The Easiest Way To Peel Potatoes Without A Dedicated Peeler

No peeler? No problem! Peeling potatoes is a pain, especially when you want to get dinner on the table fast. You can end up spending so much time over the trash can, peeling one tater after the next, especially if you're making a large batch of mashed potatoes for the holidays.

But there is an ingenious way to peel those spuds, and all you need is just one handy, dandy kitchen tool: scissors.

One well-known tip to make peeling potatoes easier involves scoring your spud with a knife before boiling a potato with a knife before boiling. It's a little trick for peeling potatoes that's circulated the internet for ages, but it's recently been resurrected with a twist. In 2023, culinary content creator The Gooch refreshed the idea using a pair of scissors. Instead of piercing the skin with a paring knife, cooks should score the potato using the kitchen shears, boil it, and then throw it in an ice bath. The skin should slip right off the spud. It's a quick, no-mess way to peel potatoes when you don't have a peeler on deck. 

Begin by washing your potatoes. Then, score a line through the circumference of the potatoes using kitchen scissors. You want to make sure you get all the way around in a connected line. This step will help the potato skin separate. (Of course, you can try the tried-and-true version of this hack using a knife instead of scissors. Just hold your potato down on the cutting board and run your knife around the entire circumference of the potato.) 

Once scored, add your potatoes to a pot of water and boil for about 20 to 25 minutes, depending on how many potatoes you have cooking. At this stage, the skin will begin softening and separating from the potato.

Once the potatoes are soft and cooked through, give them an ice bath. Stick with us, here. In a bowl of water and ice, drop in each potato using a fork or tongs for 30 seconds. Remove them from the ice, and using your hands pull back on each side of the potato, peeling off the skin. It should slide right off. You can also use a kitchen or paper towel for extra grip and heat protection when peeling off the skin.

And you don't have to throw the skins away. There's plenty of nutrition and flavor in there. Turn them into crispy chips, or chip cups because the skins will hold their shape when you peel them.

Though we wish this hack worked flawlessly on all kinds of potatoes — red, white, fingerling — it works best on thicker-skinned potatoes like russet. The thick skin separates from the potato more easily in boiling water and comes off in nearly a full piece. Sweet potatoes will also work with this peeling hack. Thin-skinned potatoes are harder to peel this way because the skin rips and holds onto the potato more. This hack is also ideal with larger potatoes simply in terms of practicality — we wouldn't want to sit and score a batch of 30 tiny potatoes, but you do you.

Not everyone believes the hype. Some commenters on Instagram say this process takes more time than the traditional potato peeler. But when you haven't got one, let's say you're in a rented cabin or at a friend's place who doesn't believe in owning basic kitchen tools, this handy trick with a pair of kitchen scissors could save your meal.