How to Make Homemade Garlic Naan: No Tandoor? No Problem.
Geriatric (ge·ri·at·ric) noun: of, relating to, or appropriate for elderly people
During our yearly planning session for Mediocre Chef, we brainstormed ideas for what to make with the pizza oven that we purchased last year. We were also trying to come up with ideas for what to make in the fall. Butter chicken sounded like a good fall dish, and what goes better with butter chicken than garlic naan? Perhaps garlic naan made in a pizza oven?
But, we forgot that we had already made naan once before in our bread baking for beginners guide. We didn’t realize until we were preparing our ingredients and the following conversation ensued:
Brittany: “We have ghee still. Looks like it’s from March 2025. I don’t know why we would have bought ghee.”
Trevor: “Hmmm, didn’t we use it for some Middle Eastern cookie thing? Wait, no, that was years ago. Why did we buy ghee in 2025?”
Brittany: “We didn’t make naan already did we?”
Trevor: “...”
Brittany: “...”
Trevor: “Shit. We did.”
We are geriatric and senile, so, let’s revisit naan. 🧓 Specifically, garlic naan because we love garlic.
tl;dr: Pizza oven wins. At 850°F, our garlic naan puffed, blistered and was done in about 90 seconds, the closest thing to a tandoor we've got. No pizza oven? A ripping-hot cast iron pan still makes good naan. But real talk: our local Indian restaurant beat both methods. Tandoor FTW.
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Making the Dough for Naan
We followed Manali Singh’s recipe for naan dough. You’ll need flour, salt, yeast, water (lukewarm, for activating the yeast), milk (again, lukewarm), plain yogurt, and oil. We didn’t have nigella seeds, so we didn’t top our naan with those. (Next time!)
The secret ingredient for naan dough.
We cheated and used a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment to make our dough. If you don’t have one, we highly recommend this KitchenAid mixer. (It frequently goes on sale!)
For the rising stage, we covered our dough in a bowl with a towel and put it in the oven with the light turned on to create a warm environment. We let it rise for 90 minutes.
Science is cool.
Making it Garlic Naan
Garlic naan is the best naan. You can’t convince us differently. The best way to do this is a two-pronged approach:
Mince garlic and add it into your dough during the mixing step. (If you are following Manali Singh’s recipe, then this step is covered there.)
Add minced garlic to some melted ghee and brush that on the naan when it’s done cooking. If you don’t have ghee you can use butter, but ghee is more authentic. (Optionally, add chopped cilantro. We didn’t because Brittany is not a fan.)
Use however much garlic your heart tells you to. That’s the only way to measure garlic.
How to Cook Naan in a Pizza Oven
If you like naan and don’t own a tandoor (you likely don’t) but own a pizza oven, you’re in luck. A pizza oven can reach the same blistering temperatures as a tandoor. Which means you can make naan in a pizza oven and get very similar results!
We preheated our pizza stone to 850°F and then we were ready to roll… out our naan dough. (Owning an instant read thermometer is mandatory when you have a pizza oven.)
Look at that dough puffing up!
Cooking with a tandoor, the dough will sag from the gravity as it hangs on the tandoor wall. The pizza oven obviously works a bit differently, because it’s laying flat in the oven.
Before launching your naan you’ll need to flour your wooden pizza peel to prevent it from sticking, so it actually comes off the peel. We used leftover semolina flour we had, but you can use regular flour if that’s all you have. (Just be careful, too much and it’ll burn.)
Our strategy: use the high setting to get the oven up to temp and then reduce the flame to medium to cook it. (This stops the top from overcooking and you’re less likely to burn it.)
You’ll want to rotate the naan with your pizza peel to get an even cook. If you made your dough right, it should puff up nicely! Our naan was only in there for about 60-90 seconds and then it was done.
It was dark outside by the time our dough had risen, so we were cooking in the dark. Also, we don’t know why our pizza oven was giving the vibes of an 80s arcade, but we’re here for it.
How to Cook Naan in a Cast Iron Skillet
So let’s say that you’re like most of the population and don’t own a pizza oven. Well, don’t worry, you can still make naan at home. The key is a cast iron skillet. (No cast iron? Stainless steel works, but it cools down fast when the dough hits it, so you'll get less puff and more sticking. Just make sure you get it h o t.)
The goal is to cook the naan quickly. So get the cast iron as hot as you can on your stovetop. Right before it starts smoking is where you’re aiming. Then take one of the rolled out naans and place it into the pan.
Next, and most importantly, don’t touch it for 30-60 seconds. When the naan releases from the pan on its own and starts to bubble is when you’ll know it’s done. Grab some tongs and flip it over, to the uncooked side. Then, grab a brush and your garlic ghee mixture, and coat the cooked side with it.
After that, flip the naan back over, quickly brush the new side with your garlic ghee mixture, and take it out of the pan.
We probably should have rolled the dough out a bit thinner.
Which Cooking Method Wins?
If we had to pick one, the pizza oven is better at making naan. It better replicates the heat vs a cast iron pan, as you have both the hot stone that cooks the bottom and the radiant heat that cooks the top at the same time.
Bonus points if you have a wood-fired pizza oven to add some of that smoky flavour. (As tandoor uses charcoal.) We love our gas-fired pizza oven for the convenience, but cooking with wood or charcoal is superior when it comes to flavour.
The naan laying on the counter came from the grocery store. It was sad and not worth.
Homemade Naan vs Restaurant Naan
In the Mediocre Chef test kitchen, we always try to compare what we make to the real deal to see how we did. So we ordered some restaurant naan to compare to.
We don’t know what it is about the restaurant naan that makes it so good, but our homemade naan was missing something flavour-wise. Don’t get us wrong, it was still good. But restaurant naan just hits different. Is it charcoal flavour from the tandoor? Is there some secret ingredient in the dough that we don’t know about? PLEASE LET US KNOW YOUR SECRETS.
The restaurant we ordered from had their garlic naan priced at $3 CAD per order. Even with the economies of scale that we can achieve by making it at home, it’s hard to beat that price.
If you don’t have a good Indian restaurant near you, definitely make it at home. But if you do, we think the restaurant stuff is just better 😬. Maybe we’ll have to revisit it a third time? We’re just Mediocre Chefs, after all.