When I decided to make a naan recipe, I was living in New Orleans and deep into the grind of the Recipe Club podcast. I’m talking about the heyday of Recipe Club, a hilariously enjoyable food podcast hosted by David Chang and Chris Ying. For the first 3 seasons, I was a core Wedgie along with Priya Krishna, Racheal Khong, and John de Barry. It was the stuff of legends. But far too often, I feel like I got robbed – and nothing made me feel this way more than the episode where I proposed my own recipe for Naan with Poolish. If you’ve been a fan of the podcast, then you already know the deal. The naan with “poolish” was transformative, admittedly spectacular and the best bake of the episode. But I still lost. You, however, can win by simply making this naan at home. It. Is. Phenomenal.
At the end of the day, i’m still hurt about this…but time passes. And as time passed, I realized that I wanted this recipe to live somewhere more permanent for y’all. So please enjoy!
The Ultimate Naan Recipe
Ingredients
Method
- Combine all DOUGH ingredients EXCEPT for the water into the bowl of a stand mixer with the spiral hook attachment.
- Mix low speed 2 minutes so that ingredients can incorporate
- Mix on medium speed for 2 minutes. Begin to slowly add the 60 grams of water. Add about half of it on medium speed
- Mix on high speed 2 minutes and finish adding the water. The dough should come together and look smooth.
- If you don’t have a mixer and need to hand mix, add all ingredients plus 30 grams of water into a bowl initially and squeeze together. Once most of the liquid has absorbed, add the remaining water and squeeze/mix for a few minutes until the dough comes together. Transfer to a floured work surface and knead with the palm of your hand pushing forward and pulling back into the middle with your fingers. Add flour as needed and knead until you have a smooth, round surface.
- After the bulk fermentation, divide the dough into 150 gram pieces. Divide up any extra dough evenly amongst the pieces.
- Roll each piece of dough tightly into a ball. Cover with a damp/wet paper towel or kitchen towel and let rest for 1.5 hours at room temperature
- Melt a ½ cup of Ghee in the microwave. Add the minced garlic.
- Heat up a cast iron skillet on the highest level your stove can go. Once it is scorching hot (like your kitchen is smoking up and you start to panic) lower the heat to medium and brush the pan with the garlic Ghee.
- Use a rolling pin on a floured work surface and roll out your dough balls. You want to roll it out to about 6-7 inches, and it’s OK for the edges to be a little thicker than the middle.
- Place naan on the hot pan and press down with a spatula. Brush the top side with the ghee/garlic mixture. Cook until you see a nice, dark ring/spots form on the underside (about 1 minute or so). Flip, but don’t press down with a spatula. This allows your naan to develop the traditional dark spots and bubbles. Cook for another minute or so until you develop a uniform amount of dark spots.
- Remove from the pan, brush with more ghee and top with chopped cilantro and sea salt. Enjoy!