Keema Naan is a North Indian stuffed bread: a leavened naan filled with spiced minced meat and baked in a tandoor so the shell chars and puffs while the meat cooks sealed inside. It belongs to the family of stuffed tandoor breads, and its identity is the contrast between a soft, blistered, slightly pulled naan and a dry, finely spiced mince hidden in its middle. The meat is not a side here, it is the filling that flavors the crumb from within. The angle is a complete bread eaten as a course in its own right, torn and used with a curry or eaten plain with onion, where the test is an even seal and a fully cooked, well-seasoned core.
The build is fill-and-bake, and dryness of the filling is the controlling variable. The naan dough is a soft, leavened white-flour dough, usually enriched with yogurt and rested so it stretches without tearing. The mince is finely worked and either pre-cooked or tightly seasoned with onion, ginger, garlic, green chili, and warm spice, then kept dry so it does not soak through. A ball of dough is filled, sealed, and stretched into the long teardrop shape with the seam protected, then slapped onto the inside wall of a screaming tandoor and baked until it balloons, chars in spots, and the inside is done. Pulled off, it is brushed with butter. Good execution gives a thin-walled, charred, airy bread with a moist but dry-bound, deeply spiced mince spread evenly to the edges. Sloppy execution is a leaking seam that splits in the oven, a thick raw band of dough where it was rolled too heavy, or a bland, sparsely filled center.
It shifts by meat, spice level, and what it is paired with. Lamb, goat, and chicken mince all appear; the seasoning runs from gently aromatic to sharply chili-led, and chopped coriander or fried onion is sometimes worked into the filling. It is most often served with a rich gravy to dip into or alongside a simple raw onion and lemon. The plain and garlic naan it descends from, and the pan-cooked keema of the same kitchens, are distinct dishes and each deserves its own article rather than being crowded in here. What stays constant is the form: a charred tandoor bread baked around a dry, well-spiced mince so it finishes as one piece.