Allie has been Lifehacker’s Food Writer since 2021. She earned her bachelor’s degree at Ithaca College in drama and studied at the Institute of Culinary Education to earn her diploma in Pastry and ...

Let's be honest, we all know how to cook chicken. Roasted on a Sunday, poached for a soup, baked with a rich saucy traybake, pan-fried for fajitas, but have you ever heard of velveting as a technique?

Why is it that no matter what you order from an American Chinese restaurant, from egg drop soup to fiery kung pao chicken, the texture is out of this world? More often than not, it’s thanks to one ...

Have you ever noticed how the meat and seafood from your favorite Chinese restaurant are particularly succulent? The trick, it turns out, is a technique called velveting. “It’s very prevalent in ...