The Clever Pot-Cleaning Trick We Wish We’d Known About Sooner

After cooking a delicious dinner , the last thing you want to do is spend extra time scrubbing dirty pots and pans . Getting pots and pans sparkling clean can be one of the most frustrating kitchen experiences because stubborn stuck-on food can be really difficult to get off. Scrubbing it off can take a lot of effort and time, and aggressive scrubbing might damage non-stick coatings .

But it doesn't have to be hard.

Recently, content creator @itsnicolejaques shared a clever cleaning hack for quickly and effectively cleaning your pots and pans, no matter how stuck the food may be— and it's one that actually works! I had a mishap with some shredded chicken and this trick came in handy. Here's what you need to know.

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According to Nicole, all you have to do is add warm water and baking soda to the pot, cover it, and place it back on the stove to simmer for around 10 minutes. Only leave the lid on for about three minutes, she says.

When that's done, dump out the gross water, give your pan a quick wipe down, then add a cleaning paste made of castile soap and baking soda and scrub the pot with a gentle scrubbing brush. Rinse again and your pot should look brand new!

This whole process takes less than 15 minutes and it requires very little effort to get even the worst stuck-on foods off your cookware.

Several people in the comments said they swear by this method for their dirty pots and pans, and it really worked for me, too! I was afraid my pot would be ruined, but this cleaning method was a breeze and my pot is sparkling clean.

Others said they don't use the cleaning paste that Nicole mentioned, and if you don't want to mix up the paste, you can also use dishwasher tablets instead. They contain concentrated cleaning agents that are made for washing away stuck-on food debris. Boil the water and baking soda as stated above, then dump out the water. Next, while your pot or pan is still slightly wet, scrub it gently with the dishwasher tablet. Rinse and wash as normal.

With this easy cleaning method, scrubbing those dirty pots is a thing of the past!

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