Simple Cooking Hacks

Everybody loves a good hack, especially when it comes to cooking, so here are a few I thought were at the top of the list.

1. Oven baked chicken is great but what if you could make oven baked chicken that tasted fried? Add a lil mayo to the usual egg and bread crumbs coating and you’ll be surprised at what a difference it makes.
2. Cooking bacon for me means wearing a “cooking shirt”.  No, not a cute shirt that has some funny cooking saying on it, a shirt that I don’t mind getting grease stains all over.  To avoid those splatters sprinkle flour on the bacon, not only will it help cut down on the splatter but it’ll make your bacon extra crispy.
3. If you want extra fluffy pancakes maker sure to leave a few lumps in the batter.
4. It’s time to start buying melons and fresh produce for picnics.  To find the sweetest watermelons look for a yellow patch and listen for a hollow sound by knocking lightly on the melon with your ear to it.
5. (We use this one all the time) Revive stale cookies by putting a piece of bread in your cookie container.
6. I would hope every one who cooks red meat especially knows this one but in case you don’t, make sure to rest your meat after you finish cooking it, this mainly applies to steak but it wouldn’t hurt with other red meats.
7. When a recipe calls for cold butter here is what I do; freeze the butter for about 10 to 20 minutes, take it out and use a grater to get the chunks that recipes like homemade biscuits calls for, then put the grated butter in a container back into the freezer for about 10 to 20 minutes.
8. When you’re making fried rice go ahead and get the pan ready by cooking an egg in it first.
9. I feel like most folks know this one too but as I’ve said before you just never know.  Make sure you salt your pasta water well, and as an extra tip, I personally swirl some E.V.O.O. in the water as well (Extra Virgin Olive Oil).
10. Don’t rinse your pasta after it’s done boiling, I don’t know who needs to hear that but there it is.