Instant Pot Yogurt Recipe (Step-by-Step)

Making yogurt at home is easier than what you think. This instant pot yogurt recipe is easy to follow and gives you the creamiest yogurt. 

If you own an instant pot, you probably know how convenient it is. I love mine especially when it comes to making yogurt. It's a simple recipe that's mostly hands-off. Other favorite instant pot recipes are instant pot white rice recipe, instant pot brown rice recipe and instant pot lentil soup. 

Jump to:

• Why make yogurt at home? 
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• The temperature
• Instant pot Greek yogurt
• Frequently asked questions
• Usage
• Storage
• Notes and tips
• Step-by-Step Recipe

Why make yogurt at home? 

Yogurt has a special place in the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean cuisines and is usually served as a dip or side dish such as tzatziki or mast-o khiar at meals alongside main dishes. While it might seem that making yogurt at home could be a difficult and risky task, it's good to know that if you use your instant pot to make it, it's actually pretty simple and straight forward. You can make your own yogurt at home with no hassle and very minimal hands-on time using your pressure cooker. 

Now, why would anyone want to make yogurt at home? Well, here are a few reasons:

• Flavor: The flavor of homemade yogurt is sweeter and less tangy compare to store-bought. 
• Cost: The cost of making yogurt in your instant pot is half of what you pay to buy yogurt at a store. 
• Texture: Instant pot yogurt is so creamy and much smoother than the store-bought version.  

Even though the process of making yogurt in the instant pot is quite long, but it has no more than 5 minutes of hands-on time. This is a fool-proof recipe that turns out perfectly every time. 

Ingredients

You only need two ingredients to make yogurt at home. Please read through to learn all the details.

Milk

We have tried making instant pot yogurt using milk with different fat content and the result is that you can make the best instant pot yogurt using whole milk or 2% milk. Please don't use skim milk as it will result in yogurt that's not flavorful and has a pretty runny texture. 

Starter

You always, always need a started to make yogurt at home. The starter is added directly to the heated milk to form the yogurt. 

The most common started to use in instant pot yogurt recipe is store-bought yogurt that contains active bacterial cultures. When buying yogurt, check out the ingredient list to make sure it contains active bacterial cultures. The yogurt you're using as a starter should be plain, meaning that vanilla yogurt or any other flavored yogurt won't work. 

Once you make your first batch of homemade instant pot yogurt, you can keep ¼ cup of that yogurt to use as a starter for the next batch. 

Instructions

There are four main steps to make instant pot yogurt at home: 

1. Clean your instant pot: This is an optional step but if you cook a lot of chili and stews in your instant pot, I strongly advise you to take this step. To clean the inner pot of your instant pot, simply wash it in the dishwasher (separate the plastic ring and wash it separately). Once the pot, the ring and the lid are dry, place the ring in the lid again and wash the pot once more only with hot water. Dry the pot and put it in the instant pot. 
2. Heat the milk: Pour the milk into the pot and seal the lid on the instant pot. It doesn't matter if you set the valve on sealing or venting since the instant pot won't be using pressure. Press the yogurt function on the instant pot until the screen shows "boil". Let the instant pot do its work and heat the milk. This will take about 60 to 90 minutes. 
3. Cool the milk and add the starter: Once the milk is heated, your instant pot will beep. Take the inner pot out and immediately put it into an ice water bath (a large bowl filled with ice water) and place an instant read thermometer in the milk. Slowly whisk the milk until the temperature reads at 110ºF. If the milk has formed a "skin", remove it. Take out ½ cup milk and stir it into the starter yogurt. Add the starter and milk back to the pot and whisk gently without touching the bottom of the pot. 
4. Incubation: Return the pot into the instant pot and press the yogurt button again. Adjust it to 8 hours and let the instant pot start the incubation process. After 8 hours, your yogurt is set and ready to be stored. 

The temperature

You absolutely need an instant read thermometer to make the best instant pot yogurt at home. This is because the temperature of the milk should reach the temperature between 105ºF and 110ºF and that's exactly when you should add the starter to the milk. 

Instant pot Greek yogurt

The yogurt you make at home might be a bit runnier and smoother than store-bought and the reason is that homemade yogurt does not contain any kind of stabilizer such as pectin. Now if you'd like your homemade instant pot yogurt to have the same texture as Greek yogurt, here is how to do it:

• Place a strainer on top of a bowl. 
• Line the strainer with two layers of cheesecloth.
• Pour the yogurt into the strainer and let the whey drip out for at least one hour. If you like a denser yogurt, you can leave the yogurt and strainer with the bowl in the fridge for the whey to drip for up to 8 hours. 
• Once the yogurt has reached your desired consistency, whisk it and store it. This yogurt is going to be smooth and quite dense.   

Frequently asked questions

Usage

There are so many ways to use your homemade yogurt. You can top it with some strawberries and blueberries, granola and honey to have a nice breakfast. Or you can blend it with fruit to make smoothies. If like me, you like to make savory recipes using yogurt, you need to check out these recipes: 

• Ayran (Yogurt drink)
• Tzatziki
• Borani (spinach yogurt dip)
• Cacik (Turkish yogurt and cucumber)
• Cilbir (Turkish eggs)
• Mast o khiar (Persian yogurt cucumber dip)

Storage

Yogurt is alive and needs immediate refrigeration. The longer the yogurt stays, the tangier and looser it'll become. Homemade instant pot yogurt keeps for about ten days in the fridge. Make sure to store your homemade yogurt in glass jars or containers for the best result. 

Notes and tips

• You don't need to strain your yogurt. Straining is only required if you're looking to have Greek style yogurt that's pretty dense. 
• The yogurt you make in your instant pot tends to be sweeter than store-bought yogurt so you probably don't need to sweeten it at all. However, honey or maple syrup can work very well if you would like to sweeten the yogurt. 
• If you want the yogurt to be tangier, adjust the yogurt button to 10 hours instead of 8 hours. The longer it incubates, the tangier the yogurt will be. 
• Can I use my homemade instant pot yogurt as a starter? Absolutely. Your homemade yogurt makes the best starter. 

Step-by-Step Recipe