My kitchen shears might just be the most underutilized tool that I have in my kitchen. I’m hoping to use them more this summer! A few of their uses…
1. Chicken – Cutting up whole chicken into parts before cooking. Cutting chicken breasts or chicken thighs into bite size pieces before cooking.
2. Fresh herbs – Quickly snip cilantro stems from the leaves. Roll up some basil leaves like a cigar and then snip to create strips of fresh basil. Pull the rosemary leaves off of the stem and then lightly snip the leaves to release the fragrances and aromatics of the rosemary before adding it to your favorite recipe.
3. Canned Tomatoes – Have the wrong kind of canned tomatoes?! Maybe you have stewed tomatoes but you want diced tomatoes…or perhaps you’ve got diced tomatoes and you want petite diced tomatoes. Just place the kitchen shears right into the can and start snipping the tomatoes to the consistency you want them.
4. Crack Nuts – Use the jagged circular part to crack open nuts. Uncracked nuts are often less expensive that the opened nuts…so if you don’t mind cracking them, that’s the way to go!
5. Small vegetables – Kitchen shears can easily cut small vegetables for a salad, such as green onions, cherry or grape tomatoes, even lettuce. (But don’t use metal scissors to cut lettuce that you won’t eat right away. The metal will cause the lettuce to brown quickly.) You could have a chopped salad in minutes!
What else do you use your kitchen shears for to save yourself time in preparing breakfast, lunch or dinner?!
Katie says
To cut pizza into bite-sized pieces for my toddlers! So much easier than a knife and fork!
Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom says
Love it Katie!!! Will start doing that for Tyler!
Kim says
I use mine for just about everything! I use them to open packages of meat, to cut up bacon, to cut up hot dogs, cut the ends of green beans, and sometimes I use them to cut up dough so all my rolls will be evenly sized (only if the dough isn’t too sticky)
mary w says
I’m with Katie – use ’em for just about everything! In addition to the things mentioned, I use instead of a pizza wheel to cut homemade pizza into slices.
I have a separate set of kitchen shears that I keep in the garden. Great for harvesting things, cutting up things for compost, trimming stuff. All the things that aren’t heavy enough to need garden shears.
Erin, The $5 Dinner Mom says
That’s a great idea Mary!
laurel says
nothing cuts raw bacon better than shears… i use them for everything else, too, though!
Lisa Stice says
What don’t I use my kitchen shears for? That is the real question. One use that comes to mind is to cut up meat while cooking it.
Catherine says
I use kitchen shears for all of the above, but also to cut dried fruit into smaller pieces for baking or making oatmeal mix. Works great! I think my kitchen shears are the most used tool in my kitchen! I have even contemplated getting extra pairs – 1 for meat, 1 for veggies and fruit and 1 for packaging and such.
Allison says
Yep–cutting up food for my 21 month old 🙂 I use it on pizza, sandwiches, quesadillas last night. I actually need to buy a pair for my diaper bag for when we’re eating out!
Angela says
Oh, so true! Kitchen shears are one of those workhorse kitchen tools I can’t imagine doing without.
Kimberly W. says
I use mine to cut spaghetti up into smaller pieces for my toddler. Great ideas Erin! Thanks!
Food on the Table says
What excellent ideas! I use my kitchen scissors for bread: cutting crusts off sandwiches or cutting cubes for stuffing.
Kurtus says
Lest we should forget they make fast work of whole chickens! As with everyone else they MOST! used tool in my kitchen
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