Easy Home Cooking Tips: Stress-Free Meals and Simple Techniques

Introduction

When people imagine themselves cooking, they often envision a scene from the movie Chef. Their knife skills are impeccable, there’s music playing in the background, and everything falls into place effortlessly. Then they go into their kitchens to make a spectacular dish, only to spend half an hour on the salad, start the chicken without knowing how long to cook it, and then—oh wait—did I forget to make the sauce? They spend 2 hours making a dish, then realize they still have to clean up the disaster of a kitchen they left behind. You seriously want me to do this again tomorrow? Forget it.

The reason people get so disappointed when cooking at home is that they fail to distinguish between cooking at home and cooking at a restaurant. Whatever works for that chef on TikTok is not necessarily going to work for you because you have different goals. Your goal is to make a meal with minimum effort and minimum mess so that you can clean up quickly and wake up early for work tomorrow. As for that chef you follow, this is his job. He is required to make the best dish he can, no matter the time or effort. It’s best, then, to start implementing habits that will work for you, the home cook. I aim to share some of these easy home cooking tips with you in this post; they may not be fancy, but they are practical, and sometimes that’s all you need.

Mastering Home Cooking Techniques

The Oven: Your Best Friend for Simple Meals

The oven is an excellent tool for hands-off cooking. It doesn’t require you to stir or flip the food once it goes in. You just put the food in, set a timer, and worry about something else. The oven is especially useful when cooking for a crowd. You can fit a lot more on a sheet pan, and you can use your stove to cook the rest of the meal.

One way I use the oven is to cook vegetables. Instead of sautéing them on the stove, I just spread them on a sheet pan and drizzle them with some olive oil and seasoning, then pop them into a hot oven. They come out perfect every time and with minimal effort. Another way I use the oven is when cooking proteins like chicken breast. I first sear the chicken in a pan just for a few minutes to get some color on it, and then I let it cook the rest of the way in the oven. This saves me lots of time when making food for a crowd where I have multiple batches to make. I also toast my burger buns in the oven when making burgers for a crowd. Just place them cut side up on a sheet pan, spray them with oil, then put them under the broiler for a few minutes. Finally, I use my oven to keep food warm as I make more batches on the stove. French toast, pancakes, burger patties (although you can cook them in the oven too)—anything that needs to stay warm while you finish up the rest of the meal. These are some easy home cooking tips that can help you streamline your cooking process.

Reducing Kitchen Messes

Effortless Cleaning: Less Mess, More Success

One way I reduce the mess in my kitchen is by using parchment paper and foil. We all use parchment paper and foil to line our pans, but I use them for more than just that. I use parchment paper as a placemat on my countertops whenever I’m about to do something messy. For example, when breading anything with flour or breadcrumbs, I first place a piece of parchment on the countertop to make cleanup easier. And never mind using plates for the flour or breadcrumbs; I just put them right on the parchment paper and have that be my breading station.

As for foil, I use it to line my onion and potato baskets, making it easier to clean all the onion peel and dirt. I also fold a small piece of foil and place it under my honey jars to keep the bottoms clean. Another way to reduce the mess—in this case, the dishes—is to skip the strainer after boiling pasta or veggies. Wearing oven mitts, carefully slide the lid of the pot creating a small gap, then tilt the pot in the sink to pour the water out.

Efficient Cooking Strategies

Create a Game Plan: Cook Like a Pro at Home

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve seen a cook show host start the recipe by making the side salad or the sauce. Sure, they end up with a delicious-looking meal, but if you follow the order in which they cook, you’ll be in the kitchen all day. To make meals efficiently, you need to think about what takes the longest to cook, what can be left alone while cooking, and what requires you to babysit it. If you don’t think about these things and just start cooking mindlessly, you’ll find parts of your dish finish way before the rest, and you’ll probably spend more time than you need to. That’s why I think it’s crucial to have a plan before you start cooking.

The way I do it is when I go into the kitchen, I don’t start cooking right away. I first take a moment to think about what I’m about to cook. For example, let’s say I want to make oven-roasted chicken thighs, white rice, and a salad. I think about what I should start with (i.e., what takes longest), what can be left alone while I do something else, and what requires my complete attention. For the meal above, I would think, “First I need to preheat the oven. Then, I need to soak the rice and fill the kettle. While that’s happening, I can wash the veggies for the salad. By then the oven will be preheated so I can put the chicken in. After that, the water will have boiled so I can wash the rice and start cooking it. While the chicken and rice are cooking, all I have to do is make the salad.” Creating a game plan like this only takes a few minutes, but it helps you manage your time in the kitchen and get things done efficiently. These easy home cooking tips can transform your approach to meal preparation.

Time-Saving Cooking Techniques

Chop and Cook: Multi-task for Faster Meals

This is another thing cook show hosts do a lot—or rather have someone do for them. They’ll have all their vegetables chopped and ready, or they’ll measure out the ingredients in advance. In my opinion, this is a complete waste of time. Let’s say I want to sauté onions, celery, and carrots. I’ll first chop the onion, then get the pan going and start sautéing the onion. While the onion is cooking, I can chop the carrots and celery and add them in. Not only does onion taste better when it cooks longer, but I just saved so much time. Instead of chopping the veggies first, and then waiting for the pan to heat up, and then adding them in, I was chopping while the pan was hot and the onion was cooking. Of course, if the onion had browned before I could finish chopping the rest of the veggies, I would simply take the pan off the heat while I finished up. This is still faster than chopping all the veggies first.

Practical Clean-Up Habits

Clean as You Go: Practical Tips for a Tidy Kitchen

I know everyone and their mom has told you to clean as you go, but I’m here to give you practical advice on it. What I would recommend is to practice emptying out the dishwasher before you start. Then, you can throw dishes in as you cook. Another habit to practice is “Don’t put it down; put it away.” This means that when you’re done with that bottle of soy sauce, don’t just leave it on the counter—practice putting it back in the pantry right away. One more habit I implement is to have a plastic bag or bowl next to me while I’m chopping vegetables to gather scraps in. This especially helps when peeling onions. It keeps the peels from going everywhere. Although these seem like small habits, they will make cleaning up after dinner a lot less intimidating.