Naan Bread in Air Fryer

Naan is an Indian leavened flatbread popularly served in Indian restaurants across the globe. It is commonly served with Indian curries such as matar paneer, and palak paneer and comes in several varieties like plain naan, garlic naan, bullet naan, and stuffed naan to name a few.

Naan can be easily made in the air fryer from scratch. First, you need to make a soft dough by kneading all the ingredients in a stand mixer. Allow the dough to rise and then roll it into a flatbread. Finally, air fry it in the air fryer.

Ingredients

Naan bread is an Indian leavened flatbread made with all-purpose flour and uses yogurt (which makes it soft) and yeast for rising. Instant yeast or active dry yeast can be used, the active dry yeast will need to be activated in warm water before use.

Garlic naan is made by topping naan with minced garlic, nigella seeds, and chopped cilantro.

Instructions

To make naan bread at home, you need to make a soft naan dough. You can easily knead the naan dough in a stand mixer, or even by hand. I have made the naan dough in the KitchenAid stand mixer.

In the stand mixer bowl add all the wet and dry ingredients and then add the instant yeast on the top. Attach the dough hook and then knead the dough for about 12 minutes on setting 2.

After about 12 minutes you will see that a nice soft dough is formed and it no longer sticks to the sides of the mixing bowl. The dough is now ready for the first proofing.

Cover the bowl with a lid and allow it to rise until it doubles in volume. This can take about 1 to 1.5 hours. Once the dough is done through its first rise, remove the dough from the bowl and place it on a lightly floured surface and divide it into equal size parts.

Take a piece of dough and make a smooth ball by rolling it between your palms. Dust some flour on the rolling board and on the dough ball and roll the dough ball into a thick oval-shaped flatbread using a rolling pin. Roll the naan bread about 3-4 mm thick.

To make garlic naan, sprinkle some minced garlic, chopped cilantro, and some nigella seeds on the rolled naan flatbread. To stick it all in the naan, roll once again with the rolling pin.

Preheat the air fryer to 390°F. Place the rolled naan bread onto parchment paper and carefully place it in the air fryer basket and air fry it for about 5 minutes.

Naan bread will puff up and you will start seeing some golden-brown spots, this means naan is done. Take out the garlic naan from the air fryer and apply some butter with a basting brush.

Substitutions

To make vegan naan, simply replace the yogurt with vegan yogurt and use vegan butter for brushing once the garlic naan is air fried.

If you do not have yogurt or for some reason do not want to use it, you can replace it with milk. However, you will have to reduce the quantity of water by about half so that the dough does not become sticky.

Variations

You can make different types of naan in the air fryer.

Plain butter naan - it can be made by air frying naan and then applying butter once it is done.

Spicy - bullet naan is a very spicy naan topped with a lot of chopped spicy green chilies before air frying.

Stuffed naan - it is similar to stuffed flatbread or paratha. It can be made by stuffing a potato or paneer filling. Check out this aloo paratha and paneer paratha recipes for inspiration.

Serving suggestions

Naan is commonly eaten with Indian curries like matar paneer, palak paneer, navratan korma, dal makhani and dal fry. Here is a great post listing how you can serve naan.

Naan can also be served as an appetizer with some dips like spinach artichoke dip or hummus.

Any leftover naan can be used to make an air fryer naan pizza. It is a quick bite and great snack to make in under 10 minutes!

Equipment

The key to fluffy and light naan bread is a soft and well-kneaded dough. To make a perfect dough and get consistent results every time, weigh the flour with the help of a digital food scale instead of using measuring cups.

To make naan from scratch, the dough is first made in the KitchenAid stand mixer. I have used the 5 qt. bowl lift stand mixer. The dough can be proofed just by leaving it covered in a bowl in a warm place, in the oven, or in the instant pot.

I have made this naan bread in the Instant Vortex Plus air fryer. It can be made in any type of air fryer, be it basket style or tray style, or any size. The only thing that would matter is that the naan should fit in the air fryer.

Depending on your air fryer, the cooking time may vary by a minute or two. Also, depending on the size of the air fryer, you may be able to cook more than one naan at a time.

Storage

Fresh homemade naan bread can last at room temperature for 2-3 days. Any leftover naan can be refrigerated for about a week. When you are ready to eat, simply reheat the naan in a microwave or in the oven.

Naan bread is a perfect make-ahead bread and freezes well for up to a month. While freezing, place parchment paper between two naans so that it is easy to separate them once they are frozen.

When you are ready to eat, simply reheat the naan in the air fryer at about 390°F for 2-3 minutes. You can check out this post on how to reheat frozen naan in air fryer.

Naan dough freezes well too! You can freeze naan dough. A good way would be to portion the dough and freeze it so that you only need to thaw the amount of dough you need.

To thaw the frozen naan dough, simply keep it in the fridge overnight and then for about an hour at room temperature before making naan.

If you enjoyed this recipe, you may also like

• Garlic knots
• Naan pizza
• Air fryer brownies
• Air fryer cupcakes
• Frozen naan in air fryer
• Bread machine naan
• Air fryer Indian recipes

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