This instant naan recipe can be made quickly for that last minute fresh naan craving!
This naan recipe with self raising flour works so well. These are just as good as naan cooked in a tandoor oven.
My latest naan recipe even earlier than planned!
You weren’t going to get this naan recipe for a few months. It’s going to feature in my next cookbook ‘The Curry Guy Bible’ which is scheduled to be out in October 2020.
It is my favourite naan recipe because the naans taste just like they do at curry houses and the recipe is also very simple.
The secret to this naan recipe is using, as they do at Indian restaurants, self raising flour.
With things as they are at the moment, I decided there’s no better time than the present to share this easy naan recipe with you.
Although I normally cook the naans in my tandoor, they are just as good cooked on the stovetop. One thing is certain… this naan recipe is a thousand times better than those packaged naans you get at the supermarket.
This is a curry house style naan recipe.
At busy Indian restaurants, it’s not always easy to plan how much naan dough you will need for the evening. They could suddenly have several groups walk in and they can’t be left without enough naan dough. There’s a lot of profit in those naans!
The idea behind this naan recipe is to prepare the dough using ‘bakers measures’. If using 250g of flour, you need to use 250ml of liquid.
I demonstrate this naan recipe at all of my cooking classes and it is always a big hit. For the classes, we make this small version of the recipe like this but I also make a large batch which we cook in the tandoor.
To make the large batch, I use 1 kilo of flavour and a litre of liquid. Where I use only one egg in this small recipe to serve 4 to 6, for the large batch, I use three.
Keep the rule of equal amounts of dry and wet ingredients – roughly speaking – and you can scale this recipe up and down easily.
That dough looks more like a batter than a dough!
That’s right. The dough is very wet, like full fat cream when you first make it. That is how it is stored and restaurants. If you keep it covered in the fridge for one or two days, it comes alive and the flavour gets even better.
This is a naan recipe, however that you can make on a whim and enjoy fresh naans immediately.
Plan ahead and keep the dough ‘batter’ in the fridge for a day or two or just make up a batch and eat it when you want.
Both options are fine with this delicious fluffy naan recipe.
When you want a naan, just take some of the dough and slowly add flour until it is soft and slightly sticky to the touch. It should be soft enough that you can form it into a flat naan without the need to use a rolling pin.
By the way, Once you’ve made this naan recipe, you might want to cook something up to eat with your naans. You’ve got to give my my 7 ingredient lamb curry a try.
Here are all the ingredients you need.
Pour the liquid, onion seeds, salt and sugar in a bowl.
Slowly add the flour, stirring as you do.
Recipe Suggestions… Try these naans as a side for one of these popular curry recipes.
Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk
Chicken Tikka Masala
Chicken Madras
Lamb Rogan Josh
Simple Chicken Curry
The dough will be very wet. Too wet to use.
Add more flour when ready to cook your naans. I used about 7 handfuls.
Divide the dough and form into balls. The dough should be soft enough to flatten without a rolling pin.
Cook the naan in a very hot pan until bubbles form.
Turn the pan over if you have a gas burner. Otherwise, just flip the naan.
Toast the top to your preferred doneness.
Naan Recipe - Instant and Delicious Stovetop Naans
Ingredients
- 250g (2 cups) self-raising (self-rising) flour, sifted plus extra as needed
- 125ml (1/2 cup) warm full-fat (whole) milk
- 110ml approx. (scant 1/2 cup) water
- 1 1/2 tbsp caster (superfine) sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
- 1 1/2 tsp nigella seeds (black onion seeds)
- 35ml (1/8 cup) rapeseed (canola) oil
- Ghee or butter, for brushing
Instructions
- Pour the milk and water into a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, salt, sugar and nigella seeds and whisk well.
- Now start pouring in the flour, whisking as you do. Once you’ve added all the flour, it will still look very soupy and far too wet to work into dough balls.
- I recommend covering the dough at this time with a wet cloth and letting it sit for at least 3 hours or overnight for best results. That said, you could just jump right into finishing the recipe at this stage.
- When ready to cook your naans, slowly start adding more self-rising flour. The idea here is to add just enough flour so that the dough is workable. For reference, I ended up adding about 7 handfuls of flour.
- It should be very soft and slightly sticky but not so sticky that it sticks to your hands. If it does, dust with a little bit more flour until you can easily divide and form the dough into six spongy dough balls.
- Once your dough balls are formed, you could let them sit, covered for about 30 minutes but again, you could push forward and make your naans immediately.
- As the dough is so soft, you shouldn’t need a rolling pin. Dip you fingers in the oil and this start patting the first dough ball to flatten it. Continue slapping it until it is thin and flat. Repeat with the remaining dough balls.
- Dust off any excess flour and then lightly brush the tops of the naans with oil.
- Heat a dry frying pan over a medium–high heat and slap the first naan into it, oil side up. As it cooks, bubbles will form on the top and it will begin to look like a
real naan! - If you have a blow torch, use it to brown and blacken the bubbles. If you are cooking on gas, and have a cast irong pan, you could also do as I did in the picture above and turn the naan toward the flame. Another option would be to just flip it over. This will pop a lot of the bubbles but the naan will still be delicious. Brush with a little melted ghee to serve.
- Keep warm and repeat with the remaining naans.
You can make homemade naans like these in minutes.
Tracy
Friday 10th of February 2023
Hi Dan, could you tell me the best way to add the coconut etc to make the peshwari naan, thanks
Dan Toombs
Saturday 18th of February 2023
Just mix it into the dough. Thanks Dan
Mark
Saturday 4th of February 2023
Yep, it really works! And I'm very demanding about my naans. Not quite up the best curry house standards but very good nonetheless, which I haven't come close to with any other recipe. It takes a keema filling very well, too. The dough (minus nigella seeds) also works extremely well asa pizza base. Scorch side one, flip over to just get a light skin on side two, then top and put under a hot grill.......
Dan Toombs
Tuesday 7th of February 2023
Thanks very much for letting me know, all good to hear. Dan
Liz Hardwick
Friday 27th of August 2021
Out here on the West Coast of Canada we can't get self raising flour. Live a hour from the nearest town so buy my flour in 20kg bags - go shopping about every two months. Going to have to make up a batch of SR Flour just to try these naans, much quicker than the recipe I have been using. Also have a bread recipe that uses some old dough kept back at least 24 hours and it makes such a difference to the flavour.
Dan Toombs
Sunday 29th of August 2021
Thanks for your message, that is certainly dedication so hopefully the end result will be worth it. They are good! Dan
Chrissy
Tuesday 2nd of March 2021
I didn't know what to do with the oil so i put it in with the rest of the ingredients. Didn't realise it was just for your hands. They still came out bubbly and fab!
Dan Toombs
Thursday 4th of March 2021
Great it worked, nothing wrong with an extra bit of oil! Thanks Dan
Ben
Tuesday 16th of February 2021
Hi Dan,
Just attempted this for the first time, but my whisked mix ended up very very tough. Added a full cup more of milk (misreading thinking I’d missed off when looking at cups of flour). The new mix now looks like your but must be wrong as it’s got triple milk 🙈
Are the written amounts the same as what you did in the video?
Not sure where I went wrong at first
Dan Toombs
Wednesday 17th of February 2021
You just need to add enough milk to make it the right consistency as my video on Facebook and Utube. The amount of liquid to add varies depending on lots of factors but it sounds like you got there in the end. Thanks Dan