Woks were invented in China about two thousand yeas ago but they remain a mystery to many cooks. That’s why my stir-fry recipes specify that you can cook the dish in a large wok or skillet. My recipe developer’s heart is always hoping that you’ll use a wok because that’s how the dish was meant to be cooked. A skillet will do but the explosive action of a good wokked stir-fry fills the kitchen with sizzling sounds, smells and then savors that a skillet cannot provide!
I’ve been spending more time on Substack’s Notes app and chatting with some of you. Earlier this week, remarked that she aspired to having a well-seasoned wok like the one I used in the kung pao chicken recipe video.
That tickled me because I don’t consider myself a master of the wok. Vietnam has being heavily influenced by Chinese culture but wok cooking is not a thing for many Vietnamese cooks. Most people choose skillets over woks, though as reminded me, some Viet pro cooks use woks for making sizzling rice crepes (bánh xèo). In the main, folks use skillets for those crepes and countless other dishes.
As I was growing up, my mom didn’t even have a wok. When you watch a video of me ‘effortlessly’ using mine, that’s the product of didactic practice. Over the years I’ve owned at least a dozen woks, and currently keep three (3) in my kitchen on rotation. Tinker and play with wok cooking to hone your skills.
Top, left to right, are carbon steel woks. Bottom left is a carbon steel wok. Center bottom is a lightweight traditional cast iron won. Bottom left is an electric teflon coated wok. I’ve owned and tried these and more!
In this post, I’m going to offer my pointers on:
Selecting a good wok
Buying pre-seasoned carbon steel woks
Seasoning and re-seasoning a wok
Wok cooking and cleaning tools
Plus, I have a baker’s dozen (13) wok recipes for you to wok away!
How to choose a good wok
Woks are workhorses in the kitchen. They heat up in a flash and can cook food quickly or be used for braising, frying, smoking, or maybe even steaming, though that will wipe out much of the patina that you’ve built up.
When shopping for a wok, consider:
Round or flat-bottom wok? Both round and flat-bottom woks work great on gas stoves. If your stove is electric coil or induction, choose a flat-bottom pan so it will have maximum contact with the heat surface.
What is a good wok made of? Choose a metal that can heat up fast and effectively — the bottom and sides of the wok should get hot because you use all that surface area to cook with.
Carbon steel woks are king. They’re known for their durability, weight options (light or heavy, more below), and endurance (you can heat it until ripping hot and you can neglect it and it’ll come back to serve you well). BUT, a carbon steel wok often requires maintenance by way of seasoning to maintain a nonstick surface.
Coated nonstick woks seem dreamy but the only coated nonstick skillet worth considering is the Joyce Chen Excalibur nonstick wok, which I reviewed on my website (🆓). After using it for nearly five years, I ‘retired’ it to my mom’s house so I can use it when I visit. Carbon steel woks rock. Second to that are old school cast iron woks.
Chinese lightweight traditional cast iron woks are thin and lovely to cook with — lots of swooshes and sizzling noises to propel you ahead! Heavy cast iron woks, like those made by Lodge, are unwieldy for tossing food around and take too long to heat. The only cast iron wok I own is a small 9-inch one that I bought to test drive single portion recipes.
asked: What about stainless steel woks and why does mine stick so much? Stainless steel pans, like ones by All Clad, require a long preheating until they are super hot (to test: flick water onto the surface and it should literally dance around, not pool). Once sufficiently hot, then you add oil/fat to film and start cooking. There should be minimal sticking (practice by frying an egg.) My mom use a thin, stainless steel wok for deep-frying. I’ve only used her wok for stir-frying greens but it didn’t perform as well as others.
I’m nudging you toward carbon steel for a good reason.
For the past two years, I’ve been road testing three carbon steel woks that are impressively good. Though they are are not all labeled as “pre-seasoned” they require very little elbow grease to prepare them for your wokking pleasures.
3 pre-seasoned carbon steel woks in rotation these days in my kitchen: the Yosukata (top), Anolon EverLast (bottom right), and a Japan iron wok/Beijing wok (bottom left).
Two are heavy duty and the third is lightweight. The lightweight Japan iron/Beijing wok is perfect for cooks who love to toss and flip food.
asked about a wok for cooks with carpal tunnel. My wrist issues are minimal but if I had wrist or hand pain, I would reach for the light Japan/Beijing carbon steel wok. It’s easier to maneuver than other woks, though it had its disadvantages. I put it to work in this kung pao chicken recipe video.
All three carbon steel woks are joys to cook with. I wrote up my review of each carbon steel wok (it’s 🆓 and at my website). Here’s the down and dirty on how they stack up:
When you’ve found a wok you like, you learn its strengths and identify its quirks. Unless a wok is Teflon coated, it needs to be seasoned. Even if a wok comes “pre-seasoned”, it still requires a little seasoning. It’s like with cast iron — you must maintain and cultivate the metal to ensure a lifetime of good cooking.
What exactly is seasoning a wok? Seasoning a wok involves heating the metal (carbon steel or cast iron) so it expand a bit to receive oil or fat, which gets into the microscopic crevices to form a film. This happens during a purposeful seasoning process as well as through regular usage. Overtime, as oil gets into the metal, a patina develops and the pan surface becomes more slick. As a pan gets seasoned, it may change color, depending on the metal.
To season a wok, I use one of these methods, depending on the pan and needs:
Cook with the wok regularly (I do it twice a week, at least) to keep the seasoning going. Aside from stir-frying, fry an egg or better yet — sear beef steaks or cook fish fillet in a wok.
Why sear steaks or fish in the wok? Because (1) the hot heat creates a crisp well browned exterior, (2) you can easily baste the food with butter or another fat that will pool in the bottom and (3) most oil droplets fall back down into the wok so there’s less of a mess to clean up.
I simply salted and peppered this steak well and added a drizzle of soy sauce to promote browning. Then I left it to sit out for about 30 minutes while I cooked other parts of the meal.
When and how to re-season a wok? I think of re-seasoning as refreshing the wok, only you’re not starting from scratch.If a wok looks dry or if food is sticking too much during repeated uses, re-season the wok. When I neglect to wash the wok well and black bits flake off during cooking, it’s time to re-season.
Here’s my quick “oil smear” re-seasoning process: Wash the pan well with coarse salt and soap, then I dry it over medium heat, add a tiny bit of oil, use paper towel to smear it all over, let the pan keep heating up till it smokes, then turn the heat off and leave the wok to cool. This whole process takes literally only a couple of minutes.
If the pan is super gross, then I may boil water and a little vinegar in it to thoroughly remove the gunk. Then I’d do one of the three seasoning methods instead of the oil smear.
A good wok talks to you over its lifetime of service in your kitchen. Sometimes it may need some extra love to perform better for you!
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Wok cooking and cleaning tools
To wok well, you don’t just need something that matches the shape of the wok to scoop, push, flip, and help you quickly move food around. In the photo below, my metal wok spatula has a gentle edge so it does not scratch or ding the wok much when I’m swiftly cooking. The handle is long so you can stand back from the stove and still cook easily. A broad wood spatula works well too!
For cleaning a wok, I love a good bristle brush. A favorite dish scrub brush works too. The handled brush in the above photo is a bona fide wok cleaning brush purchased from a restaurant supply shop.
How I clean my woks
Let the wok briefly cool after you dish out the food. Then hit it with a spray of hot water, a drop of dish soap, lots of active scrubbing and a good rinse to remove all debris; finish with drying on the stove over a low flame or wiping with a dishtowel, depending on the surface.
When stuff is super stuck on the wok, let the dirty pan soak with some water in it while you’re eating. Clean up will be lots easier. Re-season with the “oil smear” method if needed.
If a wok was used for deep-frying, let the oil cool then strain to reuse; or, stir in oil solidifier while the oil is still hot, let it harden, then discard the oil.
Get wokking with 13 recipes
A wok gets better the more you use it. Yes, food will occasionally stick but you’ll befriend the wok and know how to heat it just enough and how to use its best qualities to make great food. Here is a special collection of favorite recipes on my website (🆓) and this newsletter. Jam packed PTFS recipe dispatches often have multiple recipes so there’s lots of versatility built in.
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