Naan bread

[u/firefly317]

My partner and I love Indian food and I always serve some naan bread with our curries. The store bought options suck, and I can never get my homemade to the same softness you get at a restaurant. Are there any tricks for cooking naan so you get that restaurant texture and taste?

[u/DukasApprentice]

What is your current recipe and method?

[u/Senior1292]

A tandoor oven is a big reason restaurant naans have that taste and texture. Its difficult to replicate the difference it makes in a home kitchen, unfortunately. If you can find an Indian or Asian grocery store then they will have better versions than a supermarket and I find some of these to be much better than the standard ones like Pataks.

Also Naan means bread, so saying naan bread is like saying bread bread.

[u/BackDatSazzUp → u/Senior1292]

A pizza stone in a regular oven or brick oven can replicate a tandoor oven in a pinch. There’s a tabletop brick pizza oven you can get at world market for relatively cheap too.

[u/firefly317 → u/BackDatSazzUp]

I had wondered about a pizza oven since they use the same fast and hot technique. May have to look ok at a pizza stone or the oven add-on for our camp chef as we don't really have room for another appliance in the kitchen.

[u/quick6ilver]

Yoghurt and lots of resting time wrapped in moist muslin. Like 6-8 hrs of rest on the counter

[u/colenski999 → u/quick6ilver]

This is how I do it and the only thing that it misses is the smoke from the tandoor I compensate for this with a couple drops of liquid smoke

[u/WazWaz]

Closest I've had to tandoor naan is to use a hot wok over gas. Lid on for cooking the first side.

[u/firefly317 → u/WazWaz]

A wok has been on the maybe list for a while, may have to move it to the buy list

[u/firefly317]

I should have said I'm in Alberta, Canada so options like Trader Joe or Whole Foods aren't a thing. I also live rural, so there aren't a lot of grocery options in general, certainly no Indian speciality stores - at least without a 3 hour round trip.

[u/burnt-----toast]

I've only made naan once, but we thought that it came out nice. I have no basis for comparison as far as making at home, but here are some of the things that I thought probably led to our success. I followed a Bryan Ford recipe, and it definitely was not quick. We had to start the day before, first by making a poolish. That probably helped a lot with both the flavor and texture. And then we cooked them on a cast iron griddle on a gas stove. They came out great. Soft, moist, light and fluffy but also chewy.

[u/AllDayDabbler]

Flawless recipe and technique. Best Ive tried. She's brilliant!

https://youtu.be/1-3VfJGBDes?si=uRLcrzy0Uq8YT7hz

[u/firefly317 → u/AllDayDabbler]

Interesting. I see she went for the bicarbonate method not yeast, may have to try that as an optional n and see which we prefer

[u/TA_totellornottotell]

Obviously, it’s different at home without a tandoor (clay oven). But I follow Your Food Labs a lot for these kinds of things because they do a lot of restaurant style recipes with modifications for home cooking. Naan is one of them (I think there’s one video where they do three kinds), and there are some good techniques for how to mimic the texture and charring you get in restaurants. The videos are in Hindi but with English subtitles, and the descriptions are also good.

Also, have you gone to Indian grocery stores for naan? Because many of the frozen options are quite solid.

[u/Spicy_Molasses4259]

I cook my own rice, but I always buy naan. Unless you have a pizza oven it's very hard to get that texture.

There are other indian breads that are easier to make at home on a griddle like chapati, roti or paratha.

[u/firefly317 → u/Spicy_Molasses4259]

May try those as an alternative option, but I do love naan.

[u/Milo_and_Elvis]

Trader Joe’s has frozen tandoor baked naan. It’s pretty good. Not the best I’ve ever had but certainly better than literally any other store bought I’ve tried and not far removed from restaurant style.

[u/djSush]

Have you tried any options from an Indian store?

[u/mommy2brenna]

https://www.onceuponachef.com/recipes/homemade-naan.html

[u/luczyx]

After baking I rest mine stacked together under a towel. The steam makes them soft. If you eat immediately they can be crispy, if you don’t cover they get dry, but if you stack and wait they should be foldable and soft

[u/krum]

Trader Joe’s naan is really good. I’ve tried a few recipes some with yeast and some with baking powder or baking soda and cook it on a really hot cast iron griddle and it usually comes out good. Not as good as the tandor stuff but good enough and better than most store bought stuff.

[u/mumof2yoanddog]

Sorry hun, you got tonnes of advice here. I’m just here to say it’s naan. Just naan.

[u/mflboys]

You should try Truly Indian frozen naan from Whole Foods if you haven’t. It’s significantly better than the shelf stable ones like Stonefire.

[u/Competitive_Store793]

I buy refrigerated tandoori naan and it tastes really good.

[u/Content-Gate-9387]

I like this one. May not be super traditional but it is easy, and always a good texture, presumably from all the fats and wheat gluten/egg. 

https://www.recipetineats.com/naan-recipe/

[u/SetTough9576]

Part of this is making a good soft dough.

Assuming you have that covered, put a pizza stone in the oven at its highest heat. Put the stone in the middle first until it comes up to heat. Then move it up to the top rack and put the oven on broil.

Slide out the rack. Slap the naan on the pizza stone and slide it back in. Keep the oven door cracked open - you don't want to bake it. Watch it carefully as it will cook quickly. slide out the rack, remove than naan(s). Repeat.