4 Food Hacks That Make Cooking Easier

No matter how experienced you are in the kitchen, we all love learning new cooking hacks. From a technique that makes your favorite crunchy snack less of a guilty-pleasure, to a hack that ensures you never have to deal with a dry chicken again, we rounded up some of our favorite cooking tips we think every home cook should know. Keep scrolling for four quick tips to help make cooking stress-free and easy.

Make Homemade “Chips” with 40% Fewer Carbs

For a healthier take, take a cue out of Sunny Anderson’s book. The Food Network star crisps up beets and sweet potatoes instead of regular old taters. Here’s how: In a pot, heat 1” of oil to 350°F. Toss thinly sliced beets and sweet potatoes with flour, shaking off excess. In batches, fry 3–5 minutes, stirring occasionally to keep from sticking. With a slotted spoon, transfer to a cooling rack set over a paper-towel lined baking sheet, then crunch away!

Make Perfect Quinoa Every Time

Quinoa, that grain-like nutritional powerhouse, cooks up quickly, making it perfect for easy weeknight meals. However, it can easily overcook and become mushy. The fix? After cooking it until just tender, spread the quinoa out on a rimmed baking sheet and let it sit for 5 minutes to allow excess water to evaporate. Bonus: This trick works for couscous, bulgur and other grains too.

Keep Roasted Chicken Juicy

Roasting chicken can be tricky—the thighs need more time to cook than the breast, which means the white meat can dry out. Next time, try covering the breast with ice packs (or bagged ice) for 1 hour before cooking to lower its temperature so all parts cook at the same rate and turn out moist and tender.

Melt Chocolate with Ease

Every so often it happens: The chocolate you’re melting suddenly becomes gloppy. An easy trick to keeping things smooth? Add a little white chocolate to the dark before melting (¼ oz.of white per 4 oz.of dark). The extra cocoa butter in white chocolate will keep the dark chocolate smooth. You’ll get a bakery quality sheen too.