5 Ways to Use a Cleaver You Might Not Have Considered

At HexClad, we’re not really in the business of making kitchen tools you don’t need. That said, there may be a few items you didn’t realize are more than single-purpose.

For instance, our fry pans are shockingly handy for baking cakes. Meanwhile, your roasting pan is well-suited to a hearty batch of granola. At the moment, however, the jack-of-all-trades stealing our hearts is our 7” Damascus Steel Cleaver. Sure, it’ll make quick work of a joint of meat and larger butchery tasks, like portioning beef for stew. But the cleaver is not a knife to relegate to the back of the knife block. Keep it within arm’s reach and you’ll find yourself using it for everything from shredding cabbage to cracking through hard shells and stubborn skins.

Think of your cleaver less as a specialty knife and more as a utility player. A summer melon is as good a reason to reach for it as cutting cauliflower into steaks. We use it to slice bundles of scallions in a single pass, divide dough when a bench scraper isn’t handy, and transfer ingredients from cutting board to pot (just use the back of the blade to avoid dulling the edge). 

When our other knives feel too delicate for the job at hand, chances are the cleaver is exactly what you want. Here are five ways to use it that you may not have considered before.

1. Spatchcock a chicken

A surefire way to make roast chicken juicier and more evenly cooked is to spatchcock it. No, that's not a medieval torture device, but a technique that involves removing the backbone so the chicken can lie flat against the cooking surface. Use the cleaver to cut along one side of the backbone, then repeat on the other side and remove it entirely, saving it for homemade stock. Open the chicken like a book and press firmly on the breastbone until it cracks and the bird lies flat. Get to work with our recipe for Spatchcock Chicken with Crispy Smashed Potatoes & Herb Sauce.

2. Cut corn into ribs

With a cleaver in hand, you're just a few cuts away from summer's hottest way to eat corn: our Grilled Garlic-Parm Corn Ribs. Use the weight and heft of the blade to carefully cut each cob lengthwise into quarters, creating four "ribs." As they cook, the pieces curl and crisp at the edges, creating more surface area for char, seasoning and all that garlic-Parmesan goodness. They're easier to pick up and easier to share, not to mention way cooler looking than your average corn cob.

3. Break down winter squash

No one wants to be a cautionary kitchen tale, and yet many a cook has found themselves at the wrong end of a winter squash. This is where your cleaver really shines. With its sharp edge, broad blade and satisfying heft, it cuts through the tough outer skin of everything from delicata and acorn squash to butternut and Hubbard. The large blade also gives you more control as you work through dense flesh, making it easier to halve, quarter or cube squash without wrestling it across the cutting board.

4. Crack through lobster shells

Lobster often gets treated like it’s more intimidating than it actually is. Cooking it is straightforward, but once it’s done, the shell is where things can get fiddly. That’s where your cleaver comes in. Use its weight and blade to crack through claws and tails with controlled pressure, splitting the shell cleanly so you can get to the meat without picking and prying. Next up? Classic lobster rolls.

5. Break down racks of ribs into individual portions

If you’re intimidated by tackling a large section of meat but want to build confidence with butchery, ribs are a good place to start. A cleaver makes quick, clean work of dividing a rack into two- to three-rib portions, with enough heft to cut between bones without sawing or hesitation. It’s a simple way to turn a full rack into more manageable pieces for marinating, grilling or slow roasting (or simply to divide up portions to fit more easily on a plate).

So you see, the cleaver might just be the cleverest tool in your kitchen.