Everything You Need in Your Kitchen to Make a Great Stir Fry
Test kitchen manager Kat Craddock weighs in on her favorite gear for every kind of stir fry
When spring approaches, I find myself less inclined to fire up the oven for slow roasts and braises. All my favorite summer produce—tomatoes, eggplant, stone fruit—still feel a lifetime away from their pick-and-eat peak, so it’s this time of year when I’m most likely to break out a wok and throw together a fresh and flavorful stir fry.
The bulk of prep for stir fry cookery—a bit of meat marinating and noodle soaking, and plenty of mindful knife work—happens in a cool kitchen. Preheat your wok for a few minutes before cooking and you can have a fresh, hot meal off the stove in minutes. Stir frying is one of the easiest and quickest ways to cook, but you'll want a few key pieces of equipment to capture the coveted wok-hei, the faint but distinctively smokey "breath of the wok".
I reached out to Chef Zilong Zhao, the head chef at MáLà Project in Manhattan, a restaurant that specializes in an elaborate stir fried dish called Szechuan dry pot, for some tips on building a home wok station. Here are a few of his—and my—stir-frying favorites.
Mandarin Wok
It is certainly possible to stir-fry in a skillet, but if you have the space, a proper wok is best. According to Zhao, “A deep Mandarin wok is necessary to hold as many ingredients as possible, and the depth helps by acting like a wall when the ingredients are pushed and tossed.” While Cantonese-style woks—those with two short handles—are handy for heavier, liquid-y dishes like braises, Zhao prefers a long-handled, Mandarin-style pan for stir frying.
My favorite Mandarin-style wok comes with a stay-cool wooden handle and its own wok ring, which modifies your gas range to hold the wok closer to the flame; it will not work on electric or induction stoves. Which brings me to:
Wok Skillet
If you are stir-frying on a standard electric stove or induction stove, opt for a solid, flat-bottomed wok, like this one from Christopher Kimball for Kuhn Rikon. It requires a few rounds of careful seasoning to prep and protect the raw iron surface (directions on how to do so come with the pan). After a proper seasoning, the lightweight pan will reward you with excellent, even heat retention. The sturdy stay-cool handle is a welcome convenience, as is the included tempered glass lid.
Our Stir Fry Favorites
A Wok Spatula (and ladle )
Caramelization is not typically the goal of stir frying and so ingredients should not remain in direct contact with the surface of the wok for more than a few seconds at a time. A metal wok spatula is a useful tool for flipping and stirring drier dishes—the edge is rounded to match the curves of the wok, allowing you to shovel the food away from the heat quickly and thoroughly. For stirring and serving saucier dishes, a deep wok ladle is also handy.
The dial offers a broad temperature range. The wok heats far up the sides for a wide, even cook surface, which minimizes the steaming effect that occurs when ingredients are packed too closely together. The bowl snaps out of the heating element for easy cleaning and serving.
I'm not 100% on board with the teflon coating (don't so much as touch it with that lovely metal wok spatula above: This one comes with its own, no-scratch plastic version), but if it gets you cooking more stir fries at home and saves space on your stove top, more power to you. It comes with a metal steamer tray (which I'm wary of using on the teflon surface) and a snug-fitting glass lid. With one of these and a great rice cooker, I could get by without a stove until winter.
Keep Reading
Continue to Next Story
