Pan fried naan bread is easy to make using simple ingredients. It is the perfect bread for dips or for Chicken Tikka Masala. Naan is a traditional leavened flatbread served in Indian restaurants. Plain naan is a mild-tasting fried bread that is used to soak up Indian curries, lentils, and beans.
Naan brushed with melted butter makes a mouth-watering treat served warm with food or all by itself. Dry-frying in a hot pan will give the bread the traditional charring and flavor.
If you’re not familiar with it, naan is a flatbread from India and the Middle East that’s traditionally baked by slapping the prepared dough from above onto the vertical walls of a tandoor oven.
The naan bread sticks to the sides of the clay oven and is fried at a very high temperature which causes air pockets and lovely bubbles to form on the surface.
Here’s an interesting video showing how it’s done that way.
My homemade naan recipe makes fluffy, soft naan that’s fresh and inexpensive to make at home in a cast iron skillet on your stovetop.
Different Ways To Serve Naan
In Indian cuisine, naan is used to scoop up saucy foods. Think of dishes like chickpea curry or aloo gobi, (curried potatoes and cauliflower).
Use your homemade naan bread as a utensil by pulling it apart and soaking up flavorful juices.
But you can also use it as a base for pizza, or fold it around meat and cheese for tacos. Spread it with garlic butter and nuke it to eat with pasta.
You can also cut it up and top it with cheese or hummus for an easy appetizer.
The naan dough is mixed and can be kneaded right in the bowl (if counter space is limited) or turned onto a floured counter for kneading.
Ingredients Needed to Make Naan Bread
The full ingredients and quantities are in the recipe card below. Basically, naan is a fried yeast bread containing yogurt which contributes to a fluffy and soft dough. The yogurt also gives the bread a tangy flavor making it a nice compliment to many South Asia dishes.
So, flour, yeast, salt, water, and a bit of full fat yogurt are the main ingredients needed.
Making The Naan Bread Dough
The dough is simple to make by hand using a large mixing bowl and a fork.
Combine active dry yeast, 1 teaspoon of sugar, and warm water, (105°F), in a small bowl. This will allow the yeast to rehydrate and start to proof, after 2-3 minutes. This step is to make sure that your yeast is alive and active.
If you have instant yeast, you can skip the proofing step and just combine the wet ingredients and dry ingredients together.
Stir together all-purpose flour with the baking powder, remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
Add the yeast mixture to the flour, along with plain regular yogurt and olive oil, then stir it all together with a fork. The dough will be quite sticky.
Some naan recipes include an egg in the dough, but when I included an egg in one trial run, the finished naan tasted too much like pancakes.
After mixing, turn the dough onto a well-floured surface to knead for a few minutes. Then, place it back in the mixing bowl, cover it with a kitchen towel, and let it rise for a couple of hours.
The dough was kneaded and put back into the bowl to rise.
Turn the risen dough out onto the floured counter again and divide it into six pieces, then pat them out a little with your hands to flatten.
Use a rolling pin to roll the pieces out into a sort of teardrop shape. The naan is traditionally made in a teardrop shape, (because it gets slapped hard into the oven) or oval-shaped but don’t be too picky. They will end up being about 1/4 inch thick, 8 inches long, and 6 inches wide.
Frying The Naan Bread
Fry the dough in a large hot skillet or on a flat griddle. Cast iron works best since it holds the heat so well. Heat the skillet to medium-high heat, 375° to 425°F. Test the heat using an infrared thermometer or by dripping in some water. If the water dances it is hot enough.
The risen dough is divided and ready to be rolled out before frying.
The best way is to dry fry the naan. That will give the finished bread a nice, traditional char.
Take one of the flat naan dough, dip your fingers into some water, and wet the surface of the dough. Lay the dough into the hot skillet, damp side down. Press the dough down with a spatula.
Fry the dough for one minute and you will notice that it bubbles slightly. Turn the dough to the second side and fry for another 30 to 45 seconds. You will notice a nice browning.
A teardrop shape is traditional for naan, but round ones taste just as delicious.
Remove the naan from the skillet and stack it on a plate. The naan is then typically coated with melted butter or ghee.
In my first test recipe, this naan was made with an egg in the dough and fried with a little oil in the pan.
Frying Naan with a Little Oil
I also fried some of the dough in an oiled skillet. Just add a couple of teaspoons of vegetable oil and heat the skillet on medium heat. It makes it a little easier to flip the breads and they come out with beautiful deep golden brown spots and a soft exterior. Using oil for frying is not the traditional way though.
Serve it warm or at room temperature.
Naan fried in a little oil comes out beautifully brown without the traditional char, but it’s still delicious.
Storing Fried Naan Bread
Once the fried naan bread is totally cooled, you can place it into plastic bags or an airtight container and refrigerate it.
You can also freeze the naan bread in a well-sealed container or bag for 3 months or more. Just keep in mind that it may start to develop freezer burn if kept too long.
The completed fried naan is pillowy soft and a little chewy and a delicious accompaniment to many wonderful meals.
This fried naan bread recipe is easy to make and results in delicious bread. It can be used in a lot of different ways to complement your meals.
The easy recipe directions are in the recipe card below.
Here are some more tasty recipes to try:
- Grilled Beef Kabobs with Bacon
- Herbed Pizza Dough with Shiitake Mushrooms
- Homemade Fettuccini Pasta
- Shrimp and Sausage Stew
- Grilled Flatbread Pizza
Easy Fried Naan Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup warm water about 105°F, plus additional water in a small bowl to use before frying the naan
- 1 teaspoon active dry yeast
- 2 teaspoons sugar divided
- 2 cups all purpose flour plus more for kneading and rolling out the naan
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tablespoons full fat plain yogurt (not Greek yogurt)
- 2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing the fried naan
Instructions
- Combine the warm water, yeast, and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a cup or small bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the 2 cups of flour, baking powder, remaining 1 teaspoon of sugar, and salt then add the yeast mixture to it, along with the yogurt and oil and use a fork to bring it all together. The dough will be very sticky.
- Use a bowl scraper to coax the dough out onto a well floured counter and knead it until soft and smooth, 3 to 5 minutes. Return the dough to the empty bowl, cover with a tea towel, and set aside at room temperature for 2 to 4 hours.
- Scrape the dough out onto a floured counter and divide into six pieces. Roll each piece of dough in flour, pat it down with your hand, then use a rolling pin to evenly roll each one out into about a 7"-8" circle or tear drop shape.
- Heat a heavy griddle or large frying pan on high until a few drops of water immediately sizzle and evaporate. Pick up one of the rolled-out naan, stretch it out a little if it has started to shrink, then lightly dampen one side of the dough by dipping your fingers in the bowl of water and spreading a little water on the dough. Using a sort of slapping motion, place that wet side of the dough down onto the hot pan and press it down with a spatula.
- Fry the dough about a minute, (it will start to bubble slightly), then flip it over and fry the other side until charred, about 30 to 45 seconds.
- Stack the naan on a plate as you take them from the frying pan, then brush one side of the finished breads with melted butter.
- Serve naan warm or at room temperature. Store in a plastic bag in the refrigerate for 1 or 2 days, or double wrap and freeze for longer storage. Reheat in a microwave, oven, or skillet.
Notes
- Recipe adapted from Aarti Sequeira on Food Network's Aarti Party.
- If you don't like dry-frying which does produce some smoke to get that traditional char, you use a teaspoon or so of canola oil in the hot frying pan before placing the dough in it.  Add small amounts of additional oil as needed to fry the rest of the naan.
Josie
Delicious! I made this to go with some veggie curry and it was so good!
Eileen j Herbert
I love it!