Keema naan is a yeasted naan with a layer of spiced minced meat sealed inside it. The meat goes in raw, the bread is rolled thin around it, and both cook together in about seven minutes at the oven’s highest heat, until the top is blistered and golden and the filling is cooked through.
One thing decides whether it works: the seal and the thickness. A parcel that is sealed tightly and rolled evenly to about 5 mm bakes into a flat bread with meat right to the edges. A loose seal splits, and a thick, uneven roll leaves raw dough around a pale filling.
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Recipe
Keema Naan (Minced Meat Stuffed Naan)
Ingredients
For the dough
For the keema filling
To finish
Method
- Whisk the flour, salt, sugar and yeast in a large bowl. Add the yogurt and oil, then pour in the warm water a little at a time, mixing, until you have a soft, slightly sticky dough. You may not need all of the water.
- Knead for about 8 minutes by hand, or 2–3 minutes in a stand mixer, until smooth and springy. Put it in an oiled bowl, cover, and leave in a warm place for 2–3 hours, until doubled. It can also rise in the fridge overnight.
- Meanwhile, put all the filling ingredients in a bowl and knead with a gloved hand for 3–4 minutes, until the mixture turns sticky and slightly stringy. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
- Heat the oven to its highest setting, 245°C (475°F) or more, or heat the grill (broiler), for at least 10 minutes. Line a large baking tray with foil and oil it well.
- Divide the risen dough into 4 equal balls (about 190 g each) and the filling into 4 equal portions.
- Roll one ball into a disc about 15 cm (6 in) across. Put a portion of filling in the centre, leaving about 4 cm clear all round. Gather the edges up over the filling and pinch them together firmly to seal.
- Turn the parcel seam-side down and press it flat with your palm. Roll gently from the middle outwards into a round or oval about 23–25 cm (9–10 in) across and 5 mm thick. Patch any hole with a scrap of dough.
- Lift the naan onto the tray. Press dimples all over with your fingertips, brush with milk, and scatter with sesame and nigella seeds, pressing them in lightly. Bake two at a time.
- Bake, or grill, for about 7 minutes, turning the tray halfway, until golden with charred spots and the filling is cooked through (71°C / 160°F in the centre).
- Brush both sides with melted butter straight away, scatter with coriander, and cover with foil for 2–3 minutes to soften. Repeat with the rest and serve hot with raita.
What is keema naan?
Keema naan is naan dough wrapped around keema, which means minced meat, then flattened and baked hot. It belongs to Pakistani and North Indian cooking, and it is eaten as a meal on its own or next to a curry, with raita and mint chutney.
The filling is not a curry. In the version on this page it is raw mince mixed with onion, green chilli, crushed coriander seed, cumin, garam masala and fresh coriander, and it cooks inside the bread. The top is brushed with milk, scattered with sesame and nigella seeds, and finished with melted butter.
What is the difference between naan and keema naan?
The dough is the same kind; the difference is the filling and what it does to the bake. Plain naan is only dough, so it puffs freely and cooks in a couple of minutes. Keema naan carries a layer of meat, so it is rolled flatter, puffs less, and needs long enough in the heat for the meat to cook, not just for the bread to colour.
That changes one habit. With plain naan you pull it the moment it browns. With keema naan the browning is not the signal on its own – the filling has to be cooked too, which is covered further down.
What meat is keema made of?
Keema can be any minced meat. Beef and lamb are the usual choices for keema naan; goat and chicken also appear in the recipes compared for this page.
Fat matters more than the animal. Mince with about 20% fat stays juicy inside the bread. Very lean mince, or chicken breast mince, has less fat to keep it moist in a hot oven. Little Spice Jar’s lean-beef version cooks its filling first instead (see the cooked-filling method below).
The step most people get wrong: the seal and the roll
Rolling too hard, too soon, is what tears a keema naan. The filling is wetter than the dough, and if the rolling pin pushes it towards a weak spot, it breaks through.
- Leave a wide border. Put the filling in the middle of the disc and leave about 4 cm of clean dough all round, so there is enough to gather up and pinch.
- Seal, then flatten by hand first. Pinch the gathered edges together, turn the parcel seam-side down, and press it out with your palm before the rolling pin touches it.
- Roll from the middle outwards, turning the dough a little between strokes. Aim for 23 to 25 cm across and about 5 mm thick.
- Patch, do not re-roll. If meat shows through, press a small scrap of dough over the hole and carry on.
When it is right, the rolled naan is an even thickness all over and you can see the shadow of the filling right out towards the edge, with no thick, empty rim.
Keema naan, step by step
Mix the flour, yogurt, oil and warm water into a soft dough.- Let the dough rise until doubled, 2 to 3 hours.
- Knead the raw keema filling until it turns sticky.
- Seal a quarter of the filling inside each disc of dough.
- Roll it out thin, then press on the seeds.
- Bake at top heat, then brush with butter straight away.
The full quantities and every step are in the recipe card above. The dough is the slow part: it needs 2 to 3 hours to double in a warm place, or it can rise slowly in the fridge overnight. The filling takes a few minutes to mix and can wait, covered, in the fridge.
How much of each ingredient, and where the numbers come from
The batch size – 440 g (3½ cups) of flour and 450 g (1 lb) of mince for four naan – follows Tea for Turmeric. The other quantities were checked as ratios against two more raw-filling recipes, from Fatima Cooks and Cookingorgeous, and a number went on the card when two of the three agreed.
Two quantities did not agree, and the card says so. Cumin runs from a pinch of ground cumin to several teaspoons of seeds; the card uses Tea for Turmeric’s 1 tsp of seeds. Salt in the filling runs from about 1 to about 2 tsp of fine salt per 450 g of meat, so the card gives that range with 1½ tsp as the default. Start at the low end if your garam masala is salted.
Heat is a range on purpose. Two green chillies and ½ tsp of chilli powder give a clear but moderate heat; use one chilli and leave out the chilli flakes for a mild naan. If it still comes out too hot, these fixes for over-spiced food help with the curry you serve beside it.
Raw filling or cooked filling?
Both methods are in common use, and they give different results. The card uses raw filling, which is how the top-ranking Pakistani recipes make it.
- Raw filling cooks inside the bread, so the meat stays in one juicy, slightly springy layer and the juices soak into the dough. It is quicker to prepare, but the naan has to be rolled thin enough for the meat to cook in the bake.
- Cooked filling is fried first with onion, ginger-garlic, ground spices and sometimes tomato paste until dry, then cooled completely before stuffing. Swasthi’s version works this way. It adds a frying step and a full cool-down, the meat is loose and crumbly like a dry keema curry, and there is no doubt about the meat being done.
If you switch to a cooked filling, it must be cold and dry before it goes into the dough. Warm or wet filling makes the dough sticky and it tears as you roll.
Oven, grill or tawa
Use the hottest setting you have. The recipes compared here bake keema naan at 245°C (475°F), or under the grill (broiler) at up to 290°C (550°F), for about 5 to 10 minutes depending on the oven, with the tray turned halfway. A preheated tray or pizza stone helps the underside colour.
A tawa or heavy frying pan works when you have no strong oven. Cook the naan over medium-high heat until golden underneath, turn it, and keep turning until both sides are browned and the middle is cooked. It takes longer than the oven, and the top will be patchier and less puffed. The grill gives the most charred, blistered top.
How to tell the meat is cooked
Minced meat is safe when the centre reaches 71°C (160°F). With an instant-read thermometer, push the probe in sideways through the edge of the naan into the filling layer.
Without a thermometer, cut into the first naan at its thickest point. The meat should be browned all the way through with no pink, and the juice clear. If it is not, the naan was rolled too thick: give the rest a few more minutes and roll the next batch thinner.
What to serve with keema naan
Keema naan is filling enough to eat with only raita, mint chutney and a sliced onion and cucumber salad. As part of a bigger meal it sits well next to a chicken karahi or a plate of chicken seekh kababs. If you are cooking chapli kabab as well, serve plain naan with those instead; two minced-meat dishes on one plate is heavy.
Storing, freezing and reheating
Cooked keema naan keeps for 2 to 3 days in the fridge. Let it cool completely, then wrap it in foil or put it in an airtight container.
- Freeze cooled naan with baking paper between them, in a freezer bag.
- Reheat in a dry frying pan over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes a side, or in a hot oven or air fryer until heated right through. Brush with a little butter again afterwards.
- Make ahead: the raw filling keeps for about a day in the fridge. Risen dough is best used within 2 days.
Questions people ask
Why did my keema naan tear when I rolled it?
Too little dough around the filling, or rolling too hard before the parcel was flattened by hand. Leave about 4 cm of clear dough, seal it tightly, press it out with your palm, then roll gently from the middle outwards.
Can I use chicken mince for keema naan?
Yes. Chicken mince is often lean, so it dries out faster. Use thigh mince, or cook the filling first and cool it before stuffing.
Can I make keema naan without yeast?
Yes. Some recipes use a yogurt dough raised with baking powder and cook the naan in a frying pan. The bread is denser and less chewy than a yeasted naan, but it is ready without the 2 to 3 hour rise.
Can I make keema naan in a frying pan?
Yes. Cook it on a tawa or heavy frying pan over medium-high heat, turning until both sides are golden and the filling is cooked through, which takes longer than in a hot oven.
Is keema naan Pakistani or Indian?
Both. It is made across Pakistan and North India, and the top-ranking recipes come from both kitchens.
