This Freezer Tip Makes Thinly Slicing Meat Easy

If you're a meat eater, you know that there are so many ways to enjoy all the delicacies offered by beef, pork, lamb, chicken, turkey, and more. From beef bourguignon to stuffed pork chops and rack of lamb to fried chicken, the recipe deck is well-stacked with plenty of tempting options.

Another way we love to enjoy meats of all kinds is in stir-fries, fried rice, and Asian-style soups like pho and ramen. These are a nice way to consume meat because they utilize less protein — making them healthy and budget-friendly options — but still deliver big on flavor. When preparing meat for a chicken stir-fry, steak fried rice, Vietnamese pho, or chicken ramen, you'll want to make sure the protein is sliced into thin, chopstick-friendly portions, so that you don't have to switch back and forth between utensils. However, it can sometimes be challenging — even when equipped with a sharp knife — to produce these thin slices. Yet, there is a handy tip that will make meat-slicing a cinch.

Looking to achieve the wispy-thin slices of beef, pork, or chicken that incorporate so well into stir-fries, pho, and other dishes? You may have gotten frustrated in the past, as even with a sharp knife, raw meat can shred and tear as you try to carve off thin slices. To achieve uniform, delicate slices of raw meat, freeze larger cuts of protein before slicing into them (via Eat This, Not That).

So how does freezing the meat — briefly, only about 15 to 30 minutes for steaks, chicken breasts, and pork loin — help? According to Epicurious, that brief trip to the freezer will firm up the protein, making it easier for your knife to glide through it uniformly. Raw meat, on the other hand, will just buckle and slide around under your knife, making it prone to tearing and producing mushy shreds instead of razor-thin slices.

So the next time you need thin slices of meat, plop your protein onto a baking sheet or plate and give it a spin through the freezer before getting to work.