How-to

How do I get the recipe from a YouTube video without watching the whole thing?

Published October 10, 2026 Last checked October 30, 2026

Four ways to get the recipe out of a YouTube video

Start with the video’s description: many channels post the full recipe, or a link to it, there. If they don’t, open YouTube’s transcript and search it for amounts, or use chapters to jump straight to the cooking. For a hands-off route, paste the link into Sous Chef and get a written recipe back.

Which one works depends on the channel. Some cooking channels put the full recipe in the description. Others link to their website. Others say every amount out loud and write nothing down. Work through these in order; most videos are solved by the first or second.

1. Read the description (10 seconds)

Tap the title or the description area under the video to expand it. Look for:

• A full ingredient list. Copy it and you’re mostly done; the steps are usually simple to follow from memory or the transcript.
• A link to the recipe. Open it. A recipe page on the creator’s site is written for cooking, with amounts and temperatures in one place.
• Chapters. Timestamps such as “3:42 Making the sauce” let you jump past intros, sponsor reads, and tasting.

2. Search the transcript (1 to 2 minutes)

For videos with captions, YouTube shows a transcript: expand the description and choose Show transcript (YouTube Help). The text runs alongside the video, and tapping a line jumps there.

Scan the transcript for amounts rather than reading it top to bottom. Useful things to look for:

• Units: “cup,” “tablespoon,” “teaspoon,” “grams,” “ounces”
• Heat: “degrees,” “oven,” “medium-high”
• Time: “minutes,” “until golden,” “until it reads”

Write each amount next to its ingredient as you find it. Auto-generated captions mishear numbers occasionally, so if “fifteen” seems wrong for the step, jump to that line and listen.

3. Paste the link into Sous Chef (hands-off)

If you’d rather not do any of that, Sous Chef does it for you on iPhone. Copy the video’s link, open Sous Chef, tap +, choose From a link, and paste. You can leave the app; the import runs in the background and the recipe appears in your library when it’s ready.

Sous Chef reads the description together with the voiceover, the text on screen, and what the cook is doing, so an amount that’s only said aloud still makes it into the recipe. Amounts it had to estimate are labeled as estimates. If a video makes two or three dishes, each becomes its own recipe. The result credits the channel and keeps a link to the video for when you do want to watch a technique.

Two limits: the video has to be public, and it has to be ten minutes or shorter. For longer videos, use the description and transcript, then paste the text you gathered into Sous Chef’s Paste text import and it will shape it into ingredients and steps.

4. When nothing is written down anywhere

Some videos never state an amount: “a bit of this, a glug of that.” That isn’t a recipe yet, and no tool can recover numbers the creator never gave. Borrow ratios from a tested recipe for the same dish, and use a thermometer rather than a time for meat. Our guide to TikTok recipes with no measurements covers how, and it applies to YouTube too.

A worked example

Say you’ve found a 9-minute video for a weeknight chicken curry. Here’s how the routes compare in practice.

Description first. You expand it and find a sponsor link, the channel’s social handles, and a line that says “full recipe on the website.” You tap through and get the written recipe. Done in under a minute. This happens more often than people expect, so always start here.

If there’s no recipe link. You open Show transcript and look for amounts. You find “two tablespoons of oil,” “one big onion,” “a thumb of ginger,” “a tin of coconut milk,” “about 600 grams of chicken thighs,” and “simmer for 15 minutes.” The spice amounts aren’t said, but the on-screen text at 3:10 shows them. Total time: a few minutes, plus jotting things down.

If you use Sous Chef. You paste the link and go back to what you were doing. The recipe arrives with the spoken amounts, the on-screen spice amounts, and the steps, and “a thumb of ginger” is kept as the creator said it rather than being turned into a made-up gram weight. If any amount had to be estimated, it’s labeled.

Whichever route you take, read the result once before you shop. You’re looking for an ingredient without an amount, a missing temperature, or a step that mentions something not on the ingredient list.

Why recipes hide in videos at all

Cooking channels are paid for watch time, and a written recipe in the description lets viewers leave sooner. Many channels compromise by putting the recipe on their own site, which earns them a visit instead. That’s worth honoring: if a creator offers a written recipe, use theirs and give them the visit.

Common questions

Does every YouTube video have a transcript?

No. The transcript comes from captions, so a video without captions (uploaded or auto-generated) won’t have one. Sous Chef doesn’t rely on YouTube’s transcript; it reads the video itself.

Can I do this on the YouTube website instead of the app?

Yes. On a computer, the description, chapters, and Show transcript work the same way, and a transcript is easier to skim on a big screen.

Does this work for YouTube Shorts?

Shorts rarely have chapters, but the description and Sous Chef import both work. Paste a Shorts link the same way as a regular video link.

Why won’t my YouTube link import?

The usual reasons are a video over ten minutes, a private or deleted video, or a video with no recipe in it. See why a TikTok or YouTube recipe won’t import.