4 kitchen hacks for useless cooks

This article is in partnership with Youfoodz. However, all content has been curated by the Yahoo Lifestyle team as per usual editorial discretion.

Whether you’re semi-talented with a frying pan or at a Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares level of cooking, hacks are always a good idea when it comes to preparing a meal.

Who knew coating your chicken pieces in corn flour before frying them makes for an extra thick sauce for your chicken stir fry?

To get you kickstarted on the culinary journey you deserve, we spoke to Youfoodz chef James Demos about tips and tricks to make even the most useless of cooks look good.

Better read and fed
Read recipes all the way through before you even turn on the stove or oven. It may sound like a chore, but it really helps having an idea of what’s involved before you start cooking.

Heaters gunna heat
They key to a successful stir fry is cooking quickly on a high heat. The high heat enhances the flavour of your sauce and helps the ingredients fry rather than stew. And always use a large pan or wok so your ingredients don’t crowd the pan and overcook!

Let’s have a toast
If you’re toasting pita (or any other type of bread) in the oven and want it extra crispy, pre-cut or tear apart each piece before popping into the oven so every side crisps up. And always set a timer so you don’t forget about it.

Pasta la vista!
For crisp gnocchi, turn up the heat to high and cook undisturbed in a single layer in your pan, stirring only a couple of times ‘til you see a lovely golden crust before adding other ingredients and sauce.

Yahoo Lifestyle Australia spoke to James at the Sydney launch of Youfoodz Meal Kitz, a unique meal box with zero prep and less than 15 minutes of cooking time.

James helped create the six Meal Kit recipes that have Instagram talking …

“Not having your ingredients prepped is the quickest way to overwhelm any cook in the kitchen,” he told us at the lush event at The Grounds of Alexandria.

“The French term mise en place (meaning ‘everything in its place’) is a simple rule to live by when cooking: chop up your ingredients before you turn on the stove, so you don’t end up flustered and make mess all over your kitchen.

“Lucky we got that part sorted with our zero prep Meal Kitz.”

We put James’ ‘corn flour-covered chicken’ to the test at the interactive launch which saw Aussie influencers, models, nutritionists and media paired up at cooking stations to trial the Meal Kitz over a couple of Youjuice cocktails.

The result was a rich Chicken Stir Fry with Cashew Nuts, which felt naughty but was light and healthy coming in at 348 calories per serve.

But the best thing about the Meal Kit is, it actually makes you want to cook, because the results are guaranteed to be delicious and disaster-free.

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