Perfect Homemade Garlic Naan Bread! This restaurant style easy garlic naan recipe is a must-try recipe! Plus, you don’t need a tandoor (clay oven) to make it at home. You will get a soft, fluffy texture with the right amount of garlic flavor.
This is the most ordered Indian bread in North Indian restaurants.
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❤️ You’ll Love This Garlic Naan Recipe
Restaurant style garlic naan that you can enjoy in the comfort of your home for a fraction of the price. These are the perfect Indian bread that goes well with all kinds of curries (gravy dishes) and they really are easier to make than you’d think.
- Easy to make: You’ll need very little active time to make this Indian bread. Make the dough in the stand mixer (you can knead it by hand too), let it proof, roll and cook on tawa. Simple, right?
- Basic ingredients: You’ll need easy-to-find pantry ingredients to make this delicious garlic naan bread.
- Perfect amount of garlic flavor: here I have used garlic two times. First added some chopped garlic into the dough itself and then brushed with garlicky ghee on top. Still, it does not overpower the flavor of garlic. But this gives the perfect and right amount of its flavor.
How Is The Garlic Naan Made?
Traditionally the naan is cooked in the tandoor (a cylindrical clay oven). The rolled naan is slapped against the tandoor wall, so it sticks and cooks really quickly. But to make this at home, we do not have a tandoor oven. But we can replicate it by cooking on the cast iron skillet or by baking in the oven (over the pizza stone).
But why make the procedure complicated when you can get the same result by cooking garlic naan on the stovetop using a cast iron skillet? Give it a try and you’ll be hooked.
🧾 Ingredient Notes
- Flour: All purpose flour is used here aka maida in Hindi. If you have bread flour on hand then I highly recommend using that.
- Yeast: Active dry yeast is used here that is dissolved in warm milk then leave it to become foamy. If you’re using instant yeast then skip this proofing step and add the yeast directly into the flour.
- Sugar: It is a food for yeast and helps the yeast bloom.
- Milk & Yogurt: It makes naan fluffy, and pillowy soft.
- Garlic: freshly minced garlic is used here and it is the main ingredient here after all this is a garlic naan recipe.
- Ghee: Garlic-infused warm, melted ghee is brushed on top and it is a must. You can use butter instead of ghee.
👩🍳 How To Make Garlic Naan? (Stepwise Photos)
Making The Dough:
1) Warm up the milk in the microwave or on the stovetop. Make sure that milk is not cold or not hot. It should be just warm, otherwise, yeast will not bloom. Add this warm milk to a stand mixer bowl along with sugar and yeast.
2) Stir once and let it sit for 10-15 minutes and the yeast will become frothy.
3) Add room temperature yogurt, water, oil and garlic.
4) Stir to mix everything.
5) Add flour, salt and baking powder into the bowl.
6) Attach the dough hook.
7) Run the mixture on low-medium until it forms a smooth dough.
8) Brush the dough and the inside of the bowl using oil. Cover it and let it rest for 1-2 hours or until the dough gets double in size.
Making Garlic Infused Ghee:
1) Heat the ghee in a small pan on medium heat. Once the ghee is hot add minced garlic.
2) Stir and cook for 30 seconds only and turn off the stove.
3) Remove this to a small bowl and keep it aside to brush on cooked naan.
Rolling & Cooking Naan:
1) After the dough proofing, it rises more than double.
2) Punch it down and divide it into 6 equal portions and make smooth round balls.
3) Before you start rolling, heat the cast iron skillet on medium-high heat. Start rolling it using a rolling pin.
4) Roll into a 6-7 inches long oval shape. If needed you can dust the flour lightly.
5) Now the skillet is hot (just starting to smoke). Now place the rolled naan and within a few seconds, it starts to bubble up.
6) Cook the first side for around a minute and then flip using a spatula.
7) Cook another side by pressing lightly using a spatula for around 45 seconds.
8) Look the bottom part is also cooked and charred. Remove it from the pan and place it on a plate.
9) Drizzle some garlic ghee all over the naan.
10) Using the brush spread the ghee and garlic evenly.
11) Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro and serve hot.
💭 Expert Tips For Garlic Naan Recipe
- Highly recommend using a cast iron skillet to cook garlic naan on the stovetop. The heat conduction of the cast iron skillet helps to make large bubbles that result in a soft and fluffy texture with a few charred and crisp spots.
- Milk has to be lukewarm so yeat can bloom nicely. If the milk is cold from the refrigerator or hot then it can kill the yeast.
- If the yeast doesn’t bloom meaning the yeast has expired or the milk temperature was not right. In that case, start over with a new pack of yeast. If the yeast hasn’t bloomed to a frothy texture then the dough will not rise.
- Yogurt has to be at room temperature (not directly from the fridge) otherwise dough won’t rise properly.
- How to promote the dough rising? Keep the bowl of dough in a warm place. If you are cooking on a stovetop and you have a microwave on top then keep it in the microwave as it will be slightly warmer. Or keep it in the oven or in the cabinet.
🥣 Storage Instructions
- At room temperature, it stays fresh for 1-2 days (depending on the weather climate where you live). Store in an air-tight container. The next day it will get a little tough, so warm up slightly in the oven (not microwave otherwise it will become chewy and more tough).
- In the freezer, it stays good for up to 2-3 months. Arrange them on a large cookie tray and freeze until frozen. Transfer them to a freezer-safe ziplock bag and keep them in the freezer.
- Reheating: Preheat the oven to 400F (200C) and warm up in the oven for 2-3 minutes. You can use the air fryer as well.
- Freezing garlic naan dough: Wrap the dough (after proofing and punching it down) into plastic wrap and freeze. Most of the time, I wrap individual naan dough balls separately and freeze them in a ziplock bag. So if I want to make only two naans, I defrost two dough balls only.
🍽 What To Serve With Garlic Naan?
- Garlic naan is best served with a side of curries (like palak paneer, paneer butter masala, saag paneer, shahi paneer, malai kofta) or lentils (like dal makhani or dal tadka).
- Leftover naan can turn into a pizza (I bake it until super crisp, that’s the best crust).
- You can use naan (slightly thinly rolled & cooked) to make a wrap. Stuff them with paneer tikka or aloo tikka with a drizzle of mint chutney and onion salad.
- Cut the leftover naan into bite-size pieces, brush or spray with oil and bake until crisp. Use these naan chips as a dipper for your dips like jalapeno popper dip, everything bagel dip.
Check Out Other Indian Bread Recipes
Did you try this garlic naan recipe? I’d love to hear about it! Leave a review in the comment section below.
📋 Recipe Card
Garlic Naan Recipe (Indian Bread)
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup Milk (Warm)
- 1 teaspoon Sugar
- (½ packet) or 1 ¼ teaspoons Active dry yeast
- ⅓ cup Water
- ⅓ cup Plain yogurt at room temprature
- 1 tablespoon Oil
- 2 ¼ cups All purpose flour (Maida)
- ¼ teaspoon Baking powder
- ½ teaspoon Salt or to taste
- 2 tablespoons Garlic finely chopped or minced
Topping:
- ¼ cup Ghee (clarified butter)
- 2-3 tablespoons Garlic chopped finely
- 2-3 tablespoons Cilantro or coriander leaves chopped finely
Instructions
- Warm up the milk in the microwave or on the stovetop. Make sure that milk is not cold or not hot. It should be just warm, otherwise, yeast will not bloom. Add this warm milk to a stand mixer bowl along with sugar and yeast. Stir once and let it sit for 10-15 minutes and the yeast will become frothy.
- Add room temperature yogurt, water, oil and garlic. Stir to mix everything.
- Add flour, salt and baking powder into the bowl.
- Attach the dough hook. Run the mixture on low-medium until it forms a smooth dough.
- Brush the dough and the inside of the bowl using oil. Cover it and let it rest for 1-2 hours or until the dough gets doubled in size.
- To make garlic-infused ghee, heat the ghee in a small pan on medium heat. Once the ghee is hot add minced garlic. Stir and cook for 30 seconds only and turn off the stove.
- Remove this to a small bowl and keep it aside to brush on cooked naan.
- After the dough proofing, it rises more than double. Punch it down and divide it into 6 equal portions and make smooth round balls.
- Before you start rolling, heat the cast iron skillet on medium-high heat.
- Start rolling it using a rolling pin. Roll into a 6-7 inches long oval shape. If needed you can dust the flour lightly.
- Now the skillet is hot (just starting to smoke). Now place the rolled naan and within a few seconds, it starts to bubble up. Cook the first side for around a minute and then flip using a spatula.
- Cook another side by pressing lightly using a spatula for around 45 seconds. Look the bottom part is also cooked and charred. Remove it from the pan and place it on a plate.
- Drizzle some garlic ghee all over the naan. Using the brush spread the ghee and garlic evenly. Garnish with freshly chopped cilantro and serve hot.
Notes
- Highly recommend using a cast iron skillet to cook garlic naan on the stovetop. The heat conduction of the cast iron skillet helps to make large bubbles that result in a soft and fluffy texture with a few charred and crisp spots.
- Milk has to be lukewarm so yeast can bloom nicely. If the milk is cold from the refrigerator or hot then it can kill the yeast.
- If the yeast doesn’t bloom meaning the yeast has expired or the milk temperature was not right. In that case, start over with a new pack of yeast. If the yeast hasn’t bloomed to a frothy texture then the dough will not rise.
- Yogurt has to be at room temperature (not directly from the fridge) otherwise dough won’t rise properly.
- How to promote the dough rising? Keep the bowl of dough in a warm place. If you are cooking on a stovetop and you have a microwave on top then keep it in the microwave as it will be slightly warmer. Or keep it in the oven or in the cabinet.
- For storage and serving details, please check the post above.
magdalena
It's the best naan bread recipe I've ever tried. I'm from Poland and me and my fiance are totally in love with Indian cuisine. Many thanks to you for this amazing recipe <3
Kanan Patel
Glad to hear that you liked this naan recipe.