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You’ll often see ‘crushed hot Cheetos’ listed as an ingredient in a recipe.

You can use them to make hot chicken wings, sprinkle over corn or in a pasta bake.

But what’s the best way to crush them?

I decided to conduct an experiment to find out. I compared two methods:

Crushing the Cheetos by hand in a sandwich bag
Crushing the Cheetos in a blender

To crush Cheetos in a sandwich bag, roll over the bag with a rolling pin or smash the Cheetos with a heavy object (the bottom of a pan). You’ll get a nice crunchy texture, but it might not be even. For a finer consistency, crush the Cheetos in a blender.

Full disclaimer: I didn’t have any hot Cheetos, so I did my experiment with Asian chicken flavor Cheetos. Later on, I let you in on my (secret) trick to turn regular Cheetos into hot Cheetos.

Crush hot Cheetos in a sandwich bag

The results from this method were good. It didn’t take too long, and there was no mess.

The crush wasn’t totally even, and there were some bigger bits left in the mix. But this added a bit of crunch which was nice. The less even consistency would work well in a mac ‘n cheese.

It’s less ideal if you’re using the Cheetos to coat something like a chicken strip.

Cheetos In Sandwich Bag Before Being Crushed — Cheetos before being crushed by hand

Cheetos in Sandwich Bag After Being Crushed — Cheetos after being crushed by hand

How to crush Cheetos in a sandwich bag:

Take the Cheetos out of their original packaging and transfer them into a sandwich bag. Don’t overfill the bag, leave enough room for the Cheetos to move around
Squeeze most of the air of the bag. This will stop the bag from bursting open
Place the bag on a flat counter on top of a towel. The towel will protect the counter and muffle any noise
Roll over the bag with a rolling pin, smash the Cheetos with a kitchen mallet or use the bottom of a heavy pan. All of these are acceptable methods for crushing Cheetos
Once the Cheetos reach your desired consistency, take them out of the bag
If you have any leftovers, don’t forget to store them for later

You can’t crush them in the original bag because it will burst open with the pressure, and the Cheetos will go everywhere.

Absolute nightmare to clean up (unless you have an automatic hoover i.e. a dog).

If you’re worried about your sandwich bag opening while you’re crushing, you can put it in a larger plastic bag. That way, even if it does split, the Cheetos will be contained.

I didn’t like the thought of using a disposable plastic bag, so I used a reusable one (amazon link) instead. That way my environmental conscience could rest easy.

Which one’s the best crushing utensil?

My favorite option is the heavy pan. It has a wide enough circumference that you can get all the Cheetos in one hit, speeding up the process.

Plus, everyone has one at home.

Related: How To Store Kale Chips

Crush hot Cheetos in a blender

Using a blender was quicker than crushing the Cheetos by hand.

I was able to get a much finer consistency with little effort. The Cheetos were the perfect texture for coating something.

But the washing up wasn’t fun, and not everyone has a blender to hand.

Hot Cheetos in a food processor before being crushed — A blender is a great way to get really fine Cheeto dust

Side by side comparison of hand-crushed hot Cheetos and hot Cheetos Crushed in a blender — Hand crushed Cheetos (left) VS blender crushed Cheetos (right)

Related: How To Crush Jolly Ranchers

How to crush hot Cheetos in a blender:

Empty your Cheetos into a blender or food processor
Pulse the blender until the Cheetos reach your desired consistency, then take them out of the blender
Use them, or store them for later

How to use crushed Cheetos

Have you got some leftover crushed Cheetos to use up?

Here are some ideas.

Sprinkle the Cheetos over a mac ‘n cheese or pasta bake to add a bit of crunch
Make hot Cheeto chicken strips
Coat some mozzarella sticks with crushed Cheetos
Sprinkle some Cheetos over your grilled cheese (or anything with melted cheese)
Roll your sushi in Cheeto dust
Mix the Cheetos into a burger patty
Add the Cheetos to a salad along with some bacon crumbles

Or just eat them as they are!

How to store Cheetos

Leftover Cheetos (especially crushed ones) will go stale VERY quickly.

Here’s how to store Cheetos to keep them fresh.

Put the Cheetos in an airtight freezer bag
Squeeze as much of the air out as possible. If you have a straw, you can use that to suck the air out
Put the bag in the freezer (yes, you read that right!)
Take the Cheetos out whenever you need them. There’s no need to defrost them. If you want, you can let them warm up to room temperature for a minute or so

Why the freezer?

A freezer is an excellent place for leftover chips of any kind. They need to be in a cool, dry place away from humidity. The freezer fits this bill perfectly.

The Cheetos don’t actually freeze because they have such low moisture content. They just get really cold (hence why you don’t need to defrost them), so the texture won’t change.

As long as the container is airtight, the Cheetos will come out just the way they went in.

How To Make DIY Hot Cheeto Powder From Regular Cheetos

So, as you can see from my photos, I couldn’t get my hands on any hot Cheetos (nightmare!) for this article.

However, what I did do what add a teaspoon of chili powder to the blender before crushing a batch and damn, what a delicious and spicy result. This is a great trick if you can’t get your hands on the hot variety for any reason.