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Throwing a slab of ground meat onto a skillet is primal, even if that skillet is enamel-coated and sitting on top of spider burners rigged into a $10,000 range oven. The catch: Ground turkey, chicken, beef, and pork are a pain in the ass to break apart and cook on a stove. A spatula cuts the meat brick into smaller squares, a wooden spoon absorbs juice, and a potato masher grinds your pans, too.
Personally, my meat grinding was wildly inefficient until a particularly chipper food influencer turned me on this $10 tool from Amazon.
Before this tool, I was hacking away at pounds of protein with a wooden spoon as the pan sizzled and my stir-fry ingredients sat idly awaiting their turn. (Breaking meat apart promptly is crucial, not only for the recipe to progress on schedule but for the meat to cook evenly for better texture.)
When I got my hands on this chopper, it changed everything. Affixed with a circle of blades designed to rip apart ground meat quickly, the handle holds like a jigger for cocktail-making or a potato masher on Thanksgiving day. With a twist of the wrist, it tears apart raw fibers and quickly flattens the bits of meat so more of its surface area is touching the pan, faster. (This speeds up the cooking process and ensures you don’t lose too many juices.)
Size-wise, this tool takes up the same amount of space in my kitchen drawers as my other spatulas and soup ladles. It’s made of silicone plastic that’s rigid enough to work effectively without damaging my pans, and it’s dishwasher-safe, so all the raw bits can easily be cleaned between uses.
All in all, you certainly can break meat apart with one of the aforementioned tools, but I’m here to share that there’s a better way. It’ll save minutes, if not hours, off your taco prep with a bonus forearm workout to boot.
