Simple Garlic Naan Recipe (Traditional Indian Bread)

Updated: Nov 2nd 2021 • Published: Mar 21st 2019 • 65 Comments

3.82 from 148 votes

This Simple Garlic Naan is so quick to make and this Indian bread takes no baking. You can make this garlic naan in a skillet or griddle pan on the stove top.

Whilst the dough does have yeast in it I promise this is super easy to make and even if you have never made a yeast dough before you can learn how to make delicious Indian style bread at home.

What is better than serving your curries with a homemade Indian bread recipe?

close up on the blackened spots on the naan bread

Naan Bread using a yeast dough recipe.

This simple garlic naan bread uses a really easy yeast dough. Please don't worry if you haven't cooked with yeast before. It is fun stuff and really isn't as scary as people think.

The recipe uses just a handful of ingredients.

AP flour (see notes below)
Dried instant yeast or Dried active yeast
Salt
Sugar
Oil
Warm water

Once you have the ingredients measured out, the mixer creates the dough and then you let the yeast do its magic.

It really is fabulous to watch.
Unlike most yeast dough recipes, this one doesn't need to prove for hours. Just 20 minutes is enough to let the yeast start to work.

Once the dough is ready to use, you can use your hands or a rolling pin to shape it into naan breads. I like to create the traditional teardrop shape, but as long as your bread fits in your skillet or griddle then the shape doesn't matter.

overhead view showing two garlic naan breads on a black plate

Measuring the flour

The recipe calls for 1 ½ to 2 cups of flour. This is to account for the difference in the way we all use cups to measure flour. You want the dough to be very soft and almost sticky, this will give you the softest naan breads.

When you roll it out you will add extra flour to the board so don't worry if when you leave it to prove if it is still a little sticky.

I had a couple of comments that the dough was really very sticky, so I did some extra testing. I found that of the 4 sets of US measuring cups that I own each 1 cup measure gives me a different weight of flour!

I have a favorite cup set (they fit in my dishwasher without turning upside down during a wash!) and when using them I need 1 ½ cups. When using a set of ceramic measuring cups I needed almost 2 cups of flour!

So whilst I would love to give you an exact flour measurement in cups, I can't 🙁

Add 1 ½ cups of flour to the mixer, let the dough mix and if you need to add extra flour add up to ½ cup more to get a soft slightly sticky dough.

The dough should be slightly sticky, this is what will give you soft fluffy naan!

What is the difference between Dry instant yeast and dry active yeast

Dried instant yeast and dried active yeast can be used interchangeably in recipes, but if you have dry active yeast then it needs to be dissolved in the water, before you add the other ingredients.

I always use dry instant yeast as it is a little faster and gives me great results. The recipe in the card is written for instant yeast, but in the notes section there are directions for if you have dry active yeast.

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a hand ripping a piece of garlic naan bread off a large piece

Can you freeze yeast dough?

You sure can.
You can either freeze it as soon as you have mixed it or freeze a portion after it has risen.
The yeast will lay dormant in the freezer and as you defrost the dough it will start to come back to life and make you naan bread puff again.

How to cook naan bread in a skillet/griddle

The dough should be soft, so lightly flour your board or work surface to stop it sticking.

Roughly divide the dough into 3 pieces and then roll each piece out until it is a little thicker than ¼ inch thick. Don't be too worried about it, just roll it out so it will fit in the skillet or griddle, if some bits are thicker than others it won't matter, just try and get it anywhere between ¼" and a ½" thick. (6mm-9mm)

Once the dough has been rolled out, you want to get the skillet/griddle super hot, so the dough cooks instantly.

Place the dough on the skillet and let it cook for 1-2 minutes, then flip and cook for a further 1-2 minutes. It should puff in places and get some good color on the bubbles.

Remove the bread to a plate and drizzles with the garlic butter (or eat plain). Cover with foil whilst you cook the next naan bread.

2 garlic naan breads on a black oval plate

What to serve with these Garlic Naan breads?

These simple garlic naan breads are perfect with curry, but don't just stop there, they are also great with stews and soups!

naan bread being used to scoop out some curry from a black bowl

Enjoy x

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