---
title: "Naan Pizza"
description: "A naan used as a pizza base, topped with tikka masala sauce, cheddar and leftover chicken, then cooked in the air fryer for about eight minutes."
category: "Lunch"
cuisine: "British"
serves: "1"
prep: "10 mins"
cook: "8-10 mins"
author: "Thomas Chaplin"
site: "Chaplin Kitchen"
url: "https://chaplinkitchen.com/r/naan-pizza/"
datePublished: "2026-10-14T12:30:00+01:00"
dateModified: "2026-10-14T12:30:00+01:00"
---

# Naan Pizza

A naan used as a pizza base, topped with tikka masala sauce, cheddar and leftover chicken, then cooked in the air fryer for about eight minutes.

**Category:** Lunch · **Cuisine:** British · **Serves:** 1 · **Prep:** 10 mins · **Cook:** 8-10 mins

**Recipe URL:** https://chaplinkitchen.com/r/naan-pizza/

## Ingredients

- 1 naan bread _(shop-bought, plain or garlic and coriander)_
- 2 tbsp curry sauce _(tikka masala or similar)_
- 60g cheddar cheese _(grated)_
- 80g cooked chicken slices _(tikka or another flavoured one if you have it)_
- 1/2 small onion _(diced)_
- 1/2 bell pepper _(diced)_

## Method

1. **Heat the oven.** Set the air fryer to 180°C, or the oven to 200°C fan/220°C/gas 7. Both want to be fully up to temperature before the naan goes in — a cold start is what gives you a soft, steamed base instead of a crisp one.
2. **Spread the sauce.** Spread the curry sauce over the naan in a thin, even layer, leaving a finger's width bare around the edge so there is a rim to hold. Two tablespoons looks mean and is exactly right; any more and it turns the bread underneath to paste.
3. **Cheese next, not last.** Scatter the grated cheddar straight over the sauce, all the way to the sauce's edge. It goes on before the toppings rather than over them on purpose — melting from underneath, it sets around everything else and holds the lot together when you pick a slice up.
4. **Lay on the chicken.** Tear or slice the cooked chicken into rough pieces and spread them over the cheese, so you get some in every bite rather than a pile in the middle.
5. **Scatter the vegetables.** Finish with the diced onion and bell pepper, scattered evenly over the top. Cut small, they roast and soften in the same few minutes the cheese takes; cut big, they come out raw and crunch through everything.
6. **Bake until it bubbles.** Air fryer: 6-8 minutes at 180°C. Oven: 8-10 minutes, straight on the shelf or on a preheated tray. It is ready when the cheese is molten and blistered in a few places and the edge of the naan has gone crisp and slightly darker.
7. **Rest, then slice.** Give it 2 minutes on a board before cutting. The cheese needs that long to stop being liquid, and the base firms up as it cools — cut it straight out of the heat and everything slides off the front.

## Notes

- The naan is the whole recipe, so buy a good one. The thick, pillowy supermarket ones with a bit of char on them work best; the thin, pale, long-life ones dry out to a cracker in the time the cheese takes to melt.
- Garlic and coriander naan is the upgrade for no extra effort, and a peshwari one is the surprise — the sweetness against a hot tikka sauce is properly good, if not what anyone expects.
- Cheese under the toppings is the one thing worth not rearranging. Over the top it browns before the chicken has warmed through; underneath it melts into the sauce and glues the vegetables down.
- Cheddar for flavour, mozzarella for the pull, and half of each if you want both. A mature cheddar earns its place here because it has to hold its own against the curry sauce, and a mild one simply disappears into it.
- Any curry sauce in the fridge works — korma goes sweet and mild, rogan josh deeper, a madras will genuinely bite. Leftover curry works too, if you drain it first and chop anything big; it is the loose sauce you want, not the stew.
- Flavoured chicken is worth the extra thirty pence. Tikka or piri-piri slices bring their own seasoning to what is otherwise a fairly plain topping, and plain slices need a pinch of salt and a little curry powder to keep up.
- Red onion is milder and looks better; white onion is sharper and sweeter once roasted. Whichever it is, dice it small — this is not a recipe with enough time in it to cook big pieces.
- The air fryer is the better tool here by some margin: the fan hits the base as hard as the top, so the naan crisps instead of going leathery. Check at six minutes, because the difference between blistered and burnt is about ninety seconds.
- Air fryer baskets vary. If the naan is bigger than yours, cut it in half before topping it rather than curling it up the sides, where the raised edge shields the middle and it cooks unevenly.
- It takes anything a pizza takes: jalapeños, sweetcorn, red chilli, a handful of spinach under the cheese. Mango chutney dotted over before it bakes is the one that surprises people.
- Finish it the way you would a curry rather than a pizza — fresh coriander, a squeeze of lime, a drizzle of raita or plain yogurt loosened with water. It cuts through cheese and curry sauce at once.
- It scales to whoever turns up: one naan each, everything assembled on a board, and they go through the air fryer two at a time while the first person is still eating.