How to remove chilli burn from hands: Chef shares simple tip

A professional chef has shared a little-known way to remove chilli residue left on fingertips when cooking. 

Kelly Scott said her mind was ‘blown’ after discovering the helpful hack that only requires paper towel and olive oil. 

Rather than washing your hands after touching a hot chilli, the US chef instead recommended rubbing olive oil over your fingertips and skin. 

All chilli contains the chemical compound capsaicin that is the source of the fiery heat, but water doesn’t impact the burning sensation. 

Scroll down for video

Kelly Scott said her mind was ‘blown’ after discovering how to remove chilli residue left on fingertips when cooking. Rather than washing your hands after touching a hot chilli, the US chef instead recommended rubbing olive oil over your fingertips and hands. She put the theory to the test by rubbing her eye and said she felt ‘nothing’

Kelly admitted she always accidentally touches her eyes after chopping chilli or hot peppers, leaving her with the painful burning sensation.

But now she won’t have this common problem thanks to the simple hack.

‘I just learned the best cooking hack that literally blew my mind,’ Kelly said in the clip. 

‘If you ever cut jalapeños or spicy serrano peppers, you’re going to want to see this. Whenever I cut peppers, I always have spicy pepper hands.

‘Even when you wash it, apparently the water kind of moves it around, you know how you eat something spicy, water makes it worse? Same thing with cutting [chilli] and washing your hands. And I always forget and touch my eyes and it burns.’

In the clip, she sliced up two jalapeños then tried the hack by adding a few drops of olive oil to a paper towel. 

Next, she wiped down the contaminated hand with the olive oil. 

‘Apparently it picks up all the capsaicin, the thing that’s spicy,’ Kelly said and truly tested the theory by then proceeding to touch her eye. 

‘Okay I’m going to test it by rubbing my eyes,’ she said, then added she felt: ‘Nothing’. 

‘It works!’ she said.  

‘Okay I’m going to test it by rubbing my eyes,’ she said, then added she felt: ‘Nothing’. ‘It works!’ she said

The video has since been viewed more than 26,000 times and many thanked Kelly for sharing the tip, while others provided their own cooking tricks when chopping chilli. 

‘Definitely using this, thanks,’ one person wrote, another added: ‘Baking soda also works.’ 

‘Lemon juice works as well,’ a third added. 

Another joked: ‘I use gloves and ski goggles.’