An easy, soft flatbread recipe that’s made without yeast, an excellent quick option when you don’t have hours for yeast dough to rise. You’ll love how soft and pliable this flat bread is, making it perfect to use as wraps for Gyros, Shawarma and Doner kebabs. Or as naan to dunk into Tikka Masala or Butter Chicken. The possibilities are endless!
Flatbread recipe
I love fresh homemade bread. And though I bake bread with yeast more frequently nowadays, I still find it easier and a general preference to make bread without yeast.
Maximum taste, most tasty outcome with minimum effort – but without compromising on the end result. That’s my ultimate goal and the ethos that underpins every recipe I share here on RecipeTin Eats.
Over the years, I have tried a lot of flatbread recipes. Flatbreads from many different cuisines, from blogs and cooking sites, by home cooks, from reality cooking shows (yes, Master Chef and My Kitchen Rules!), serious chefs and celebrity chefs.
But I always found they were too doughy (e.g. the ones that only use yoghurt as the wet ingredient) or too crisp to use as a wrap unless they were moistened with lashings of butter. Absolutely delicious, mind you. But not what I was after. So this recipe is my idea of a perfect flatbread recipe.
How to make Flatbread – with NO yeast
This flatbread recipe is made with no yeast. It is very easy to make, requiring just a minute or two of kneading.
And it honestly is beautifully soft and pliable. So soft you can use it as a wrap and it won’t crack.
And of course, it is perfect to be used as pita bread, for things like Greek Gyros and Greek Chicken Souvlaki.
And here I have used it as “naan” as a side for Butter Chicken. When I make it to be like “naan”, I cook it on a slightly higher heat to get larger and more brown bits on it – just like real naan! The crust gets slightly crispier so it’s not as suited to use as a wrap, like in the above photo. (PS If you’ve got the time to make proper naan, try my Naan recipe. It’s just like the real deal!)
If you’ve never tried homemade bread before, this flatbread recipe is a great one to start with because it really is that easy. The worst that can happen with this flatbread recipe is that the heat is too high when you cook it so the exterior ends up a bit too crunchy and cracks when you roll it. If that happens, just spray it with olive oil or brush lightly with oil or butter and it will moisten the surface.
Try this once, and store-bought flatbreads will never be the same again. That I can promise! – Nagi x
Watch how to make it
I’ve added oil but it’s not necessary. Please follow your recipe card below.
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Easy Soft Flatbread (No Yeast)
Ingredients
- 2 cups plain flour (all purpose flour) (level cups, unsifted, not packed), + keep 1/4 cup extra for dusting & adjusting dough
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 1/2 tbsp / 50g unsalted butter (1.75 oz)
- 3/4 cup milk
Instructions
- Melt butter in milk: Combine butter and milk and heat until butter is just melted – on stove or in microwave.
- Combine Dry: Combine 2 cups flour, salt, butter and milk in a bowl.
- Knead 2 minutes: Sprinkle work surface with flour then knead for a few minutes until it is smooth – it doesn't need much kneading. Add extra flour if the dough is too sticky.
- Rest 30 minutes: Wrap with cling wrap and rest at room temperature for 30 minutes or so.
- Roll into rounds: Dust bench top with flour, cut dough into 6 pieces, roll into balls, then roll out into 20cm / 8" rounds, 2 – 3 mm thick.
- Heat pan: Heat a non stick pan over high heat (no oil). (Note 1)
- Cook: Place one flatbread in the pan, cook for around 1- 1 1/2 minutes – it should puff up dramatically. Once the underside has nice golden patches on it, flip and cook the other side for 45 seconds to 1 minute until the underside has golden spots and it puffs up again.
- Keep wrapped in tea towel: Stack the cooked bread and keep wrapped with a tea towel – the moisture helps soften the surface, making them even more pliable. Continue to cook with remaining pieces.
- Brush with butter or oil (optional): Brush or spray bread with olive oil or melted butter, for a more luxurious finish. Or even with melted butter mixed with minced garlic for a garlic butter version!
Recipe Notes:
Nutrition Information:
Life of Dozer
Summer, autumn, spring and winter. Rain, hail or shine.
I bake a lot of bread. This recipe is quick and easy.
I combined this with your Kofta recipe and my son was over the moon!. 🙂
Great recipe, thanks Nagi! If anyone doesn’t have a nonstick pan, I made these in a large stainless pan, worked perfectly. No oil, as per recipe. Just made sure the breads had a very light dusting of flour before putting into the hot pan.
I made it twice, first time I think I made it too hard and too thick but the taste was delicious and it was more like an Indian flat bread. Second time I made it softer and flatter. It’s like the best tortilla I’ve ever had.
This recipe works really well. At the moment I have an injured forearm, wrist, and hand, so hand-kneading dough isn’t an option. I put the dough together in my mixer, rested it, then portioned it out. A rolled the balls put just enough to be able to use my pasta rolling machine. It worked a treat & my kids enjoyed the flat bread a lot.
Thanks for sharing the recipe!
How is it even possible for EVERYTHING you have on your website to be so unbelievably good?!! It boggles my mind 😳.
I know, right?
PERFECT!!
Did anyone use whole thighs?
How long did you cook? I bought bone in thighs by mistake and took the skin off. Thanks.
OMG! This was absolutely delicious, I’m blown away. So easy to make too. I’ll definitely be putting this dish on repeat.
I didn’t find the dish too runny or watery like other comments, I just let it simmer with the lid off until it was at the thickness I wanted.
Thanks Nagi!
I made these easy flatbreads and they were perfect 👌 . I’ve failed at other recipes but this one was easy, simple and amazingly good!
These were delicious!
I altered the recipe a bit.
Instead of 3/4 milk. I added 1/2 cup of milk, and 1/4 cup of half and half.
I also added garlic salt instead of regular salt, and added in a spoon full of minced garlic. They were amazing.
In the video she uses oil in a cast iron pan… but the recipe says no oil in non stick pan ??? If I’m making flat bread for souvlaki, which is best??
Nagi mentions, right above the video that: “I’ve added oil but it’s not necessary. Please follow your recipe card below.”
I personally use a nonstick pan with oil. I have an oil sprayer and I lightly spray my nonstick skillet, then add the rolled out flatbread. While the first side is cooking, I spray the uncooked side with a little more oil, then flip when it’s ready. Came out perfect.
if you make a recipe for 12 it still says to cut the dough into 6 bits I think it should be 12
I’m looking for a flatbread recipe that I can use as a base for mini-pizzas and other types of toppings. Will this work for that purpose? I would bake ahead and then just top and bake again in the oven.
I pretty much never comment on recipes but I had to leave one for this. This turned out amazing. I was shocked at how delicious it was both in terms of taste and texture; soft, pliable and with layers. I scaled down the recipe to make just 3 and that worked out perfectly. Other flatbread recipes I’ve tried in the past have turned out too crisp, dry or hard or they’ve needed a lot of time to come together. This was super delicious and very easy and will be my go-to for flatbread going forward. Thank you for sharing this gem!
I always wanted to make one but didn’t have the time or energy. I finally tried this last night, easy peasy! Thank you for sharing the recipe,Nagi!
Yikes, I’m not sure what I did wrong but mine ended up like little dense pancakes. They didn’t puff up at all in the pan.
Absolutely easy and delicious. I went the vegan route using evoo and almond milk along with whole wheat flour. So good I impressed myself.
I’ve been making this recipe for a couple years and love the versatility of it. I roll out the dough balls very thin for tortilla shells and I use them for mini pizzas. Love, love, love this recipe!
I’ve been making these flat breads for years now but reckon it was high time I put in a comment.
*AWESOME*
That’s it 🙂
Great recipe!!! Loved the flatbread and reminds me a bit of roti! Only issue was that the thickness was not in my favor – will try portioning using a scale in the future.