A perfect accompaniment to the Chicken Tikka Masala recipe I posted earlier is the Indian flatbread called ‘Naan’. Naan is traditionally leavened with yeast and resmbles pita bread. Naan is also typically cooked in a tandoor (Indian clay oven that reaches temperatures of 900°F/450°C). However, you can make naan at home in the oven, or better still using the broiler in your oven.
It’s dough is fairly simple to make and although it usually uses yeast, I left it made a yeastless versionand still managed to get soft and fluffy naans that youll want to make all the time. I used it as a pizza base in my Indian Chicken Tikka Pizza Recipe. Here’s how you can make naan at home in the broiler.
Indian Flatbread: Naan Recipe
Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups all purpose flour or wheat flour
1/2 cup of warm milk
1/2 cup of yogurt
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp oil
4 tbsp melted butter (for brushing)
Method:
– In a mixing bowl or the bowl of a stand up mixer start with 2 cups of all purpose flour.
– Add to the flour, 1/2 teaspoon baking soda, a teaspoon baking powder, 1/2 teasoon salt and 1/2 tablespoon sugar.
– Mix all the dry ingredients well and then create a little well the in the middle.
– Pour 1/2 cup of yogurt, a tablespoon of oil and 1/2 a cup of milk that has been warmed in the oven in the well that you formed with the dry ingredients.
– Using the hook attachment with your stand mixer turn it on slow-medium. You’ll notice that by creating the well of wet ingredients in the center, the mixer incorporates the flour into the dough slowly and not all at once.
– Once all the flour has been mixed into a sticky dough, you can dust the rest of the flour (1/4 cup) and let it knead for a couple minutes.
– Then take the dough out and let it rest in a well greased bowl, covered with cling wrap for about 1-2 hours.
– After the dough has rested for a couple hours, roll it out onto a well floured surface and divide the dough into 8 balls of roughly the same size.
– Roll the bread into an oblong shape. Turn your oven broiler on high.
– Place the flat breads on a well sprayed/greased baking sheet and brush the top of the naan with melted butter.
– Place the baking sheet under the broiler on the middle rack for 3 minutes. Then take them out, flip them over…brush with some more melted butter and pop them back in for 2 minutes. As soon as you see little brown spots on the bread it’s done! It’s that simple.
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Hi there! I tried your recipe today, as I did not have enough time to knead regular bread and wait for its rising, and it came out (almost) perfect! Your recipes are always spot-on and wonderful, that’s why your blog has become my new source of inspiration. I said “almost” simply because the flat bread did not puff up in spots like I see in your picture, but I can possibly attribute that to my pretty primitive broiler, or maybe the time I allowed for the dough to rest – about 45 minutes, again, I was kind of in a hurry. But hey, after all, this is called “flat bread”, right? 😉 Thank you!
Ok, I just wanted to follow up on my previous review… I made your Naan bread again and it came out fantastic! I was not in a hurry this time, so I did everything according to the recipe. What I did do differently is the baking part: I didn’t use the broiler – I don’t trust mine to get the job done properly – and baked it at 450° F for 4 minutes on one side, then flipped over and let cook for 2 more minutes. It was so fluffy and good and versatile! A great discovery indeed! Thanks again! 😉