Naan is a traditional Indian flatbread. It’s made from whole-wheat dough and baked in a tandoor oven.
Naan is one of the most popular Indian breads and is considered as the best choice when it comes to eating out with friends or family. It can be served as an appetizer or a side dish for your meal and has many variations available at restaurants.
To reheat it, you can use any of these methods to preserve the flavor and texture of this delicious bread: your oven, the microwave, and air fryer.
Naan keeps for three days after making it, no problem. It’s a great addition to any meal and can easily be reheated to fit another meal.
Even if you don’t have fresh naan sitting in your fridge waiting to be reheated, it could be in the freezer. If you made a large batch at home and popped some in the freezer or bought any number of frozen naan at the store.
Frozen naan is available at stores like Walmart, Costco, and Trader Joe’s. If it comes frozen from the store, then it’s easy to assume that you can indeed reheat naan.
What Temperature Do You Heat Naan At?
Naan bread can be reheated in a microwave.
The oven temperature for reheating naan is usually 350F/180C.
Toaster ovens have an adjustable heating setting that allows you to control the temperature of your food, so it’s best to experiment with this feature before using it for cooking naan bread (or any other type of food). The maximum temperature that can be used is 350°F (177°C). With a toaster oven, you have to watch as your food is much closer to the heating elements.
How to Heat Up Naan Bread
The trick when reheating anything is remembering that you don’t want to cook it more, you simply want to warm it up. After that, it’s warming it up without drying it out at the same time.
How you reheat your naan bread depends on what you have available in your kitchen and the amount of time you have.
1. Microwave
There are a few ways to reheat naan bread, but there’s no need for you to spend time in the kitchen every time you want to eat some delicious Indian food. You can use your microwave!
The microwave is always a quick and easy way to reheat food, if not always the best. Use this method for warm naan that doesn’t end up sticky or soggy.
Steps
Reheating multiple pieces of naan? You can reheat them together. Spray each naan with a little water and put parchment paper or a paper towel between each piece as you stack them. This prevents sticking.
Place your stack of naan on a microwave-safe plate.
On medium-high heat, not full power, microwave for 30 seconds. Heat at 30 second intervals until they reach the desired heat. It shouldn’t take more than 90 seconds to reheat the naan to perfection.
Tips
Watch the time! Cooking in the microwave for longer than 30 seconds at a time and more than 90 seconds total can ruin your naan. It lowers the inner moisture levels making it drier and starts to cook the starch inside. Cooking the starch will give your naan an unpleasant rubbery texture.
Follow these guidelines to start and go from there:
1 naan = 25 seconds
2 naans = 55 seconds
3 naans = 90 seconds
2. Oven
The oven is a great place to reheat any food, even naan bread. If not as convenient as the microwave, the oven provides lasting heat compared to that provided by the microwave. It’s also the recommended method for those packages of frozen naan at the store.
The one thing you have to watch out for when reheating naan in the oven is how easy it is for your naan to get crispy and dry. Even with this potential downside, reheating naan in your oven brings that fluffy texture back to leftover naan.
Steps
You’re going to preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lower temperatures are much better for reheating. This way, as long as you watch the time, you’re taking less risk for dried out crispy bread.
Using a grill tray or baking sheet, lay out your naan in a single layer. Give space between the naan so you don’t crowd them risking uneven heating.
Mist or sprinkle your naan with a little water to keep moisture levels up.
You’re only going to bake the naan for 3-5 minutes. Reheating this thick, airy bread doesn’t take much time at all. Going for longer is risking ruining your addition to dinner.
3. Stovetop
The stove top is probably the most popular way to reheat naan, mostly because most people have access to a stovetop or something like it.
Much like the oven, you have to watch for loss of moisture. You risk getting crispy naan instead of fluffy naan if you don’t do this right.
While a cast iron skillet is ideal, it’s not necessary. You can use any skillet to reheat your naan on the stovetop.
Like the oven, watch the time carefully to make sure this turns out how you want it to.
Steps
You’re going to want to preheat the empty skillet over medium heat. Your cast iron pan will take significantly longer to preheat than your regular skillets.
Grease the bottom of the pan with a little oil or butter.
You’re going to reheat your naan one at a time with this method. Keep it in the pan for 30 seconds on each side. At that point, it should be warmed through. It’s that easy.
4. Air Fryer
The air fryer has become the new kitchen gadget that everyone wants to acquire and for good reason. It has so many uses for crisp, healthy food that tastes like it came out of the fryer, but also reheating your leftover naan.
The air fryer is a great way to reheat your naan so it tastes brand new and it does it evenly, which is more than can be said for the other methods.
Why? The fans in the air fryer circulate hot air around the naan to cook/heat it. Because of this, you get that slight crisp to the outside while the inside stays fluffy and soft, just like when it comes out of a tandoor oven.
Steps
Preheat your air fryer to 350 degrees F. This doesn’t take long, air fryers are quick. One of the many things that make them so appealing.
Using an oil spray, like olive oil, grease the basket to your fryer.
As with the other methods, mist or sprinkle your naan with a little water to maintain moisture levels.
Place in the air fryer for 3-5 minutes.
5. Toaster
While not the best method, you can use the toaster in a pinch. Sometimes that’s all you have.
This method does dry out your naan as there’s no way to add water to the naan before toasting. Not easily anyway, or without risks.
Despite that, it’s quick and easy when that’s all you have and want warm naan bread.
Steps
Depending on your toaster, you’re probably going to have to cut the naan into pieces that will fit in the slots on the toaster.
Place the pieces in your toaster and turn it on.
Don’t just walk away. Check after a minute and turn your pieces as you go to help with even heating. Pop them up when they’re heated to your liking.
Sometimes the naan loses a little flavor in the fridge and freezer. In the skillet, oven, or air fryer it is easy to add a little flavor to your naan as you reheat them.
You can add anything you want, even if it’s just brushing it with a bit of butter, but here’s some of the most popular additions to inspire you.
Sesame seeds
Mint
Cilantro
Garlic
Ginger
Chili flakes
Ghee
What flavor combinations can you come up with?
Popular Uses for reheated Naan
Personal pizzas. These are especially good with the garlic naans.
Cheesy naan. Naan garlic bread with your pasta is just as good, if not better than Texas toast!
Chili cheese naan. Mix together shredded cheddar, chopped green chilis, and an egg yolk. Spread this over your naan and then pop it in the oven for a couple minutes to heat through. It’s a great snack!
Flatbread sandwich. Warm up your naan so it’s pliable and stuff it with your favorite sandwich fillings. Ham salad, chicken salad, and egg salad are always good options for this.
Breakfast sandwich. Using the skillet method, whisk 2 eggs with salt and pepper, chopped peppers, and/or tomatoes in a bowl. Prep the skillet as you would in the method above. Add the egg mixture to the pan first and place the naan on top of it. Keep it on the heat until the egg is cooked. Add more toppings like chicken, ham, or some chilis for spice.
Burrito twist. Naans make great burrito shells. Warm up your naan so it’s easy to fold around your burrito filling. Roll it up like a tortilla.
Nachos. Use warmed up naan pieces to replace your chips with your favorite salsa or nacho recipe.
Conclusion
Naans are meant to be eaten! While they can lose a little flavor when stored in the fridge or freezer that doesn’t mean you can’t heat them up and add more flavor later.
Always reheat and use your leftovers from the fridge within three days, but with how easy it is to reheat them in the oven or the microwave, there’s no need to hesitate.
These versatile flatbreads can accompany almost any meal, what will you come up with to do with your naan leftovers?
