Fluffy Homemade Naan Bread (Quick and Easy Recipe!)

Easy to make and with the best fluffy texture, this homemade naan bread is the perfect complement to your favorite Indian recipes!
If you have ever eaten at an Indian restaurant, I guarantee you have been exposed to naan bread. If I’m being honest, I don’t think I can order Indian take out without a side of naan. So of course, that means if I am making Indian inspired dishes at home – like my Chana Saag – for example, I’m going to need a go to homemade naan recipe to accompany it.
But what is naan exactly? Naan is a traditional flatbread from South and Central Asia. In addition to the expected bread ingredients like flour, salt and yeast, naan often includes yogurt, which helps to make the dough soft and fluffy. It’s also traditionally cooked in a clay oven called a tandoor which gives it its characteristic bubbles and browned spots.
Now, is it possible to create naan at home that perfectly imitates the original you’d get in Indian restaurants? I’d argue unfortunately, no. The environment of the tandoor is pretty hard for the home cook to recreate, but that doesn’t mean we still can’t make something delicious.

How To Make Homemade Naan
After lots of attempts to make it at home, I’ve settled on a homemade naan bread recipe that is both easy to make even if you have never made homemade bread before, and close enough to traditional naan bread to satisfy my taste buds. At a high level, here is how I do it:
- ACTIVATE YEAST
Combine warm water, active dry yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Stir and set aside until foamy. Once the yeast mixture is ready, add greek yogurt and oil.
- MIX INGREDIENTS
Add all purpose flour, salt, and baking powder to a large bowl. Add the yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and use a fork to mix and create a loose shaggy ball.
- KNEAD AND REST
Knead the dough for 15 seconds then place it back in the mixing bowl, cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Place dough in a warm place and let the dough rise for 2 to 4 hours.
- DIVIDE DOUGH AND CREATE DOUGH BALLS
Use a knife to divide the dough into 6 even pieces. Knead each piece of dough on a floured surface until it forms a loose ball of soft dough, then set aside and repeat the process until all dough is formed into balls.
- ROLL OUT DOUGH
Heat a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Use a rolling pin to roll each ball of dough into an oval. Pat the dough with a bit of water, then place the wet-side down on the hot skillet.
- COOK NAAN
Cook for 1-2 minutes then flip the dough with a spatula and cook until the underside is dark brown. Remove from the pan and brush with melted butter or ghee.




Recipe Tips for Perfect Homemade Naan
- Use a cast iron skillet: Most home cooks don’t have a tandoor oven lying around their home, but many have a cast iron skillet. It’s not necessary to make naan (see FAQs below), but a good cast iron skillet helps to recreate the characteristic char that traditional naan bread gets from cooking in a tandoor.
- Create an assembly line: When I actually start cooking the naan, I like to create an assembly line. For example, while one piece of naan is cooking, I start rolling out and prepping the next one. That way after I take the cooked piece off, I can immediately add a new one to the pan, then brush the cooked piece with ghee before rolling out the next piece. The whole process goes fairly quickly and efficiently if you follow this method.
- Don’t dust with too much flour: While rolling out each dough ball, don’t go too heavy on the flour. If there is excess flour in the cast iron skillet, it tends to burn. This means your naan can end up with a little too much char and your risk setting off the smoke detector (speaking from experience here!)
- Watch the heat: There is a general rule that the first piece of naan will be the least brown and golden of the bunch and the last will be the most golden. This is because the cast iron sits on the stove and continues to get hotter and hotter. Feel free to adjust the temperature of the cook top down a bit after you cook 2-3 naan, just to ensure that the final few aren’t too crispy.


Recipe FAQs
I think you will get the most “close to the real thing” results if you use cast iron, but I’ve also made this in a regular old non-stick skillet as well. So if that’s all you have, don’t let it prevent you from trying this recipe.
I like to use my digital meat thermometer to check the water temperature. If you don’t have one, you can use the “wrist check trick.” Run your wrist under a stream of warm water. When the water is the right temperature you will feel the sting of warm water, but you should be able to keep your wrist there. Any hotter and you’ll want to jerk your hand away.
When yeast is foamy and activated, it will look like there is a layer of beige cream floating on the top of the water.
Ghee is a type of clarified butter traditionally used in Indian cuisine. If you don’t have access to ghee, regular melted butter will also work.
Yes, if you can’t find ghee, melted butter or olive oil would also work.
You may notice that the menu of your local Indian restaurant offers different kinds of naan bread, like garlic naan or cilantro naan. To do something similar at home you have two options, you can either mix some flavorings into the dough itself or add them to your ghee which you then brush onto the finished naan. I prefer the latter. Try adding some minced garlic to the ghee to create a kind of “garlic butter.” Adding some chopped fresh cilantro to the ghee is a nice option as well.


Related Recipes
Looking for some delicious Indian food to pair with this naan? I definitely recommend you check out my Chana Saag recipe.
Print
Fluffy Homemade Naan Bread (Quick and Easy Recipe!)
Easy to make and with the best fluffy texture, this homemade naan bread is the perfect complement to your favorite Indian recipes
- Total Time: 2 hours 45 minutes
- Yield: 6 naan 1x
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup warm water (approximately 110 degrees F)
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
- ¼ cup plain greek yogurt
- 2 tablespoons oil of choice (ex: ghee, coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil)
- 3 tablespoons Melted butter or ghee
Instructions
- ACTIVATE YEAST: Combine warm water, yeast and sugar in a small bowl. Stir and set aside until foamy – about 10 minutes.
- MIX DRY INGREDIENTS: Add flour, salt, and baking powder to a large mixing bowl and whisk to combine.
- COMBINE WET AND DRY INGREDIENTS: Once the yeast mixture is foaming, add the yogurt and oil and stir to combine. Add yeast mixture to dry ingredients and use a fork to mix and create a loose shaggy ball.
- KNEAD AND REST: Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 15 seconds. Place the dough ball back in the mixing bowl and rub with a little more oil. Loosely cover the bowl with a towel or plastic wrap and set in a warm place for 2 to 4 hours.
- DIVIDE DOUGH: Remove dough from bowl and turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for 30 seconds adding additional flour if sticky. Use a knife to divide the dough into 6 even pieces.
- CREATE DOUGH BALLS: Knead each ball on a lightly floured surface for 15 seconds until it forms a loose ball, then set aside and repeat the process until all dough is formed into balls. Then loosely cover the balls with a towel or plastic wrap and rest for 10 minutes.
- ROLL OUT DOUGH: After 10 minutes, heat a cast-iron pan over medium-high heat. Lightly flour a clean surface and use a rolling pin to roll each dough ball into an oval. Pat the dough with a bit of water, then place the wet-side down on the hot pan.
- COOK NAAN: Cook for 1-2 minutes or until the edges of the dough look dry and it’s beginning to bubble. Then flip the dough with a spatula and cook until the underside is dark brown. Remove the cooked dough from the pan and brush with melted butter or ghee. Repeat the cooking process for remaining dough balls. If you find that the naan is getting too charred for your taste, turn down the heat slightly. Serve immediately.
Notes
Cover leftovers and store at room temperature for about 2 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.
- Prep Time: 2 hours 30 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Bread
- Method: Stove Top
- Cuisine: Indian
Nutrition
- Serving Size: One naan
- Calories: 260
- Sugar: 1.3 g
- Sodium: 396 mg
- Fat: 11.5 g
- Carbohydrates: 33.8 g
- Protein: 5.7 g
- Cholesterol: 16.8 mg