Top 6 Surefire Ways to Spoil a Stir-fry

1. Don’t Prepare All the Ingredients Ahead of Time

Stir-frying is a speedy business – it can take as little as 7 minutes. That doesn’t leave any extra time for cutting meat, chopping garlic, or mixing sauce ingredients. Preparing all the ingredients before you start stir-frying allows you to focus on the task at hand - stirring and moving food around in the wok.

2. Rinse, But Don’t Drain, Vegetables Before Stir-frying

Stir-frying is all about fast cooking with high heat. Soggy vegetables lower the wok’s temperature and won’t cook properly. (The excess water may also splatter). An ideal way to prepare vegetables is to rinse them earlier in the day and leave to drain in a colander. If that’s not an option, you can quickly pat the vegetables dry with a paper towel. Don’t worry about getting the vegetables too dry, though – you want them to retain a bit of moisture.

3. Don’t Preheat the Wok.

Adding oil to a cold wok is a surefire way to guarantee the cooked food will stick to the bottom of the wok. (The food may also not be cooked through). Always preheat your wok for at least 30 seconds before adding the oil. Not sure if the wok is hot enough? Try holding the palm of your hand 2 - 3 inches above the wok's surface. You should be able to feel the heat.

4. Stir-fry All the Ingredients Together

Meat and seafood are normally cooked separately from vegetables – you’ll often find recipes calling for the meat to be partially cooked, removed from the wok, and then added back in the final stages of stir-frying. For vegetables, the thicker, denser vegetables are normally added first, as they will take longer to cook. (If you’re using a stir-fry mix, don't worry - the package should contain vegetables with roughly the same thickness).

5. Fill ‘er up! - Load up the Wok

A crowded wok can’t do its job properly. Overfilling the wok keeps the food from cooking quickly, and may turn your stir-fry into a braise, as the moisture from all that excess food is released (all food contains a certain amount of moisture). Not exactly a culinary disaster, but not great either. If you find a recipe calls for more meat than your wok can comfortably hold, or if you're doubling up a recipe, cook the food in 2 batches.

6. Don’t Stir the Ingredients

Stir-frying is all about quickly moving and stirring the food to make sure all of the ingredients are thoroughly exposed to the heat. There are exceptions: when cooking meat, you’ll want to lay it out flat and let it brown for about 30 seconds before you begin moving it about. For the most part, though, be sure not to forget the "stir" in stir-frying!