26 Cooking Techniques to Master Every Recipe

Andrea Beck

Mon, July 23, 2018 at 11:47 AM UTC

11 min read

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Take yourself from nervous amateur to confident cook with these essential cooking techniques.

When you're new to cooking, words like "deglaze," "sauté," and "chiffonade" can be a little intimidating, but everything gets easier when you break it down to the basics. Start simple and apply these cooking techniques to some essential recipes. Once you've mastered a few go-to dishes and some easy skills, work your way up to longer, more involved recipes. As you learn, keep in mind that cooking is a skill that takes practice.

Food Safety

1. How to Keep Your Food Safe

Food safety should be first and foremost in the kitchen. After all, no one wants to get sick—and it can be easily avoided by following a few easy guidelines. Avoid cross-contamination, keep everything clean (including your hands), store food safely, and thaw it correctly to keep yourself, friends, and family healthy.

Chopping and Prepping

2. How to Use a Chef's Knife

Almost every recipe calls for cooking methods and techniques like chopping, slicing, or dicing. Get comfortable with a chef's knife to make these tasks feel quick and easy. Safety comes first, so start by learning basics like cleaning and sharpening your knife. It's an essential skill because dull knives are more dangerous than sharp knives.

Next, master how to make simple knife cuts. The more you cook, the more practice you'll get!

3. How to Mince Garlic

There are many ways to mince garlic, so experiment with this kitchen skill until you find a technique that works best for you. Chopping garlic with a chef's knife is the most classic way, but you can also use a garlic press or a Microplane. You can even cheat on this cooking technique by buying already minced garlic. Just know it won't have the same flavor as fresh garlic.

4. How to Chop an Onion

Onions are full of flavor. They're the base of many savory recipes like soups and sauces. Compared to general knife skills, chopping an onion is almost its own art form. It might take a little practice to perfect all the individual cuts that go into chopping an onion, but once you do, you'll get to show off your skills on a lot of different recipes.

5. How to Pit and Slice an Avocado

Avocados are good for much more than just spreading on toast, but you have to know how to slice and pit them. Without the proper technique, it's easy to accidentally cut yourself when removing the pit. With this trick in your repertoire, adding avocado slices to salads will be a snap. What's more, making your homemade guacamole and whipping up fancy avocado toast will all be within your grasp.

6. How to Break Down a Chicken

Whether you want to save money by buying a whole chicken and cutting it into pieces yourself, or you're looking to impress dinner guests with a whole roast chicken, basic butchery is a valuable skill. Fortunately (for the frugal chefs among us), it's simpler than you might think. As you cut, look for the fat lines and the places where the joints meet. The chicken will help guide your knife to where it should be cut.

Baking Tips

7. How to Line a Pan

This might seem like an obvious and super-simple cooking technique, but it's vital when baking. Line a pan with foil before you bake brownies to cut cleanup time in half. Ensure your baked goods come out intact by taking a few extra minutes to line your cake pans correctly. After all, no one wants a crumbly layer cake!

8. How to Measure Flour

Measuring flour seems like it should be obvious, but there's a method to make sure your measurements are accurate. To measure correctly, spoon your flour into the measuring cup. Don't use the cup to scoop it out of the container because it can pack the flour down and leave you with too much. When the cup is full, level it off with the straight side of a knife. If you're not measuring flour correctly, your baked goods can come out dry, so this cooking technique is super important.

Tips

You can also use a kitchen scale to measure your flour (and other ingredients) by weight.

9. How to Bake Bread

Baking bread is a great cooking technique to have in your culinary repertoire. There's a lot more out there than sourdough, too. Learn how to make simple quick breads that don't require yeast, like a crusty focaccia or classic sandwich bread. There are many options to try, so start by mastering one recipe, then decide if you want to explore more.

10. How to Bake a Cake

Even if your go-to is a boxed mix, there are a lot of occasions that call for cake. Whether you're planning a birthday party or just a small dinner party, a good cake is never out of place. There's no need to memorize the whole recipe or even all of the ingredients, but having a classic, easy recipe in your back pocket will come in handy.

11. How to Make Frosting

Of course, every cake needs a topping. Once you've made frosting a few times, this is a cooking technique you can use without a recipe. Start simple with an easy powdered sugar glaze, or learn how to make the best-ever buttercream. Bonus: As you become an expert in making frosting, you'll also get a chance to practice plenty of decorating techniques.

Cooking Techniques

12. How to Sauté

Sautéeing is a cooking technique you can use for almost any food, including veggies and proteins. In fact, you can easily cook an entire meal in just your sauté pan! Just think of all the different ways this cooking method can come in handy. You can sauté a chicken breast for a quick dinner, sauté veggies to serve on the side, or sauté chopped onions to add to another recipe. This technique is a must-know!

13. How to Roast

Whether you're roasting vegetables, chicken, or another protein, this cooking technique adds a delicious, crispy, caramelized coating to everything you cook. Roasting vegetables is a great way to take them from plain to mouthwatering. Just know that not all vegetables and proteins roast for the same amount of time. Pay close attention to your recipe's instructions or one of these go-to cookbooks while you learn this technique.

14. How to Cook with Fresh Herbs

Leave the dried herbs on the grocery store shelves and use fresh instead. You'll be surprised how much more flavor fresh herbs can add to a dish. They won't keep as long as dried herbs, so make sure you know how to store them correctly. Fresh herbs might take extra time to chiffonade, snip, strip, and more, but the result will be well worth your effort.

15. How to Deglaze a Pan

When you finish roasting a chicken or sautéeing a steak, deglaze your pan to make a thick gravy or a yummy pan sauce. It's a great way to take your dinner to the next level without adding cost. Deglazing allows you to incorporate the browned bits left in the pan after cooking into your sauce. This process adds a ton of flavor and ensures the sauce complements your meal. This is an especially useful skill for Thanksgiving dinner, but it can come in handy almost any time of year.

16. How to Use an Instant Pot

There's not much that this one-stop pot can't do, including pressure cooking, slow cooking, and sautéeing. Whether you already have one for yourself or it's on your wish list, mastering the basics of pressure cooking and slow cooking can absolutely help you save time and energy in the kitchen.

17. How to Use an Air Fryer

The air fryer is the king of quick dinners, and it's the best appliance for quickly cooking crispy, crunchy foods. It can handle French fries, chicken, fish, vegetables, and even desserts in less time than your oven. It's also a healthier alternative to deep-frying, so if you love quick, good-for-you recipes, learn some techniques and make this countertop appliance your new best friend.

How to Prepare Staple Foods

18. How to Cook an Egg (a Few Different Ways)

Hard-boiling, poaching, scrambling—it helps to learn them all. Why? Knowing how to cook an egg is essential for breakfast and brunch, but an egg also makes a quick, easy protein boost for lunch or dinner—especially when you are crunched for time. Plus, if you stock hard-cooked eggs in your fridge, it's super easy to add one to a salad or grab one for a protein-packed snack.

19. How to Make Salad Dressing

Homemade dressing is better than store-bought for several reasons. You can make it just the way you like it, and you know exactly what ingredients went into making it. It's also a super easy cooking technique because you just need oil, vinegar, and a few seasonings. Once you find a combination that works for you, make a big batch and store it in the fridge to customize your salads!

20. How to Cook Chicken

Is there anything a perfectly cooked chicken breast can't do? You can add it to salads, serve it with a side of veggies, or eat it all on its own—it'll be delicious every single time. There's more than one way to do it, too, including grilling, broiling, sautéeing, and boiling. Just be sure to master at least one method that will work best for you.

21. How to Cook Steak

Enjoying a great steak is a delicious way to mark a special occasion, but you don't have to go to a steakhouse to do it. Using your oven is one of the simplest ways to enjoy a tender, juicy steak at home. Knowing how to broil a steak will allow you to sink your teeth into a celebratory meal in hardly any time at all, and it's just as easy to learn how to pan-cook or grill a steak.

22. How to Bake Fish

There's no doubt that fish can be a healthy, satisfying dinner any night of the week. For beginners, baked fish is an easy, good-for-you protein perfect for basic dinners and special occasions. The key is learning the flaking test to know when your fish is done baking.

23. How to Make Broth

Sure, store-bought might be easiest, but homemade broth is the most delicious option. Plus, making chicken broth is a two-in-one recipe—not only do you end up with tasty broth, but also cooked chicken that's great for making chicken noodle soup, pot pie, or a casserole. All of your future soups and sauces will be much better once you learn how to make broth.

24. How to Bake a Potato

Whether you need a simple side dish or an easy lunch, knowing how to bake a potato will come in handy. And there's nothing better than a fluffy baked potato with all the fixings. If you've found yourself questioning how long to bake them or whether or not to wrap them in foil, now is the time to learn!

25. How to Cook Rice

Rice is an easy, healthy addition to mealtimes, so learning how to cook it properly is a must. Knowing how long to cook it and how much water to add can be intimidating, especially since rice can so easily be overcooked or undercooked. If you use a lot of rice, it might be worth investing in a rice cooker. But, once you master cooking it on your stovetop, this technique is hard to beat.

26. How to Cook Pasta

Quick dinner? Check. Set a pot of salted water to boil and warm up a pot of your favorite sauce (or heat it in the microwave). Before you know it, there's a meal on the table. Serve it up with just a little bit of butter and cheese, or chill it and add veggies and your favorite dressing for a lunch pasta salad. With so many uses, perfecting the cooking technique for al dente noodles is a must!

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the 4 Cs of food hygiene?

The 4 Cs are cleaning, cooking, cross-contamination, and chilling. This means that you should clean your hands and equipment before cooking, cook food properly, separate raw food from ready-to-eat food, and chill foods to stop harmful bacteria from multiplying.

How many different methods of cooking are there?

There are many different methods of cooking that require different types of equipment and cooking times. Some of the most popular methods include baking, roasting, frying, grilling, barbecuing, smoking, boiling, steaming, braising, and microwaving.

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