Yogurt Recipes: Our Best Sweet and Savory Dishes

Butter Chicken

Butter Chicken was originally dreamed up as a way to make the most of extra tandoori chicken. (Much like our best rotisserie chicken recipes will coach you through creative ways to enjoy leftover poultry!) The saucy, warmly-spiced round two recipe skyrocketed in popularity quickly, and is now something we make on purpose often. Plain Greek yogurt tenderizes the chicken thighs and acts as a vehicle to infuse the coriander, cumin, turmeric, cayenne, and lemon as the meat marinates. Once cooked and coated in the ginger-y tomato cream sauce, the result is “the easiest and most delicious chicken recipe I have enjoyed in a very long time,” one BHG home cook says. “Warm but not too spicy to enjoy.”

Multicooker Yogurt

No yogurt recipe round-up is complete without a guide for how to make yogurt at home. This easy hands-off recipe comes together in your Instant Pot, and all you need is a half gallon of milk and a couple spoonfuls of plain Greek yogurt to act as your “starter.” Cook in the “Yogurt” setting, and you’ll be treated to 8 cups of creamy yogurt for far less money than it would cost to buy 16 cartons.

Test Kitchen Tip: To turn your homemade regular yogurt into Greek yogurt, line a strainer with cheesecloth or a coffee filter. Cover and chill for 3 to 4 hours, or until enough of the liquid drips off to reach your desired consistency.

Roasted Strawberry Frozen Yogurt

Use your homemade yogurt recipe or the store-bought kind to recreate your neighborhood scoop shop’s froyo. Either tastes incredible once ribboned with roasted strawberries. (Roasting fruit concentrates the flavor and makes the berries taste even richer and sweeter.) For a welcome crunch and salty finish to this “hard pack” frozen yogurt, we recommend topping each serving with a small handful of crushed pretzels.

Grilled Moroccan Beef Skewers with Yogurt Sauce

This colorful Middle Eastern-inspired kabob recipe is “SO GOOD! One of our favorite grilled beef dishes,” one BHG fan raves. The juicy marinated sirloin steak and tomato skewers are noteworthy on their own, however, once you drizzle them with the easy lemon- and parsley-scented yogurt recipe, the low-carb recipe becomes irresistible. Quite possibly even better than the flavor? The fact that this beef, tomato, and yogurt recipe asks for just 20 minutes of prep time.

Hearty Whole Grain and Yogurt Boule

Homemade bread doesn’t come much easier than this. Dried fruit, oats, molasses, yogurt, and nutty, malty rye flour elevate these almost-no-knead loaves far above their supermarket white bread competition, in terms of sturdiness, nutrition, and flavor. To hint at one of the secret ingredients inside, top your slice of toasted whole grain bread with a dollop of yogurt and drizzle of honey.

French Yogurt Cake with Apricot-Cherry-Compote

Delightfully dense and nutty, yet with a burst of brightness from lemon zest, this cake batter scores its unique texture from three ingredient additions. In the dry mix, almond flour lends a hint of nuttiness, which acts as an ideal complement to the stone fruit in the compote. And on the wet side, a combination of vanilla yogurt (Greek or regular) and crème fraîche make the cake crumb ultra moist.

Cream Cheese and Yogurt Fruit Dip

This 5-ingredient yogurt recipe is so easy, you’ll quickly memorize it. We’re speaking from experience:  We whip this up so often to pair with whatever fruit is in season, we know the easy dip recipe by heart! And it’s so delicious, you’ll probably want to enjoy it straight from a spoon. Simply blend a softened “brick” of cream cheese with a carton of plain yogurt, a small scoop of brown sugar (to balance out the tangy yogurt), a splash of vanilla, and enough milk to land at a dippable texture.

Marinated Shrimp Salad with Creamy Dill Dressing

While we showcase this dill, lemon, and yogurt recipe as a salad dressing for this light and refreshing shrimp platter, you could certainly savor the dressing as a dip for crudités or chips. The magic happens in a blender (or food processor). Simply blitz together yogurt, fresh lemon juice, fresh dill, and a pinch of salt. The blade whips the herbs and citrus juice into the yogurt so it reaches a dreamy, drizzle-able texture.

Gluten-Free Zucchini Muffins with Greek Yogurt Frosting

Are they muffins or are they cupcakes? Only you can decide. The brown sugar-sweetened batter tastes like a zucchini dessert, especially once you top the baked beauties with vanilla yogurt frosting. But the fact that the yogurt recipe contains summer squash, and sneaks in applesauce and quinoa means that these treats are totally nutritious enough to eat for breakfast, if you ask us.

Almond-Carrot Cake Smoothies

Speaking of dessert for breakfast, this high-protein smoothie recipe is a piece of cake to make…and tastes just like a slice of that cake! Orange juice, carrot, cinnamon and cream cheese deliver on the carrot cake promise, while oats, banana, almond butter, and vanilla Greek yogurt make this drink satisfying enough to count as your morning meal. And unlike its baked inspiration, this creation can be yours in 10 minutes flat.

Spicy Chicken with Cucumber Yogurt Sauce

Before these wings are baked, we call for marinating the chicken in a yogurt mixture that’s overflowing with warm and fiery spice. But the yogurt recipe magic doesn’t stop there. Refreshing tzatziki, a cucumber and herb yogurt sauce with roots in Southeastern Europe and the Middle East, is the inspiration for this cool chicken wing dip that we suggest serving alongside. That easy sauce is just the ticket to tame the heat of the heat of the curry-, cayenne-, and paprika-marinated wings.

Breakfast Salad

It’s much easier to reach your goal of 5 servings per day (and use up your fruits and vegetables before they go bad) if you start the day with a healthy dose of produce. This hearty salad recipe takes many of our favorite elements from the classic breakfast menu—everything bagels, bacon, poached eggs, avocado, and fruit—and features them atop a big bed of leafy greens and tomatoes. The yogurt recipe can be found in the shake-and-pour salad dressing, which is pepped up by everything bagel seasoning, lemon juice, and black pepper.

2-Ingredient Bagels

These chewy bagels are so delicious, they’re better by the dozen. (Otherwise they’re gone far too quickly!) Good thing the plain Greek yogurt recipe only requires one other ingredient: self-rising flour. You don’t even need to wait for the dough to rise or proof. As soon as you’re done mixing and forming the dough into round ropes, it’s ready to bake.

Test Kitchen Tip: For the best texture and visual appeal, brush the formed bagels with an egg wash prior to baking. If desired, sprinkle the still-wet tops with everything bagel seasoning, sesame seeds, dried minced garlic, flaky sea salt, or cinnamon-sugar to recreate your bagel shop favorites.

Berry Smoothie Cubes

If you’re tired of measuring the ingredients for a  healthy smoothie day after day, or worry about the lifespan of your fresh fruit, smoothie cubes are here to save you so much time, energy, and food waste. At the start of the week, blend together a bounty of fresh berries, a banana, orange or apple juice, honey, and a small carton of Greek yogurt. Pour this vibrant blend into ice cube tray wells, allow them to freeze overnight, then transfer to a freezer-safe zip-top bag for up to 6 months. (They never last even close to that long for us!) Come breakfast or snack time, simply whirl together 5 or 6 cubes with ¾ cup milk or plant-based milk.