It’s easy to go down the rabbit hole of cooking videos on YouTube. From funny ones to useful videos, celebrity chefs, and amateurs, the best cooking videos on YouTube run the gamut. If you’re curious to learn the basics or improve your skills in the culinary arts, YouTube has you covered.
We have scoured the video-sharing site and found some of the best cooking videos you can watch on YouTube. Curl up with a cup of hot cocoa, a beer, or a glass of wine and prepare to be entertained. When you’re done and ready to invest more time, check out the best free movies on YouTube right now.
Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, or another occasion, cooking a turkey is probably going to come up in your life at some point. Don’t order a precooked one, then dress it to look like you made it. It’s important to know how to make a turkey and, more critically, how to cook one well. Who better to teach you than celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay? In this 14-minute video, he walks you through the steps to making a moist and flavorful turkey.
Learn lots of useful tips along the way: think squeezing lemon into the basting butter, how to loosen the skin to stuff the butter inside it, and why you should top it with bacon. Finish off the lesson by learning how to use the drippings to create a delicious gravy. Ramsay includes details about making simple sides as well, including potatoes and chicken with garlic and chestnut stuffing.
Joshua Weissman has worked in many professional kitchens and has taken the knowledge he has acquired over the years with him. Even though he admits that he doesn’t have any formal culinary training, his years of experience have taught him more than schooling ever could. He delivers some of the most practical hacks in the form of 100 useful tips for those learning to cook or trying to perfect their cooking prowess.
The video is long at over 36 minutes, but it’s perfect to watch through your half-hour commute home from the office. Learn things like how to properly wash fresh produce, how to peel many cloves of garlic at the same time, how to quickly shred chicken, why you should use chicken thighs versus chicken breasts, and a clever secondary use for a wire rack.
If you just got a smoker or plan to get one, this video is a must-watch. From one of the most prominent names in the pitmaster space, Aaron Franklin, owner of the iconic Franklin’s Barbecue in Austin, Texas, walks you through prepping a brisket for smoking. He starts with how to choose and trim the right cut of meat to seasoning it with the simplest of spice mixes.
This video is the first in a two-part series. The first one is all about the prep, then follows it up with BBQ with Franklin: The Cook. Here, he walks you through how to tend to the brisket once it’s on the smoker. Making melt-in-your-mouth brisket is mostly about letting it sit and cook for hours, So Franklin takes a load off while discussing tips that will be invaluable to those looking to impress friends and family at the next cookout.
Yes, there’s a second video with Gordon Ramsay. But there’s a reason he’s one of the most well-known and celebrated celebrity chefs around. Much of his cooking on shows like MasterChef and Hell’s Kitchen seem complex, in this video, he teaches you how to make a series of quick and simple recipes at home. Each uses common ingredients you likely already have in your refrigerator and pantry.
Learn how to make a quick stir fry with chicken and noodles, use up leftover mashed potatoes to make homemade gnocchi, and finally, how to make an indulgent cheesecake that will have guests begging for the recipe. You can also smell the dishes right through the computer or phone screen.
Whoever said you needed a stove, even a barbecue or smoker, to make a delicious, tender, juicy steak? Wilderness Cooking shows that all you need are two logs, salt, pepper, garlic, and, of course, a fire and rack to make steaks just about anywhere. The video is completely silent, but you’ll be mesmerized watching the step-by-step process.
Deep in the snowy mountains with two impressive cuts of meat, this video will have outdoorsy folks excited to try to replicate the cook while they’re on their next hike or camping trip. The dinner looks like it’s to die for, with meat that falls right off the bone. No forks or cutlery needed for this one! It’ll inspire many to switch from frozen burgers and hot dogs to something more elevated outdoors.
Susur Lee is one of the most well-respected celebrity chefs. Hailing from Canada, he owns restaurants in his home country, the U.S., and Singapore. He competed on Top Chef: Masters (where he tied for second place) and has appeared on shows like Iron Chef America. This YouTube channel, on which Lee appears with his son, features the talented chef turning all types of budget food into gourmet delights.
In this video, he shows how to take a $0.99 cup of dried noodles and transform it into something delicious. For those cooking on a budget and looking to elevate whatever they have in their pantry, it’s a fascinating video. Yes, you’ll need some more expensive ingredients like shrimp, but no one will believe that the base was noodles that cost under a buck.
Eggs are one of the most basic things to cook, yet many people have trouble perfecting them. In the culinary industry, cooking an egg is often one of the first things you learn how to do. You can’t learn to cook until you master cooking the perfect egg. This video from Tasty is a quick and simple one that offers tips to help you perfect cooking eggs in five common ways: scrambled, fried, boiled, and poached two ways.
Learn about the right type of skillet to use, how to easily remove shells, the correct heat and timing, and more. The overhead view as the steps are spoken makes the guide easy to follow. You can watch, listen, pause, and replicate as many times as needed until you get it right.
Parents are busier than ever, and kids love to be involved. Cooking is a crucial skill that every child should learn once they’re old enough and take with them to adulthood. This video from WhatsUpMoms shows three easy breakfasts kids can make themselves. Instead of grabbing for the cereal and milk, kids can whip up scrambled eggs, two-ingredient banana pancakes, or sticky buns.
The young boy who heads up this video while his mom watches from the side (off camera) is totally engaging and absolutely adorable. This is a great cooking video to watch with your kids and for kids to follow along with while they try to replicate the recipes.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.