Garlic Naan | How to make Garlic Naan Bread

This Garlic Naan bread is light, soft, fresh, and filled with flavor! It is so good that you will be making it again and again. I show you how to make Garlic Naan on a skillet on a stovetop. In my recipe the dough is infused with fresh garlic making it extra delicious. Serve the Restaurant Style Garlic Naan Bread as a side for breakfast, lunch, or dinner.

About Garlic Naan

Garlic Naan bread is Indian leavened flatbread made with all-purpose flour and spiced with garlic. At restaurants, plain naan bread is usually brushed with garlic butter and served.

However, in my recipe, garlic is infused into the bread dough instead and I also top the naan bread with garlic butter. The result is double dose of garlic deliciousness!

Garlic is a great addition to the naan dough. It gives so much flavor and taste to the otherwise plain yeasted dough.

For this recipe, I used half a proportion of all-purpose flour and another half of whole wheat flour but, you can also use one or the other.

I also add oil to this naan, however you can use butter or ghee (clarified butter) instead. This garlic naan is similar to the way I make whole wheat naans.

This garlic naan is truly delicious! It is exactly what naan should be – soft, tender and is not hard and chewy like in restaurants. If you char them more on the stovetop flame, they become crispy and best eaten hot. 

I usually make naans with instant yeast. If you do not prefer working with yeast, try my another simple and classic Naan Recipe made without yeast.

Serve this fresh Garlic Naan bread with your favorite curries or gravies. In fact they taste good on their own too.

If you are a fan of Naan wraps, try this Paneer Shawarma and wrap it in the naan bread, filled with assorted vegetables, pickled cucumbers, along with with flavorful sauces like toum (garlic sauce), Hummus, tahini sauce or yogurt sauce.

How to Make Garlic Naan

Make Garlic Dough

1. In a small bowl take ½ teaspoon instant yeast (rapid rise yeast) and 1 teaspoon sugar (raw sugar or white granulated).

2. Add 3 tablespoons of water and mix well. Dissolve the instant yeast and sugar with water. Set aside.

I prefer to mix the instant yeast with water before adding it to the dough.

3. Remove your flours, prep garlic and other ingredients. Take the dough ingredients in a mixer bowl or a stand-mixer bowl.

• 1 cup whole wheat flour – 120 grams
• 1 cup all purpose flour – 125 grams
• 1 teaspoon finely chopped garlic or minced garlic
• 2 tablespoons oil, any neutral flavored oil
• ½ to 1 teaspoon salt or as needed

4. By the time you prep the other ingredients, the yeast mixture would be bubbly and frothy.

5. Add the frothy yeast mixture to the flour mix in the bowl.

6. Knead the dough into a smooth, soft, supple dough with ½ cup water. Add water in portions when kneading the dough.

If the dough feels firm or tight, add 1 to 2 tablespoons water and knead again. Ensure that the dough is soft and pliable. 

You could either knead with your hands or use a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook.

6. Cover the bowl with a kitchen napkin. Leaven dough for 45 minutes to 1 hour or until doubled. The time taken to leaven will depend on the room temperature. 

7. The dough should look like the picture below after leavening. It will double up in volume, have lot of air-pockets and be stringy.

7. Portion dough in equal sized balls. Roll the portioned dough between your palms and make a neat ball. Flatten it lightly.

Place the balls on a tray with some space next to them. Cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for 10 to 15 minutes.

Make Garlic Butter

8. Melt 4 tablespoon butter in a small pan or skillet on low heat. You could use either salted or unsalted butter.

9. When all of the butter is melted, add 2 teaspoons finely chopped or minced garlic to the melted butter. Stir and switch off the heat.

The garlic will be cooked with the heat from the melted butter and you won’t get the raw pungent garlic flavor on your naans.

10. When this melted butter mixture become warm, add 2 tablespoons of chopped mint or coriander leaves (cilantro). Mix and set aside.

Assemble and Roll

11. Place one dough ball on a lightly dusted rolling board. Sprinkle some whole wheat flour on the dough from the top.

Avoid adding too much of the flour when rolling. Use sparingly and as needed. 

12. Sprinkle some nigella seeds on the dough. If you do not have nigella seeds, add white or black sesame seeds. Or else completely omit adding any of these seeds.

13. With a rolling pin make a round or oval shape dough of about 7 to 8 inches. You can pull the top part to make a slight tapering dough.

You can make round shaped or tear-shaped or oval garlic naans.

14. Turn over gently and let the side with the nigella seeds touch the rolling board. Brush the top side with water evenly all over.

Make Garlic Naan Bread

15. Heat a tawa or flat skillet on medium-high to high heat. When the skillet becomes hot, place the watered side touching the hot skillet.

16. You will see the evaporating water forming large air bubbles on the garlic naan. On high to medium-high heat, cook for 1 to 2 minutes or until the bottom has blisters and is cooked completely,

17. Separate the garlic naan from the pan with a spatula.

18. In the photo below, you can see the side where the water was brushed has blisters and is well cooked. It looks like the naan one gets in restaurants or has been cooked in a tandoor.

19. Lift the garlic naan with tongs from the pan and place the uncooked side with the nigella seeds on the stove-top flame. 

If you have an electric stovetop, continue to roast the garlic naan on the pan or skillet, as you would for roti or any other flat bread.

20. Move the naan all over the flame so that the sides are cooked well.

21. If you see that the side which was earlier roasted on the skillet looks undercooked, then place this side touching the flames.

22. Like me if you prefer a bit more charred and crispy naans, cook them for some more seconds on the flame, so that they get slightly charred.

You can also add oil or ghee to the skillet when cooking the naans as we do for Paratha. Any ways you cook, the naans will taste delicious. I have tried all of these methods and they work.

23. Place the garlic naan on a plate or in a roti basket. Brush the prepared garlic butter spreading some garlic and mint/cilantro (from the butter) all over on the naan. 

Cook each garlic naan like this one by one. I make naans this way and place them in a roti basket.

You can also use a clean cotton kitchen towel to stack the naans. When placing them place the buttered side facing each other for two naans, so that the butter does not touch your kitchen towel. 

Serving Suggestions

You can serve the garlic naan bread straight away or cover the naan with a napkin to keep them warm if you want to serve them later.

Garnish with some cilantro or mint if you like and serve garlic naan hot or warm. These garlic naans are soft, so they do not become chewy once they get cold.

Serve them with your favorite curries or lentils based dishes. We prefer to enjoy them with Indian lentil preparations like Dal Makhani and Chole Masala.

Even rich and creamy curries like Paneer Butter Masala, Palak Paneer and Matar Paneer pair nicely with naans.

One of our favorite ways is to pair Chinese style dishes with Garlic Naan Bread like – Veg Manchurian and Chilli Paneer. Try this way and I am sure you will like it.

Do keep a few sides of kachumber or Indian Onion Salad, lemon wedges and mango or lemon pickles with your naan meals.

Expert Tips

• Flour: For this recipe, I used half a proportion of all-purpose flour and another half of whole wheat flour. However, you can make the naan with all-purpose flour only or whole wheat flour.
• Dough Texture: Ensure that you knead the dough nicely. Add water as needed and form to a soft and pliable dough. You can knead the dough with your hands or use a stand mixer.
• Oil: I added oil to this naan dough, however you can use butter or ghee (clarified butter) instead.
• Cooking naan: I cooked one side of the garlic naan on a pan and I cooked the other side on the stovetop flame. You can also cook the garlic naan on the tava/flat skillet, as you would for roti or chapati or you can add oil or ghee to the skillet when cooking the naans like you would for paratha.
• Garlic Butter: Use either salted or unsalted butter. If you like more saltiness in your naan, add a few pinches of salt in the garlic butter. Together with garlic, you can also add finely chopped chives.
• Storage: You can store fresh garlic naan in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a few hours. The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for a day and for about a week in the freezer.
• Scaling: As is, this recipe makes for 8 garlic naan bread. But can be easily scaled to make for more naans.

This Garlic Naan recipe from the blog archives, first published in November 2012 has been republished and updated on December 2022.