10 Essential Kitchen Tools You Can Buy At Dollar Tree

Whether you're a novice in the kitchen or missing an important gadget to complete a recipe, there are dozens of essential kitchen tools. Each has a specific purpose, but all are intended to make cooking easier. There are, of course, many places where you can shop for these items — from major brick-and-mortar retailers like Target and Walmart to specialty shops like Crate & Barrel and Williams Sonoma to online marketplaces like Amazon and Wayfair. However, Dollar Tree is another option where you can find quality kitchen essentials that are often cheaper compared to most of those other guys.

It's important to acknowledge that some products can completely miss the mark. In fact, there are a few kitchen essentials you should never buy at Dollar Tree, such as oven mitts and can openers. By comparison, though, there are more highly rated than poorly rated items available. Daily Meal looked through all the essential kitchen tools to find those with at least a 4-star rating. As you peruse the list, keep in mind that availability and prices can vary from one Dollar Tree to another.

When you want to wash fruits and veggies, drain cooked pasta, or strain broth, you'll need a colander. This one at Dollar Tree features handles on each side so that you can easily hold and carry it to and from the sink, and the holes are small enough to prevent large pieces of food from escaping. With a 1-quart capacity, it's made of food-safe polypropylene and available in gray, red, and white for just $1.25. It's even one of the kitchen tools you can use as a makeshift drying rack for silverware and utensils.

There are a handful of reasons you should grate cheese yourself. The main benefit is that, without the fillers and starches in already-shredded cheese, you'll get better flavor, meltability, and texture. The Cooking Concepts soft touch cheese grater at Dollar Tree is only $1.25 and a good option when you want to use freshly grated cheese for chili, pasta, pizza, and many other dishes. As a bonus, you might be able to use the cheese grater as a hack for grinding meat, as well as butter, citrus fruits, garlic, ginger, and vegetables.

If you ever plan to butterfly or spatchcock a whole chicken or turkey, you'll be thankful that you bought the Cooking Concepts heavyweight kitchen shears at Dollar Tree. This essential kitchen tool features stainless steel blades and a black handle that one reviewer said "are great quality" and feels good in your hand. For just $1.25, you can also use them for peeling shrimp, cutting bread or pizza, slicing cheese, juicing lemons, and cutting tomatoes for sauce like Giada De Laurentiis. Plus, they're safe to clean in the dishwasher.

Preparing fruits and veggies for cooking often requires removing the rind or skin, as well as blemishes, seeds, and stems. While you could use a paring knife to do that, a vegetable peeler makes the task easier. Dollar Tree has a McCormick option with a comfortable handle that makes peeling carrots, potatoes, and more efficient and safe. It's only $1.25, too. Spending less on one at Dollar Tree is particularly helpful since you should replace your vegetable peeler yearly, according to Ina Garten. She told Food & Wine, "Vegetable peelers get rusty, they get dull, and they're very cheap, so you can just throw them out and buy new ones."

If you like to do a lot of baking, you won't want to be without Dollar Tree's Cooking Concepts chopper, which is a bench scraper. The heavy-duty stainless steel blade is sturdy for cleaning flour stuck on your countertop, dividing dough, scooping piles of chopped herbs and veggies, slicing butter, and so much more. It even has engraved measurements for precise pastry-cutting tasks. Best of all, it's among the cheap Dollar Tree kitchen gadgets that are actually worth buying at just $1.25. One reviewer said, "I've got 3 of these. Love them ... Would highly recommend this item." And, a lot of other happy customers agree.

Listed among the baking essentials you can buy at Dollar Tree, this Cooking Concepts bamboo cutting board is a reliable option for all of your slicing, dicing, and chopping needs. Some customers have been impressed with it, leaving reviews like "Good product ... I have been using this for a year now. Light and easy to use." and "Incredible quality and value for the price!" Bamboo boards often cost more than their plastic counterparts, but this Cooking Concepts board is only $1.25. Measuring nearly 10 by 7 inches, it's lightweight and can last a long time with proper maintenance, such as seasoning with oil and washing and drying by hand.

You can certainly use the aforementioned colander for draining liquids from large foods, but if you plan to separate liquids from small foods or seeds, a mesh strainer will make a world of difference. Featuring food-safe materials, this Cooking Concepts strainer is designed with a grippy handle (black or white) and fine mesh. Use it for filtering purées, coffee grounds, and tea leaves; rinsing veggies; sifting flour or powdered sugar; straining pasta, soup, and sauce; and many other baking and cooking tasks. For just $1.25, you can even use it to double-strain cocktails for smooth results.

When you're cooking meat, you'll get tastier results if you up your basting game. Reapplying meat juices, marinades, oils, or sauces throughout the cooking process provides extra flavor and moisture. Fortunately, there's no need to improvise a basting brush with a bundle of greens or herbs or some folded and fringed parchment paper. Dollar Tree's Cooking Concepts silicone basting brush is only $1.25, is BPA-free, and is food-safe. Plus, you're not limited to using this for grilling and roasting meat. Use it for spreading butter, egg wash, glazes, and sauces on biscuits, breads, fruit tarts, and pastries.

Breaking up ground beef for your spaghetti sauce or taco meat can be time-consuming and a little annoying when using a spatula or wooden spoon. To make the process easier – and to produce smaller crumbles of beef – Dollar Tree sells the Cooking Concepts meat chopper for $1.25. It's food-safe and can be cleaned in the dishwasher. And aside from breaking up ground beef, you can use the five-point-star end on this kitchen tool to chop, crumble, and mash chicken, sausage, and turkey. You can even use it on a variety of soft ingredients, such as bananas, potatoes, and tomatoes. It can be a great gift basket item or stocking stuffer for the chef in your life, too.

If you like to make crispy homemade French fries, fried chicken, fish, or other deep-fried foods, a skimmer like the Cooking Concepts version will be essential. This kitchen tool is also referred to as a spider, and it's basically a miniature, spoon-like colander with a long handle. Made of spiraling stainless steel wire (which is why it's called a spider), the skimmer is just $1.25 and makes removing foods from hot oil incredibly easy. You can also use it for removing blanched veggies, cooked pasta, and hard-boiled eggs from boiling water while reserving the water.