3 Ways to Cook Octopus Like a Chef

How to cook octopus at home — the easy way. No sous-vide, no rock smashing. Just 3 delicious octopus recipes from a chef.
Learn how to prep octopus, steam it to tenderness, make a pressed terrine, and roast it Portuguese-style — all with simple, home-cookable techniques.
Whether you’re nervous about trying octopus or want to master it, this is the ultimate octopus cooking guide.

00:00 – Why Octopus Scares People
00:14 – Method 1: Steamed & Plancha-Seared Octopus
03:05 – Method 2: Boiled & Pressed Octopus Terrine
07:37 – Method 3: Portuguese Tray-Baked Octopus

octopus is one of the most intimidating things to cook Slimy chewy impossible to get right Also people say but it’s easier than you think We’re cooking octopus three different ways No suvid no tricks just simple methods you can actually use One of them might be the best thing I’ve actually cooked all year But before we start let’s talk about what octopus needs to become tender So the most important thing about octopus is it’s one of the only ingredients that we get in fresh and then deliberately freeze We always put it in the freezer frozen solid There’s a lot of myths around octopus A lot of people say that you need to bash it against the rock That does work but the best way to tenderize it is to freeze it Water that’s in the cells expands and then breaks the cell wall of the octopus I’m just going to let running water go over the octopus until it defrosts So what I actually do is I just snip the heads off above the eyes but typically I separate the tentacles out now and just cut off each individual tentacle Take this off the octopus I always find it just gives you a really clean finish as soon as they come out the steamer One even layer not all piled up on top of each other We’re just going to take them to the steamer 85° 2 hours And that’s it Okay so our two hours is up We’ll check our Rocky You can use a knife to check it or to poke it but basically all I’m looking for is is basically just giving it a really nice squeeze and just make sure it’s really really tender So I’ll just cut off the end of one of the tentacles And if the knife just glides through you know it’s cut You’re looking for the kind of texture of like a really of a almost like calamari uh but maybe with a little bit more give to it The heads Yeah Should be able to sort of squeeze squeeze for it I’m going to show you how we would serve this at row restaurant This is what we call a plancher You can use something like a cast iron grill but basically good hit of salt good bit of pepper Roasting it on the plancher It’s a very sort of a almost traditional sort of Spanish way of cooking it It’s such a simple thing uh once you have the understanding But I feel like people potentially they over complicate it too much or you know that there’s all these little wives tales about like putting a cork in your pan when you cook your octopus I don’t think any of that makes any difference I’m coloring it all around not just the sides So I’ve got some on the bottom as well And that roasted octopus flavor there’s almost there’s almost nothing like it So I’m just taking off the tail which is you don’t want it to get too crispy I’m not going to do anything with this other than brush it with lots and lots of garlic butter lemon juice herbs That’s it Okay Then just to finish what I’m trying to what I’m doing now is I’m just flipping it over onto the tentacle side which I always think people uh neglect and I’m just getting a little bit of a crisp For me the best thing about octopus is when it goes really nice and crispy and those tentacles often get forgotten about So this is just our little garlic pulp reduction So a little touch of parsley on there Just a squeeze of lemon and that’s pretty much it I mean roasted octopus covered in garlic lemon juice and parsley There is almost nothing better I realized not many of you have a high powered steamer at home So I’m going to show you how a technique that you could do at your house easily It’s a unique animal It’s a sephopod It kind of needs special treatment and it needs treating in a completely different way Run my fingers across all of these suckers Sometimes they’ve got these sacks or grip that exist in this small little pod inside their um their sucker So it’s really important you get rid of that So also just getting inside this head Now the best way to prep the heads is just to make sure they’re thoroughly rinsed and then you almost like you basically just turn them inside out Once the octopus is fully defrosted just place them into a little separate tray There’s more octopus now in British waters than there’s ever been 3 years ago I didn’t even know that you could get British octopus And now they’re literally everywhere They’re pulling them out all the time and they’re they’re cheaper than they’ve ever been It’s the only fish I would say that’s gone down in price in the UK in the last 5 to 10 years They grow back their tentacles So you can see some sort some sort of predator has eaten half of that tentacle and it’s just started to sprout a new one We get people coming to the restaurants now who say that I’m a they’re they they eat everything They just don’t eat octopus I understand that they’re a sentient and uh intelligent animal but pigs are pretty clever too So I don’t I don’t understand why you’ve drawn the line at octopus so much more accessible than it used to be I saw it in um Morrison’s the other day It’s in like you know a lot of the supermarkets You can get it from any real good fish monger as well Like I say it’s being potted all the time at the moment Okay next technique And I’m actually going to give you a little bonus technique alongside Just whack your oki I’ve got really nice boiling water there Just going to cook two at the same time I’ve got some vinegar in there I’ve got some salt The vinegar just sort of helps break down the uh the outer skin And the salt just seasons it whilst it cooks Just submerge the octopus like that Once this water comes back to the boil I’m going to turn it right down to like uh two on the induction but a very low heat And then I’m going to set a 45minut timer And it is almost like clockwork but it does seem to work every single time Okay so it’s been 45 minutes I turned the heat off and I mean you can already tell how tender tender that is The suckers are still on there and then just whack it into a bowl I’m just going to cut those tentacles These are all our tentacles and just use a little bit of the juice as well We could take this upstairs right now and roast it but I’m just going to show you a technique that you can use which is really simple and create something like definitely a bit more restaurant tea This is just a old tin we were using for coconut milk And then just place your tentacles once they’re cooked And a little bit of the juice into the tin Bear with me now Bear with me Just added some salt and pepper just for seasoning Place this the lid from the tin back on top Some sort of container that can go in there and compress it And a weight And then this is going to make the best octopus tine And then that just goes in a fridge to set for at least 8 hours Your chin will come out something like this Now we have tin cans but if you just wanted to do that with a with a tray and a weight it would work exactly the same Okay So you could easily slice this by hand but in the best one we use what this uh a commercial meat slicer So you can just really simply slice one perfect octopus tine octopus mosaic Just a different way of serving it So this this technique only works really because of the natural collagen that exists in the octopus Extra virgin olive oil Tiny bit of salt It’s already seasoned not not too much Just a little tiny bit of codra Just buy some really good quality taram masala Even a little bit of like lemon mayonnaise And then this is just some really nice sea veg So really simple technique but you can elevate it in this way To be honest if you did that at a dinner party people would absolutely lose their uh lose their marbles Or if you have a little uh pizza oven in your garden get that on there Look at that bad boy Tiny bit of oil on the crust Look at that And a little bit of chili crisp peppers Look at that for a little bad boy Really simple technique Octopus carpacio You can either reheat it grill it or put on a flatbread like here or just serve it raw Really nice and fresh What a treat What a treat That’s actually so good You got to try this How good is that Okay so this next technique is something I didn’t even know about until I went on holiday Um this is traditionally how they serve it in Portugal for a rustic dish and a rustic way of cooking it It’s probably going to give you the I think probably the best result If you’re at home and you just want to do it for flavor I really really highly recommend it So just roughly chop some onions Whack that in the tray I’m just going to crush the garlic Whack it in Really nice ripe tomatoes as well These are samazano tomatoes So uh and they’re super ripe as well so they’re going to be really nice and sweet Good gug of nice quality olive oil Touch of wine our house wine at row And I’m just going to take the head off This is defrosted So it’s Thor just like all the other octopus It’s been frozen Cut out the beak So the beak is like right in the center It’s essentially it’s uh its mouth It’s this small little black thing that’s I think it’s used to catch their prey and stuff like that So obviously these these are quite big Um and you go to the supermarket you’ll probably get them a little bit smaller but this recipe could be done with um smaller octopus just need to slightly alter the cooking time So basically the size of the octopus just dictates how long you need to cook it for So if you if you end up with much smaller just roughly reduce your cooking size by about the size difference in octopus So if it’s half the size cook it for half the time Okay Good amount of salt good hit of black pepper and then just mix the whole thing up See that I use a layer of cling foam and then tin foil steam the octopus as it cooks And if you’ve not got a steam oven at home that’s just a really handy little tip So cover in tin foil Make sure it’s nice and well secured And then this is going to cook at 180 for 45 minutes Okay so our octopus has had 45 minutes Take this uh tin foil off It’s actually quite crazy how much um liquid comes out of octopus Not many people realize that We only put a splash of wine in there All of that has basically come out of it Now I’m going to put it back in at a high temperature and let that crisp up whilst all those juices reduce around it Place it back into the oven 180 is absolutely fine Going to leave it for another 15 to 20 minutes until it’s super crispy Really nice and sort of glazed up with all of that cooking juice as well Check this out 20 minutes Look at that And now they’ve gone all crispy and juicy Now I’ll show you how you can finish this Okay so you got this beautiful golden brown octopus All you’re going to do is just take out some of the juice the flavor from the wine the octopus itself caramelized onions and the bay It’s just like really beautifully uh caramelized all over the outside of the octopus So I’ve just got the liquid I’m just reducing it down lightly Not too much cuz it’ll get too intense otherwise And then I’m just going to glaze up the octopus with that before I serve it Roll this up until it’s literally just sort of started to come together So I guess it’s you don’t want it to be too thick Little bit of lemon juice salt pepper Glaze it up I just put a little bit of um spiced pumpkin puree in there Glaze up that oy with that really beautiful reduced liquid Super simple super clean Then just dress it all over with a really good quality olive oil It’s just a stunning plate of food Absolutely delicious Fear not of our eight-legged friends They mean you no harm