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This is your foolproof guide to making healthy homemade Greek yogurt. With just two simple ingredients and basic kitchen tools, you can enjoy homemade Greek yogurt that is healthier and more flavorful than store-bought versions.
save this recipe!Milk is made up of casein and whey. While whey is the watery substance left when the milk curdles, casein is what curdles and is used to make cheese and yogurt! And the best part? This process is incredibly easy to do at home!
Hundreds of people have used this recipe to successfully make yogurt in their kitchens—yours next?
- Control the ingredients: No thickeners or added sugars—just milk and live cultures (aka yogurt).
- Budget-friendly: A quart of homemade yogurt costs a fraction of the store-bought stuff.
- Double-duty: You also get whey (the leftover liquid), which you can use in smoothies, bread, or cooking grains.
Reader rating
“I just gave it my first go and it turned out perfect! Never dreamed making yogurt was so easy!” —Nicole
Just 2 Ingredients
Yogurt is a fermentation (just like kefir, kombucha, and kimchi), meaning it’s created by adding some bacteria (yogurt) to a sugar-containing substance (milk) and letting the bacteria eat up the sugar. So to make yogurt at home, you’ll just need 2 ingredients:
- Yogurt: Use a good-quality yogurt with live or active cultures listed on the label. (After this first batch, all future batches can use what you made as the yogurt starter. You’ll never need to buy it again!)
- Milk: Whole-fat milk produces the best texture for homemade yogurt.
This is just an overview; jump to the recipe card for measurements!
The process is simple
This is just an overview; jump to the recipe card for full printable instructions and step-by-step photos!
- Heat the milk: Warm milk to 185–200°F. This changes its proteins so the yogurt thickens properly.
- Cool it down: Quickly cool to 100–110°F. This is the ideal temp for activating the yogurt cultures.
- Add the starter: Whisk in live culture yogurt to introduce the bacteria that make yogurt.
- Ferment: Cover and let sit in a warm spot (like the oven with the light on) for 4–8 hours to thicken and develop tang.
- Strain (optional): For Greek yogurt, strain in the fridge until it reaches your preferred consistency.
- Store and enjoy: Chill and use as you would store-bought yogurt—sweet or savory!
Tips For Success
Keep it warm: The oven light should be enough, but if your kitchen’s cold, turn the oven on for one minute every few hours to gently rewarm.
Tanginess depends on time: A 4-hour ferment makes mild yogurt. Closer to 8 hours = tangier.
Save some as a starter: You can use a few tablespoons of your homemade batch as a starter for the next one.
More than just for breakfast
Use your freshly made Greek yogurt to whip up Spinach Artichoke Dip or Healthy French Onion Dip. And my favorite way to use Greek yogurt? In this quick and easy tzatziki sauce!
How to Make Greek Yogurt (No Special Equipment)
Equipment
- Medium pot with lid, aim for the heaviest/thickest pot you have
- Kitchen thermometer
- Quart-sized jar or bowl
- Mesh sieve
- Cheesecloth or thin dishcloth, coffee filters, paper towels etc. placed inside a mesh strainer
Ingredients
- 4 cups whole milk, 960 mL
- ¼ cup plain store-bought yogurt, ensure the container says “live” or “active” cultures, 60 g
Instructions
- Heat Milk: Place 4 cups whole milk in a medium pot and heat to 185-200°F (85-93°C), stirring frequently to preventing a skin from forming.
- Cool Bath: Transfer the pot with milk to an ice bath (I filled my sink with ice and water), to cool milk to 100-110°F (37-43°C).
- Mix: Add ¼ cup plain store-bought yogurt to the cooled milk and whisk well to combine.
- Ferment: Cover jar or bowl with a lid, wrap in a moist, warm towel to keep in heat, and place in oven. Turn on oven light to keep warm, and let the bacteria do its yogurt making magic for 4 to 8 hours (or overnight).*
- Strain: You can eat the yogurt like this, or strain it to make Greek yogurt. To strain, line a mesh sieve with cheesecloth (or paper towels, coffee filters etc), and pour yogurt in. Place over a large bowl and let strain in the fridge for a few hours (or overnight), until it’s reach a consistency you like.
- Serve chilled with your favorite yogurt toppings, or use it in a recipe as you would store-bought yogurt!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information calculated by Sarah Bond, degreed nutritionist.
did you make this?Leave a comment below and tag @liveeatlearn on social media! I love seeing what you’ve made!
I did this with store-bought Bulgarian yogurt and successfully made 5-6 batches over the past 2 weeks, playing with different experimental conditions each time. I found that:
1. For thicker yogurt: bring milk to a gentle (not rolling) boil, simmer for 10-20 min (14-15 min seems to be a sweet spot for me)
2. For more/less sour yogurt: vary the amount of starter and culturing time. A 1/2T starter: 1 c milk ratio for 4 hours (it’s sufficient to set it) is my favorite so far.
I did each batch with starter from the previous (except the first) and fermented them in my oven with the proofing function.
I’ve read that cultures can weaken over time especially if we’re using store-bought yogurt. It hasn’t happened to me yet – just wondering if this is true?
Thank you!
I don’t see why it would weaken over time, and it hasn’t happened to be either!
Yogurt is much like sourdough. You are feeding a multiplying family of bacteria (vs yeast in sourdough, but still a living critter). Old ones die and new are ‘born’, so it shouldn’t weaken over time, so long as you are taking proper care of the colony. The bacteria may evolve over time, depending on environmental conditions, and this can alter flavor profile (one of the reasons you get regional variations in fermented foods). But so long as it is properly nurtured the colony should continue to thrive.
I’ve been making it roughly once a week now. It works out great. I’ve stated you use the recipe in a “Crockpot”- like cooker until I’m ready to strain the yogurt. Works just as well except I have to change the thermometer as the pot one only goes down to 140 degrees.
This turned out really great using 2% milk and plain Chobani yogurt as a starter. I used my slow cooker to heat milk, on high, until temp was reached. Didn’t have to worry about stirring. Took the crock part out and cooled that down in a water bath in the sink and then did the starter process. Put the crock in the oven with the bread proof feature on, about 95 degrees. Let it go 8 hours and then set up a strainer lined with gauze 🙂 over a pot with a cover and strained overnight in the fridge. Nice and thick and tasty! ***Note that newer ovens have LED lights that don’t put out enough heat to set the yogurt***. Ordered a strainer/container from Amazon for next batch. Thanks for the article!
There are fat, it’s no good 🙁
How do you know if the yogurt has a live culture?
It will usually say on the back! On the ingredients label looks for “live and active cultures” (which is usually followed by a bunch of weird names like L. acidophilus and B. bifidus).
My new Insta-Pot dutch oven has a “Manual” setting that allowed me to choose 100* for 8 hours…I set the bowl of mixture inside and that was it – so easy. I’m really happy with how simple this was and the good results. 🙂
I need to know if the small amount of plain yogurt I’ll be using to make homemade yogurt has any cane sugar in it? I was told by someone that plain yogurt needs some sugar in the making process. I can’t have even the smallest amount of sugar right now
It shouldn’t need added sugar. The lactose in the yogurt is a form of milk sugar, which is all the fermentation needs. No cane sugar required! 😀
If the yogurt is fermenting for several hours in a warm place, shouldn’t gasses be allowed to escape? Your directions say to put a lid on it.
If you were to let is ferment for days you might need to remove the lid, but in our experience the lid helps keep warmth in and doesn’t bottle up too much gas in that time 😀
When you make yogurt, it is lactic acid fermentation. The bacteria “feed” on the lactose in the milk and convert the lactose into lactic acid. The lactic acid causes the proteins in the milk to denature and form a thick substance…aka yogurt. There is no gas produced with this form of fermentation. Another form, alcoholic fermentation, produces alcohol and carbon dioxide gas. This is what yeast carry out in bread making, wine making and beer & spirit making. You would leave the CO2 in the beverage if you want a carbonated beverage.
This yogurt was amazing. It is not as tart as the store bought kind, so I just added some mango from my tree and nothing else to sweeten it. Because I am lactose intolerant, I used an A2 whole milk and it set up fine. I used my Instant Pot and followed the settings. I strained it in the fridge for 8 hours and the result was just lovely.
If I could give this recipe 100 stars, I would.
I have read that to get a thin yoghurt you heat the milk to 180°F and maintain that temperature for 10 minutes and to get a thicker yoghurt you maintain that temperature for 20 minutes. I’m just trying out now.
I’d love to hear how it goes, Tam!