This is a reader-favourite recipe included by popular demand in my debut cookbook “Dinner”!
🌶 Welcome back to Indian Week! 🌶
This week there will be three brand new, iconic Indian recipes to make your very own Indian feast: Plus a colourful side salad – a Cabbage & Carrot Thoran-style Salad! (PS I am literally obsessed with that salad…)
Naan recipe
Truly fluffy, chewy, bubbly naan has eluded me for years. Every other recipe I tried – and believe me, I’ve tried so many I’ve lost count – are just basic flatbread recipes with no real crumb integrity and absolutely none of the signature elasticity that real restaurant naan has. As for the versions made without yeast? Forget it. They were more like pancakes. Fact: You can’t make naan that bubbles up like THIS without using yeast!! ↓↓↓ It’s difficult to capture how chewy and fluffy this naan bread is in a photo – so let me try to show you instead with some live action: Yerrrrrssss. And the most incredible thing? Naan dough is so easy to make. There is no kneading involved. Really. There is nothing tricky about it at all!
What goes in Naan
Here’s what you need to make the puffiest, fluffiest, bubbliest naan of your life. No fiercely hot tandoor required (unless that’s how you roll … )
Flour – Bread flour produces a slightly fluffier, softer naan than using plain/all-purpose flour. But the difference is actually quite marginal, so I’m not going to recommend it as strongly as I do in other recipes where using bread flour really makes a difference (eg. like in our favourite Crusty Artisan Bread).So in short, use bread flour if you have it. But if you don’t, I wouldn’t make a special trip to the supermarket because this naan is excellent made with all-purpose/plain flour too; Yeast – Instant / rapid-rise yeast is called for here. The recipe also works with standard active / dry yeast, but we’ve found the naan is slightly fluffier and softer using instant yeast.Unusually, we dissolve the instant yeast in warm water then leave it to become foamy – a step usually bypassed with instant yeast, which is typically mixed straight into dough. However, for this recipe, we found that the naan is fluffier if dissolved in warm water first. Yes, we’ve made a LOT of naan in recent weeks!!!
Ghee or butter – Ghee is basically the same thing as clarified butter. This is simply normal butter but with milk solids and water removed, leaving behind pure butter fat. Ghee has a more intense butter flavour than normal butter, with the added bonus that unlike butter, it doesn’t burn even on high heat. You can either make your own Ghee (it’s cheaper, really easy and keeps for months), buy it, or just use normal butter; and
Egg, milk, white sugar, salt – All fairly standard bread inclusions. I use cow’s milk, but given the small quantity used in this recipe, I see no reason why non-dairy alternatives wouldn’t work.
“No yoghurt?” I used to be an advocate of yoghurt in naan bread, believing it to be the “secret ingredient” that made naan different from “just another flatbread”. So in short, use bread flour if you have it. But if you don’t, I wouldn’t make a special trip to the supermarket because this naan is excellent made with all-purpose/plain flour too; Unusually, we dissolve the instant yeast in warm water then leave it to become foamy – a step usually bypassed with instant yeast, which is typically mixed straight into dough. However, for this recipe, we found that the naan is fluffier if dissolved in warm water first. Yes, we’ve made a LOT of naan in recent weeks!!! You can either make your own Ghee (it’s cheaper, really easy and keeps for months), buy it, or just use normal butter; and But actually, yogurt weighs the naan down and makes it a bit gummier inside. Added yoghurt is no challenge for the nuclear-level 480°C heat of a tandoor … but in a home kitchen, the naan is better without yogurt. It’s just fluffier!
How to make Naan
This section may look lengthy, but I promise this naan recipe is not hard. I’m just breaking down the steps for you and showing thorough process photos so you can have total confidence that you’ll nail this – even if you’re new to working with yeast doughs. And guess what? Naan dough doesn’t requiring kneading!!
Bloom the yeast
First step: Let’s get the yeast activated and ready to work its magic on our naan dough.
Make Naan dough
Bring together into ball
Rise dough 1 to 1.5 hours – let it double in size
Divide into six balls
Rise 15 minutes – let increase in size 50%
Roll out
Cook Naan
Brush with ghee
Cheese Naan recipe!
I’m going to be honest, I’ve no idea whether you can even find Cheese Naan in India (please chime in, in the comments!). But it’s a firm favourite around my neck of the wood. Certainly this Cheese-loving Carb Monster considers Cheese Naan one of the great achievements of modern mankind. But, for naan, we found that blooming instant yeast in a warm water and sugar mixture (ie. letting it sit until it goes foamy) makes the naan fluffier and softer. It’s also an excellent safety test to ensure your yeast is still alive – nothing worse than discovering your yeast is dead once your bread is in the oven! ;;
- Well-seasoned skillets: If you maintain your cast iron skillets properly, they should be naturally non-stick and lightly greased! 😇 That’s all you need to make naan. But if it’s not, just pour 1/2 tsp vegetable oil on a paper towel then rub it over the base. Don’t pour the oil in, naan is not meant to be pan fried in oil, it’s “dry”-cooked. I use a Lodge brand cast iron skillet – more on it here (excellent value, and indestructible!). If using another type of skillet, do the same light oil rub. But you should not really be making naan in non-stick coated skillets – the high heat required destroys the non-stick coating! Aim for fast cooking (also as not to burn the ghee). The faster it cooks, the closer you get to real naan like that cooked in the fierce heat of a tandoor, and the fluffier your naan will be! The slower it cooks, on the other hand, the less fluffy the naan will be. 2 to 2 1/2 minutes total is ideal. Beyond this, the naan will start to dry out inside and you’ll lose the signature texture; and finally For an authentic finishing touch, add a sprinkle of nigella seeds for a delicious onion-y pops! Authentic or not, it’s amazing! (And really, what is it but the equivalent of an Indian-style grilled cheese sandwich – yum!?)
How to make Cheese Naan
In restaurants, cheese naan is usually made by cooking plain naan first, then cutting a slit and stuffing inside the naan with cheese to melt. That’s quite tedious and involves burnt fingertip agony I’m yet to fall in love with, so I’ve opted for a much simpler method: Here’s what the inside of the cheese naan looks like – in case you’re wondering if I used enough cheese 😂 Be still my beating heart … ( excitement or cholesterol sirens? I can’t quite distinguish 🤔)
What to serve with naan
I feel like I’m stating the obvious here by saying that the most natural, most obvious way to use naan is to scoop and slop up curries – Butter Chicken, Rogan Josh, Dal, Tikka Masala, to name a few! Also think uses as a wrap: Stuff them, say, with Tandoori Chicken or Chicken Tikka (use the Chicken Tikka part of Tikka Marsala), along with some fresh Indian Tomato Salad with Mint Sauce for a complete meal in a wrap. But then I realised: I’ve been devouring an inordinate amount of naan just as it is. Straight out of the skillet, with and without butter, cold, warm, reheated – and loving it like it is. The lesson? Naan this good you can have it every which way. It’s 100% incredible. Make it once and I guarantee you’ll be addicted for life! – Nagi x
🌶 Indian week!🌶
Just to recap, it’s Indian Week here at RecipeTin Eats! A week when I’m sharing 4 brand new recipes to make your own epic Indian feast at home:
Palak Paneer – Indian Spinach Curry with homemade cheese curds! Naan – this recipe, the fluffiest homemade naan of your life… Thoran-style Indian Cabbage Salad – made with a spiced coconut “sambal” of sorts, I am ridiculously obsessed with this salad! Samosas – World’s best savoury snack! ( … according to me)
Watch how to make it
This recipe features in my debut cookbook Dinner. The book is mostly new recipes, but this is a reader favourite included by popular demand! Cookbook typo (it’s ok!): The recipe in the cookbook and here on this website lists 30g/2tbsp melted ghee/butter in the ingredients. But the cookbook omitted to say that the butter should be added into the dough with the egg. I freaked out when I found this and immediately made the dough without the butter. It worked – so it’s ok! I couldn’t even tell the butter was missing. So if you remember to add it, great. If not, don’t worry! (And sorreeee….. but I’m only human. Also comforting to know this is the only instruction/ingredient typo found and it’s not a big deal!!)
Life of Dozer
Mmm, naan…. (we agree Dozer!)
