You may probably know this from Indian restaurants as naan bread is an Indian specialty. We love good food and love to try out new things so we thought: Why not try out baking a naan bread?
To be honest, we were a little afraid it wouldn’t turn out as we expected it. Surprisingly, it turned out to be just great and very close to what we know from an Indian restaurant.
It is always worth trying to bake something on your own rather than buying it.
Things to know before you start
Time Schedule
| Steps | Work time | Waiting time |
| Mix | ~10 minutes | – |
| Proof | – | 1 hour |
| Shape | ~25 minutes | – |
| Bake | ~25 minutes | – |
You will have some delicious Indian naan bread in about 2 hours.
Total ingredients
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 250 g | All-purpose flour |
| 4 g | Salt |
| 4 g | Baking powder |
| 30 g | Yoghurt – 3,5% fat |
| 125 g | Water |
| ~30 g | Butter |
All these ingredients will yield 6 pieces. You can easily double or triple the ingredients, if you want to make more.
Difficulty
A simple straightforward recipe for some quick and easy to make naan bread.
Baking tools
You will need a non-stick pan as we are going to bake the naan bread in it instead of using an oven. Also a rolling pin from our nice to have baking tools is recommended to get them in shape.
Steps
1. Mix
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 250 g | All-purpose flour |
| 4 g | Salt |
| 4 g | Baking powder |
| 30 g | Yoghurt – 3,5% fat |
| 125 g | Water – Room temperature |
- Mix the all-purpose flour, salt and baking powder in a bowl
- Afterwards add the yoghurt and water and mix for about 10 minutes by hand
- The dough shouldn’t stick to the bowl after mixing
2. Proof
- Cover the dough and let it rest for 1 hour at 20-22°C (68-71,6°F)
3. Shape
- Take the dough out on a floured surface and divide it into 6 pieces
- Here is a short guide on how to get the dough into the right naan bread shape before baking it:
- Flour the surface a bit
- Shape one dough piece into a small ball
- Roll the dough out to an oval shape with the longer side away from you
- The ratio should be about 2/3 long and 1/3 wide
- Spread a bit of butter in the middle leaving out about 1 to 2 cm on all edges
- Take the edge from the bottom side and fold it to the top side
- Gently roll the dough out a bit more
- Put the now shaped dough aside
- Repeat the process for the other 5 dough pieces
- Tip: If the dough starts sticking to the surface or rolling pin while rolling it out, add a little flour on top of the dough, flip it on the other side, add a little flour on top and start rolling it out further
4. Bake
- Preheat a non-stick pan on medium-high heat for about 1 minute without any oil or butter in it
- Add one of your preshaped dough piece to the pan
- Let it bake for about 2 minutes
- You should see that the naan bread starts puffing up
- Flip it on the other side and bake for another 1-2 minutes until ready
- Repeat all the steps for your other dough pieces
Conclusion
Taste
Some parts of the bread are very crunchy while other parts are quite soft. It differs a lot but this mix is actually nice.
Goes Good With
This bread has a hollow space inside which can be perfectly used to fill it with all kind of delicious things. For example some kind of meat, vegetables, cheese or all of these combined with a great sauce.
This bread is so versatile that it would just take too much time to write it all down here so we decided to share one example as a bonus here!
We combined the bread with our favourite recipe for butter chicken. It has a lot of sauce, flavour and tender meat. Just scroll further down to check out the recipe.
Gallery
Bonus – Recipe For Butter Chicken
1. Create Marinade
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 1x | Garlic clove |
| 5 g | Ginger |
- Chop both ingredients finely
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 7 g | Paprika powder |
| 6 g | Salt |
| 2 g | Cayenne pepper |
| 12 g | Garam masala |
| 15 g | Lemon juice |
| 150 g | Yoghurt – 3,5% fat |
- Mix all of the ingredients above together with the chopped garlic clove and ingwer to create a marinade
2. Marinade Chicken Breast
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 500 g | Chicken breast |
- Cut the chicken breast in 2 to 3 cm squares
- Mix it with the previously created marinade
- Put it in the fridge
- Let it rest for at least 1 hour
- Tip: You should let it rest overnight for a better and more intense taste
3. Bake
- Preheat oven to 200°C (392°F) for 15 minutes with the upper and lower heat function
- Place your marinated chicken breast in a baking dish
- Put it in the oven and let it bake for about 30 minutes
4. Cook
- While the chicken breast is in the oven, you can start cooking
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 1x | Onion |
| 40 g | Butter |
- Peel the onion and chop finely
- Sauté with the butter until translucent in a big pot
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 1x | Garlic clove |
| 5 g | Ginger |
| 500 g | Strained tomatoes |
| 6 g | Salt |
| 2 g | Cinnamon |
| 2 g | Cayenne pepper |
- Chop garlic clove and ginger finely
- Add all of the above ingredients to the pot
- Lower the heat to low, put a lid on and cook for 20 minutes
- Stir from time to time
| Weight | Ingredient |
| 40 g | Butter |
| 25 g | Honey |
| 150 g | Whipping cream |
- Add all of the above ingredients to the pot
- Also add the baked chicken breast with the marinade to the pot
- Stir and cook for another 5 minutes
5. Serve
- Serve together with your previously baked Indian naan bread 🙂
