All The Tools You Need To Make Delicious Stir-Fry At Home

Chances are, if you have a well-stocked fridge and basic cooking tools, you could throw together a decent stir-fry right now. But if you want to make a next-level dish at home&#;one brimming with plump vegetables and tender cuts of meat, all cooked to perfection&#;you&#;ll need a few stir-fry essentials.

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To make next-level stir-fries at home, you'll need a few importantly tools&#;chief among them, a ... [+] quality wok.

So where do you start? The most important tool you&#;ll need is a quality wok, says Lan Lam, senior editor of Cook&#;s Illustrated. &#;One obvious benefit of cooking in a wok is that its high sloping walls allow you to easily move food around the surface without spilling it over the sides,&#; explains Lam. And just like cast-iron skillets, the more you use a wok, the better it gets. Once you&#;ve got your wok, you can start to build out your stir-frying arsenal with smaller (though nonetheless important) tools: a stainless steel mesh skimmer, a few sets of cooking chopsticks and a sturdy chef&#;s knife or cleaver, to name a few.

Ready to level up your stir-fries? Grab your veggies, protein of choice, aromatics and sauces (and make sure to prep everything, too). Then, all that&#;s left to do is fire up the wok.

Stir-Fry Essentials

An All-In-One Wok Set

Crate & Barrel

Joyce Chen 10-Piece Wok Set

This wok set truly is the whole package. Perfect for beginner and intermediate home cooks, the 10-piece set includes a carbon steel wok, a lid, a steaming rack, a tempura rack, bamboo utensils, six pairs of bamboo chopsticks and a cookbook.

But it&#;s the wok that&#;s the undeniable star of the show. When it comes to wok construction, carbon steel is what you want, as the material is engineered for even heating and cooling. This model has that, plus an excalibur premium nonstick coating surface to prevent food from sticking. &#;A well-seasoned carbon wok, like this one, is great,&#; says Chris Toy, cooking instructor and author of bestselling Asian cookbooks including Stir-Fry Cookbook For Beginners.

A Sturdy Mesh Skimmer

Sur La Table

Sur La Table Spider Skimmer

&#;Skimmers are good for two things,&#; says Toy. &#;They&#;re a good way to take out lots of deep fried stuff, as well as boiled dumplings.&#; This stainless steel spider has a smooth ergonomic handle, which makes cooking more comfortable. Bonus: It&#;s dishwasher safe. 

Long Chopsticks For Cooking

Umamicart

Umamicart Extra Long Bamboo Cooking Chopsticks (2 Pairs)

Chopsticks aren&#;t simply for eating. Extra long pairs, like these bamboo chopsticks from Umamicart, are perfect for flipping proteins and vegetables while they cook in the wok. They also come in handy when plating stir-fries, as you can easily pick up and move around its components. Another reason they&#;re great? &#;If you&#;re stirring things in a wok or are deep-frying something, you&#;re further away from the splattering and the heat,&#; says Toy, who advises stocking up on several pairs.

An All-Purpose Cleaver

Williams Sonoma

Shun Premier Nakiri Knife (6.5-Inch)

To thinly slice vegetables and chop cuts of meat, a quality chef&#;s knife will do the trick. That said, Toy&#;s preferred tool for preparing stir-fry ingredients is a cleaver&#;specifically, this Shun Premier Nakiri Knife. Crafted with Damascus steel, this knife&#;s hand-hammered texture isn&#;t just for looks&#;it prevents foods from sticking to the blade as you slice and dice.

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A Flexible Silicone Spatula To Prevent Scratches

GIR

GIR 3-Piece Ultimate Tool Set

This three-piece Ultimate Tool Set includes must-haves for making stir-fry at home: a standard spatula, a flip spatula and a genius spoonula, all made of pharmaceutical-grade silicone. Thanks to their nonstick construction, these spatulas won&#;t scratch up your cookware. Plus, they&#;re dishwasher-safe and heat-resistant up to 55 degrees Fahrenheit&#;a win-win.

Mixing Bowls To Have Ingredients At The Ready

Bloomingdale's

Luminarc 10-Piece Stackable Bowl Set

Before you turn on the stove and start stir-frying, it&#;s important to measure and chop all your stir-fry ingredients. That way, you won&#;t get halfway through the cooking process only to realize you&#;re missing the main vegetable. This nested set of glass bowls is perfect embracing the mise en place attitude. In each bowl, you can lay out all your ingredients: meats and vegetables, plus sauces (like soy sauce, oyster sauce, mirin), aromatics (such as ginger and garlic), and so much more. See why you need a lot of bowls?

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.

<a href='https://amzn.to/2IdWXma' rel='nofollow' title=''>A Set of Small Bowls</a>

A <a href='https://amzn.to/2XtLsuX' rel='nofollow' title=''>Pot</a> and <a href='https://amzn.to/2I8TzWj' rel='nofollow' title=''>Spider Skimmer</a> for Blanching

Mandarin Wok

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

<a href='https://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/all-clad-d5-stainless-steel-stir-fry-wok/?pkey=e%7Call%2Bclad%2Bwok%7C150%7Cbest%7C0%7C1%7C24%7C%7C1&amp;cm_src=PRODUCTSEARCH'>Stainless Steel Wok Skillet</a>

Our Stir Fry Favorites

A Wok Spatula (and ladle )

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.

For more information, please visit Automatic Stir Fry Machine.