Alex Guarnaschelli's Tip For Unforgettable, Tender Ground Beef Couldn't Be Simpler

Cooking ground beef seems fairly straightforward no matter what type of dish you're making, but expert tips and tricks will make your end result tender and tasty every time. Ground beef can easily turn out tough due to leanness and significant moisture loss during cooking, so it's important to treat it right once you put it on the stovetop. Keep chef Alex Guarnaschelli's tip front of mind — avoid overworking it in the pan too much.

In a short video posted to YouTube, she advises to let the meat chunks sit and brown in the pan to get that nice, crispy surface. The meat's own fats will help it achieve that ideal browning, though you might add oil to brown leaner ground beef. Don't constantly mix it up, according to the Iron Chef; just move it around as needed to get all sides evenly cooked. Overworking meat and breaking it into smaller pieces so that it cooks faster speeds up the moisture loss and prevents tenderness. Guarnaschelli's tried-and-true method is a simple way to kick tough meat to the curb — if you can resist the urge to stir and break it up for the first few minutes of cooking — but there can be caveats for different ground beef recipes.

One pitfall of this technique is that you'll end up with bigger chunks of ground beef, which can negatively affect the texture of pasta sauces or casseroles. A layered dish like lasagna will have chunks throughout instead of even layers of crumbles. If you want smaller crumbles for your recipe while ensuring they're tender, try replacing Alex Guarnaschelli's tip with a baking soda hack. Mix about a teaspoon of baking soda with some water and add it to the meat in the pan. The baking soda makes the meat's pH more basic, increasing its ability to hold on to water by affecting its proteins and brown more evenly.

Another consideration is that although a higher fat percentage preserves tenderness, it can also cause greasier meat when the pan is overcrowded or not hot enough, causing released moisture to steam the meat. This problem might become more apparent when using a no-stir method. You don't need to go completely lean though; choosing the best ground beef with a fat content of 15% or 20% gives enough fat for tenderness without creating excessive grease. Since fat lets you cook longer or at higher temperatures without quickly evaporating all the moisture, that means you should keep your temperature hot enough to sizzle. You also don't want to have too much ground beef in your pan at one time. Cook it in batches — which also makes preparing a large meal easier.