Pan Grilled Naan

Naan with Haryalli chicken


There are certain advantages for preparing naan at home, the main one being the fact that you will never feel over optimistic about it, as a result of which you are never too disappointed about the outcome. The following is a chronicle of a series of “naan making” related events took place in my kitchen over a period of approximately 3 years. I started off by baking naans on a cookie sheet (yes, inside an oven), and though it tasted all right, the texture was not entirely fascinating. Use of a pizza stone instead of the sheet, resulted in an almost Pita bread like situation (I liked it though!!!). Throwing a couple of ice cubes into the oven floor before keeping the naans in, and keeping the flattened dough over an ovenproof wire rack instead of a baking sheet, both substantially improved the texture of the naan. Inspired by a recipe for making this bread on an outdoor grill I decided to give it a try on my very indoor, stovetop, grill pan and this post is all about that experiment. You do get some grill marks on one side of the naan, but the other side unevenly puffs up, and you can add and control the brown spots on the top by selectively dabbing with some ghee, and turning it over for a short while. Nowadays I am making naan this way and I am eagerly looking around for other well working non-tandoor protocols. There are some known and proven methods which I have not tried so far. You can use this pan grilling method for your preferred recipe or follow the one posted here. Ease, convenience and a near naan like texture and taste for the end product are the advantages.

Tanuja's award winning, harialli chicken is a fabulous combination for this naan, we all just loved it , thank you Tanuja.

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon yeast (Dry)

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons ghee or melted butter

2 tablespoons yoghurt

2/3 cup water

1 tbsp Sesame seeds

Mix water with the yeast and sugar until the yeast is dissolves. Sift flour and salt together into a bowl and add the yeast mixture, half of the ghee and the yogurt. Mix to forma soft dough, then knead on a floured surface for about 5 minutes or until dough is smooth and elastic. Place the dough in a large greased bowl, cover and let stand in a warm place for 1 hour or until the dough doubles in size. Punch down the dough and knead for 5 minutes. Divide dough into lemon sized balls


Flatten the dough using a rolling pin, or by hand (I prefer the second method, for the very rustic look it provides). Top with sesame seeds or any other topping of your choice. Brush grill pan with oil, wipe it with a piece of clothe. Bring it to medium heat, and keep the flattened dough over it, wait till it unevenly puffs up (3-4 min).Brush some melted butter or ghee on 5 or 6 random spots. . Turn it over, cook for 2-3 more minutes, or till the spots are browned enough. Quickly transfer it to a clean kitchen towel and keep it wrapped. Serve hot brushed with ghee or melted butter.
Naan recipes from fellow bloggers- here, here and here
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43 comments:

Sumitha said...

Wow both the naan and the hariyali chicken looks like a great combo,The naans look perfect Archu!I should try my hand at making naans too!

Sudha said...

That looks great archana, my next try would be making naan.. Lovely pictures..yummy..archana.

Vineela said...

Hi Archana,
Naan looks yummy and good in shape and color with nice photos.
Can you explain about icecubes keeping in oven.
Iam following your recipe to try "Naan".
Thanks for sharing .
Vineela

lost in thoughts said...

Hi Archana,

Tracked you here through your comment on my blog.

Gorgeous pictures ! You have got really yummy stuff here...the cakes esp. look a hundred times better than anything made on Foodnetwork...very professional work.

Great job.

-Sonali

archana said...

Sumitha
Thank you Sumi,looking forward to your naan post

Sudha
Thank you,that will be great. Thanks again

Vineela,
Thank you. Ice cubes are sometimes used in bread baking for generating steam which keeps the dough moist at the relatively higher temperatures used for the process. When the naans came out a little bit dry( exspecailly at the bottom)on my first trial, i started using the ice cubes. The procedure is like this. Set the oven rack in the upper middle region,pre-heat to your required temperature, and when you are keeping the falttened dough along with the baking sheet inside the oven, throw 2 icecubes to the floor of the oven ( for electric oven)(For gas oven, preheat a small oven proof dish, by keeping it in the lower most rack in the oven, and one icecube into that when u are ready to bake) Close the door, wait 4-5 minutes, open and see if the naan is done. If u need more browning quickly tranfer the baking sheet to broiler rack and keep for few secs. Hope this helps. Please feel free to email me if you need any more details.

archana said...

Spicehut,
Thank you for coming in, i appreciate your kind words.
Archana

Anonymous said...

Archana, you are the bomb when it comes to baking. Who else knew about ice cubes in baking? Chicken hariyali and the naan looks awesome!

Krithika said...

Your naan looks great ! I am gaining some confidence after looking at your post. I think I am going to try this at home. Thank you sharing this recipe

Vineela said...

Hi Archana,
Thank you for your detailed information.
I will try this one day and let you know.
Vineela

Nabeela said...

oh wow...thank you for the recipe...your naans looks the way I like'em...so I'm gonna try your recipe very soon...:)

RP said...

The naans look perfect archana.
I have tried to make naans once in the oven. As the recipe instructed, I used a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. The oven temp was somewhere above 400. The paper started smoking and all my smoke alarms went beep beep beep.... I haven't tried it after that. Your method of grilling on the pan sounds good. Thanks for sharing.

After the naan & hariyali chicken, didn't you have a cake for dessert? ;)

Tanuja said...

Thank u archana for tagging:)

I am totally flat looking at those perfect naans,I will try them and let u know very soon,thanks for sharing sucha wonderful dish.

KA said...

Archana is there anything in the kitchen front that you are not good yet?? I doubt very much especially after looking at your naan's. I am going to try your version..

Sudha said...

Archana you have been tagged for this meme TAG WORLD CONFESSIONS. Hope you will play

Priya said...

WOW ..the naans look soo authentic. And I can gauge your love for naans from the no. of attempts u've made :-)

Anonymous said...

Hi archana,
Are you trying to run tandoori clay oven sellers out of business or what?
Seriously,if we can make this beautiful and soft naaans like this,who needs a tandoori oven? This looks so good and like a must try one!

archana said...

Gini
dhooooooooooom!!!!
Thank you

Krithika
Thank you, you are very welcome.

Vineela
You are very welcome...

Nabeela,
I am so glad that you liked it. Thank you

RP,
Thank you so much. I love the easiness of grilling on the pan, i am glad that you liked it.
HaHaHa, no... we didn't !!!!

Tanuja,
Thank you for the kind words, and thanks a lot for your fantastic haryalli chicken recipe. That's one recipe i am going to keep in my recipe box.

K&A
Thank you so much ( blushing!!!)

Sudha,
My god , looks like it is time to share my darkest secrets !!!! Thank you for tagging me Sudha.

Priya
Thank you, over a period of three years, i have made naan 9 or 10 times. Will that make me a "naanoholic" ? Just kidding !!!!

Neelu,
I have tried using tava, but the apperance is slightly different and so is the texture. The trapped hot air in the grooves of the grill somehow helps in the uneven raising of the surface. But still, tava naan is not totally different, i guess you could try it. Thank you.

LG,
Oh,do...y..o..u re....a..lly think so? Thank you dear, i am so happy that u liked it

Annita said...

Wow..Naan looks too delicious and tempting..What a treat to my eyes..U r soo professional baker..Archana..Great work

Anonymous said...

One of the best looking home made naans I have seen. Excellent, Archana.
Lovely pictures too.

indianadoc said...

Archana, those are gorgeous naans...I had blogged naans long back...but your naans are absolutely photogenic!!

Anonymous said...

You know what archana, just now i am reading with my stomach full of biryani, and still tempting eat this if somebody makes it for me...:) Just too very tempting..after reading the recipe.

Gattina Cheung said...

Archana,
thanks for sharing your different cooking methods, great info! I do believe pan grill works beautifully, your naan is a good prove! Oh, I'm also drooling madly over the curry that next to your naan!

Anonymous said...

Hi Archana,
First time here, Naans looks so soft and beautiful..
Do u think we can get good results, by using phulka grill.
Thanks.

starry said...

Your recipe could not have come at a better time. my son has this sudden craving for Naan and has been having it for lunch and dinner(store bought)now I can try my hand at this.thanks for sharing.

Anonymous said...

Archoos,
Wonederful naan!.
Hey how about pineapple toppings ( i think it was there at supreme) When do you add them?
i am not sure whether i will be able to make it but if it comes out ok I will let you know...
I have heard about green chkn from the ap life of anoop.Only problem is that he thinks mint is related to colgate, and what a pity I love mint taste.
I will try both soon.
cheers to you and t
joyce

archana said...

Annita,
Thank you dear

Sailu,Doc,
Thank you very much.

Aparna,
Biriyani !!!!! One lucky girl !!!!

Gattina,
Thank you, i have been working on it for sometime. It is really difficult to reproduce the original taste and texture , but we can always try !!!!

Madhu,
Thank you for your kind words. I do not have a chapathi grill, but i strongly feel that we can try this one out on that. Please let me know about the results.

StarryN,
Thank you very much, hope your son likes it.

JOyce chechi,
Thank you. I wonder if we will be able to the pineapple topping with this method,Supreme's pineapple chunks were fairly big isn't it? May be we can chop it down to fine pieces and try. For all the big sized toppings,Oven + wire racks will be a good idea. Believe me, this curry won't really taste "minty" at all. The other spices somehow supress the mint flavor a lot.

Neelu
Thank you for letting me know Neelu. I have been trying to access your blog for sometime. Everytime i click on the link, it leads me to an empty template page. Are you having any tech problems with the blog, or is it me ?

Meeta K. Wolff said...

Hi Archana,

Finally a nice and easy naan recipe to follow. I love naan but for some reason always shyed away from it because it sounded all to complicated. Anyone who knows me and my blog will know I will try just about anything to avoid dough making ;-)
But this seems easy enough to follow and I already am having great naan recipe ideas!

Thank you!

Kuan Gung said...

my..my...my mouth is watering..

Anonymous said...

archanakutti,

I tried to make this, but when i flip it to the the next side, all the puffiness goes away and it becomes flat.. :( How did you get it without any grill marks on the other side? also how thick the naan be before I cook them?

archana said...

LG,
I am glad that u tried it, here are few possible reasons for the bubbles dying off, when u turn it over.
1)Grill pan too hot ( especially if you have a gas range, you need to control the fire)- medium is all you need. A medium hot grill pan would not give you sharp grill marks.( Spray some water, if you think it is too hot, before keeping the naan)

2) Insufficient cooking time. Let the dough rise and the bubbles stabilise, touch with band and see if you are getting any impressions on the naan, if you are getting any, then you might need to keep for 1-2 more minutes, before flipping it over. By this time your naan will have clear grill marks on the bottom, and the top will almost be fully cooked. Now, selectively dab with oil , and turn it over, take it out when you have browning in those spots. Yeast doughs generally wouldn't collapse when it is cooked enough.

My naans have grill marks on the other side,but we can control it on the top side by not cooking it longer.
One more tip LG, will you try stetching the dough with hand ( as we do for making Ada) instead of using a rolling pin next time. This will give you an irregular surface which woudn't unformly touch the grill pan. Hope this helps.
Adutha pravasyam naan adipoli akattae......

Anonymous said...

thank you. also how thick the naan should be? I find if it is very thin it wont have any bubbles?

archana said...

LG,
If you are rolling the dough, make it thicker than what u do for chappathi. I always stetch it out slightly bigger than the size of my palm.

Emma said...

Right! I am going to try it this way next time!

Menu Today said...

Hi Archana,
Your Naan looks yummy and delicious!!!Thanx

Anonymous said...

Best regards from NY!
»

Anonymous said...

Archana chechi, jst visited ur blog, u kept me open mouthed. i managed to shut my mouth back coz it was just watering too much seeing the delicacies. god!!!! i cant beleive this. u r doing a wonderful job. go on.love- anna.

Anonymous said...

Archana,
I stumbled upon your recipe from Priya's vacation comment when I googled in Indian cooking. Boy, am I glad I did!!!
I made the Naan and followed your recipe to the T and loved it. My lil daughter whos 3(and a picky eater) could not stop asking for more. I had made just enough for afternoon, but my husband and lil one made me do it again for night too!
Thanks so much and let the recipes keep coming.
Regards
Your fan.

Unknown said...

thanks archana for this wonderful naan recipe.i tried and everyone loved it.My lil' one who hates eating chappathi loved this naan.thanks to you.I have a que. regarding storing naan dough for future use.I usually store(in a air tight container) chappathi dough for future use in the fridge.can i do the same with naan dough?

Anonymous said...

I made these twice on Wednesday and it turned out great. The only problem that I had was that the dough would keep shrinking by the time i transferred it to the pan.
Any idea how I can prevent this ?
I patted it on a silpat sheet about 1/4th of an inch thick. It had a nice tear drop shape on the sheet but by the time i transferred it to the hot pan it looked more like a map of some vague country .

Thanks so much.
-Rashmi

Anonymous said...

Hi Archana,

Wonder how I missed this post of yours until now! I don't own a grill pan yet and have been scouting this week-end but returned home confused. Do you mean the one that is used directly on stove/hotplate/ceramic range? I have never ever grilled anything until now. Please help me with this accessory!

Ashwini Ayyar said...

Hi Archana,
I came acros syour blog the other day and just couldnt resist trying out the recipe for Naan.They turned out just fabulous !

Thanks.

Seetha Iyer said...

Archana, Naans turned out yummy. Thanks so much for your directions - Seetha

Unknown said...

Hi Archana,
lots of thanks to you; having never made anything doughy in my life, I followed your recipe to make some very garlicky naans to go with a duck green curry. Not only was the recipe easy to follow, even for me, but the result exceeded all my expectations!
Thanks again,
Anna

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