Ree Drummond's Chicken Coating Process Will Save You A Lot Of Dishes

Raise your hand if doing the dishes is the bane of your existence. Is your hand up? Yeah, ours too. We're in some good company with our disdain for the chore, as Food Network star Ree Drummond would also be waving her hand high in the air when presented with the same question. According to ShowBiz Cheat Sheet, the Pioneer Woman admits in her book "Frontier Follies: Adventures in Marriage and Motherhood in the Middle of Nowhere" that she "despises" doing the dishes — unless she's arguing with her husband, that is.

As a dishwashing despiser, it's not surprising that Drummond has a few tricks up her sleeve to help minimize that pile of dirty dishes she has to tackle after cooking up some of her favorite recipes. Her popcorn chicken is one example in which she employs a clever method that makes the number of dishes needed to bread her chicken practically disappear.

In her recipe, the blogger ditches the traditional dredging technique that calls for a separate bowl for each step and instead simply pours her cornstarch and eggs directly into the bowl of raw chicken, which she then mixes thoroughly to ensure the cornstarch is completely dissolved and that the poultry is "super sticky." Once everything is evenly coated, Drummond tosses half of her chicken in a separate tray of bread crumbs, making sure to separate them as she goes, and voila! Fryer-ready popcorn chicken with practically none of the dishes or mess that are typically involved.

Ree Drummond is hardly alone in her dislike of washing dishes. According to a survey conducted by Lombardo Homes last year, the household task is the second-most hated chore in America behind cleaning the bathrooms and is also a cause for conflict in 43% of homes.

So what about doing the dishes makes some people leave them dirty in the sink for as many as four days rather than getting them done right away? For The Pioneer Woman, it's the fact that the job leaves her fingers "pruny." However, for one-third of Americans, it's the sheer number of pots, pans, plate ware, and utensils that await them in the sink, which often totals to at least six pieces of cooking equipment — though, depending on what you're making, that number can end up being even higher.

Fortunately, there are plenty of other tips like Drummond's chicken coating process that can help cut down on your post-cooking clean-up. You can master this quick and easy blanching hack to help ditch a few pots and pans, while batch-prepping ingredients in a sensible order can help you avoid having to clean your cutting board multiple times. Finally, for the nights that you really don't feel like spending more than five minutes at the sink, having a few one-pot and sheet pan recipes in your arsenal can come in handy.