Recipe: 20 Lazy Kitchen Hacks

Twenty lazy kitchen hacks from Nicole’s Best Tips and Tricks. Each one saves a few minutes or a bit of hassle – together they add up to noticeably less work in the kitchen.

Source: Allrecipes, “20 Lazy Kitchen Hacks You Need to Know (Nicole’s Best Tips & Tricks!) | Allrecipes”, YouTube, 2026-06-09.¹

The Hacks

Shred chicken with a mixer. After cooking, drop the chicken pieces into a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and run it for about 10 seconds. Perfectly shredded without burning your fingers.²

Skip the foil – use a sheet pan as a lid. When a casserole dish is missing its cover, grab a sheet pan and place it on top. No hunting for foil, no waste.³

Revive stale bread. Run the bread under water to dampen it, then warm it in the oven at 325-350 degrees. Comes out crusty and fresh.⁴

Turn a chip bag into a bowl. Push the bottom of the bag inward so the sides flare out. The bag becomes its own stable serving bowl.⁵

Reuse package tops as wrappers. After opening packages like cheese or bacon, fold the torn top over the remaining food to keep it fresh. No extra plastic wrap needed.⁶

Grate butter into dry ingredients. Use a box grater to cut cold butter into dry ingredients for baking. The small pieces incorporate faster than cubing by hand.⁷

Soften butter with a hot glass. Microwave a glass or jar to heat it, then cover the cold butter stick with it. The trapped heat softens the butter in minutes.⁸

Soften cream cheese in hot water. Drop cold cream cheese (still wrapped) into a bowl of hot water for about two minutes.⁹

Mix batters in a blender. Pour pancake, waffle, or cake batter ingredients directly into a blender and give it a few pulses. Less effort, fewer bowls to wash.¹⁰

Make marinades in nearly empty condiment bottles. When a ketchup or dressing bottle is almost empty, add your marinade ingredients (oil, vinegar, spices) right into the bottle and shake. No extra bowl, and you get the last bit of condiment too.¹¹

Make a jarita (jar margarita). Add tequila, triple sec, and lime juice directly into a nearly empty jelly jar. Shake and drink right from the jar.¹²

Microwave garlic to loosen the peel. Pop garlic cloves in the microwave for 20 seconds. The skin slides right off.¹³

Microwave corn to shuck it. Microwave the whole ear of corn for about 3 minutes. The husk and silk pull off cleanly with almost no mess.¹⁴

Measure sticky ingredients with dry ingredients first. When measuring honey, molasses, or corn syrup, fill the measuring cup with the dry ingredients first, then pour the sticky ingredient on top to fill the rest. The sticky stuff won’t cling to the cup because the dry ingredients coat it.¹⁵

Peel ginger and kiwis with a spoon. Scrape the skin off with the edge of a spoon instead of a peeler. You remove less flesh and the spoon follows curves naturally.¹⁶

Pre-scoop ice cream for parties. Scoop individual servings onto a sheet tray and freeze them solid. At party time, drop the pre-formed scoops into bowls – no waiting, no sticky scoops.¹⁷

Use a potato masher on ground meat. Break apart ground beef, sausage, or turkey as it cooks by mashing it with a potato masher. Covers more surface area than a spatula.¹⁸

Slice small items between two plates. Place strawberries, grapes, or cherry tomatoes between two small plates or lids. Run a knife through the gap between them – everything slices evenly in one pass.¹⁹

Smash lettuce cores out. Hit the stem end of a head of lettuce against a hard counter. The core loosens and pulls right out by hand.²⁰

Open spaghetti by smashing it. Hold the bundle of dry spaghetti by one end and hit the other end hard against the counter. The package bursts open.²¹

Notes