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More Good Uses for Kitchen Shears

Your shears are good for more than just butterflying a whole chicken. Here are some other good ways to put this essential tool to work.

When sussing out the best pair of kitchen shears, we ran all the products through our standard kitchen shears tasks: butterflying a whole chicken, snipping herbs, and cutting sheets of parchment paper and lengths of kitchen twine. But using shears to perform tasks usually done with a knife can make these tasks faster, neater, and easier. Here are a few other good ways to put this essential tool to work.

Chop Canned Tomatoes

Instead of chopping peeled whole tomatoes on a cutting board and creating a juicy mess, use shears to snip them into chunks right in the can.

Cut Breads

Use shears to snip pizza, pita, or quesadillas into even wedges; cut focaccia into squares; or cut up stale bread for croutons.

Prep Produce

Shears can cut cauliflower to size, trim artichoke leaves, section bunches of grapes, trim carrot and radish tops or fennel stalks, and snip stems from leafy greens.

Slice Messy Stuff

Shears make chopping sticky dried apricots and dates or slicing slippery raw bacon quicker, neater, and more pleasant.

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