should be considered estimates only. Varying factors such as product types or brands purchased, natural fluctuations in fresh produce, and the way ingredients are processed change the effective nutritional information in any given recipe. Furthermore, different online calculators provide different results depending on their own nutrition fact sources and algorithms. To obtain the most accurate nutritional information in a given recipe, you should calculate the nutritional information with the actual ingredients used in your recipe, using your preferred nutrition calculator.
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Ways to Use Naan
Naan is delicious alongside curries, but there are plenty of other ways to enjoy it. Serve it with a bowl of mulligatawny soup, use it as a base for individual flatbread pizzas, or fold it around grilled chicken, kabobs, or roasted vegetables for a sandwich or wrap. You can even top warm naan with fried eggs for a quick and satisfying breakfast.
More Homemade Bread Recipes You’ll Love
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I have made this recipe several times, it’s a family favourite! I’ve used a cast iron pan, which worked great, but have also used our pizza stone both in the oven and on the BBQ. The key to success is ensuring the stone is very hot before you cook the naan. I have made no substitutions and it always turns out perfectly. Do not forget the butter at the end. Thanks Jenn!!
A great, very easy recipe! I made this exactly as written, adding a tsp of minced garlic to the dough instead of the other suggestions – used Rapid Rise yeast and had it doubled in less than an hour. Yogurt, as others have said, is a key ingredient here, and I wouldn’t omit or substitute for it. Managed well with a 10″ non-stick skillet, and brushed a little butter on them after removing from heat. Stacked them in a wax paper liner to protect our tea towel, placed it in a Pyrex pie plate to keep warm in a 150 degree oven while I finished an Indian style dinner. Removed the towel wrap from the Pyrex into the same wonderful Williams Sonoma basket pictured in the recipe. Bread baskets like this are so hard to find now, I highly recommend them. These naan were fluffy and delicious and we froze the left overs as directed; next time I’d add even more garlic. Thanks for an easy Naan recipe!
This recipe is excellent. My family loves it. It goes well with Mediterranean and Indian dishes and the way you wrote the recipe makes it pretty easy for it to come out perfect. Thank you Jenn! You are one of my favorite chefs/instructors. I make many of your recipes!
Thank you !
Awesome recipe. Turned out perfect!
Loved it. Thankyou. I made a few amendments due to personal preference and after watching some recipe videos. It’s pretty cold here so I mixed the warm water, yeast and sugar together first to help the yeast activate. I also only used a teaspoon on sugar and I used 1 and a quarter tsp yeast. I also used the dough hook on my mixer because generally I’m HORRIBLE with dough. Cast iron skillet, made 7, after cooking I brushed with a mix I’d already zapped in the microwave of nutalex, oil, heaps of garlic, salt and dried parsley. During cooking I just reoiled the skillet with a tiny bit of normal oil after each naan. Very easy to follow and recreate, even for a dough screweruperer like me.
Thank you for sharing this recipe! It turned out exactly as you described. Perfect taste and texture. It was delicious with spicy pickled eggplant and homemade raita. Can’t wait to make it again for a dinner party! Bon appétit!
Oh my gosh- the instructions were wonderful and the naan was so simple to make! Family loved it! We skipped the anise seeds and brushed with melted ghee. Next time we will add garlic to the butter. This recipe is EXCELLENT and easy. Thank you!!
Made these tonight. Simple, easy to follow recipe, dough came together easily; wasn’t sticky, rose nicely and was easy to roll out. Used my cast iron pan which worked well. My only complaint? Not a lot of flavor. I added onion and garlic powder and brushed the cooked naan with garlic infused butter but they still had very little flavor. Maybe I didn’t add enough salt? Not sure. Had to make do with pantry ingredients so I used white whole wheat flour and subbed almond milk for yogurt. Texture was good, dough was easy to work with but next time I’ll add more salt.
I think you should try with yogurt next time? I have made breads with and without yogurt and the yogurt does add a significant flavor (which i love!). Without it, you just have a regular yeast bread. It is possible to make yogurt from almond milk in an instant pot i think if you do not do dairy. But could be a salt thing too.
Yummy! Have made your naan bread a few times now and it is a real hit with our house. It is so soft and tasty and so very easy to make.
I didn’t have any seeds to add, but sprinkled some garlic powder on after brushing with butter for a light garlic flavour.
👌 Simple recipe and bloody delicious. Well done and thank you Jenn. I am also a trained chef – just not really spent much time making breads. I made my dough the night before (prepared it at the same time that my tandoori was marinating) and let rise in the fridge overnight like I do with my pizza dough when I make it. Also I used ras el hanout for my spice (so tasty). Might try garam masala next time. Also I melted butter with olive oil, fresh crushed garlic, chopped parsley and lemon thyme. Then smothered each rolled out naan in the mix – both sides, before putting on my char grill. What a game changer. I won’t be buying packet naan ever again. The whole family loved it. So easy. Thank you again.
I have not tried this recipe yet. But will suggest mix fenugreek flakes/ cilantro with garlic and in melted butter. Brush your rolled dough with mix and cook it. It will give you aromatic flavor and taste.