What Can You Do with a Wok?

While woks excel at fast, high-heat cooking, that’s not their only use. Here, we share just a handful of cooking techniques that woks excel at. 

Stir-Frying

If you’re considering adding a wok to your collection, it is likely because you’re hoping to make delicious stir-fry at home. There’s a reason why woks are practically synonymous with this cooking method: their sloping sides are ideal for tossing and quickly flipping food, allowing you to build a delicious char by exposing food to the concentrated heat at the bottom, without burning it. The result? Perfectly tender proteins and crisp, slightly smoky veggies. 

Steaming

The sloped shape of wok also lends itself especially well to steaming dumplings, veggies, and even delicate pieces of fish, as it allows simmering water to concentrate at the bottom underneath a bamboo or metal steamer insert. Woks are typically sold with lids for exactly this purpose.

Wok Braising

Though woks are most commonly used to cook quickly, they can also be used to slow cook or “braise.” The process here isn’t exactly the same as a traditional Western braise, in which tougher proteins are broken down in liquid over the course of hours, but it follows the same logic. These recipes work by lightly frying proteins and aromatics, then adding liquid like water, broth, and soy sauce, and allowing everything to simmer for anywhere from 5 to 90 minutes, depending on what you’re making. The result is a rich, simmered dish with lots of thick sauce. 

Deep Frying

With its deep sides and wide opening, woks make ideal vessels for deep frying. While you’ll need to use more oil to deep fry in a wok than you would in a Dutch oven or pot, their unique shape allows you to turn food more easily as it cooks. Frying in a wok also does a better job of catching oil splatters, and makes it easy to pour out or strain cooled oil once you’re done cooking. 

Wok Cooking Tips

The best way to use your wok will depend on the recipe you’re making, but there are a few tried-and-true tips for making the most out of this type of pan.

• Preheat the pan. Cooking with a wok is all about heat, so you’ll want to give your pan enough time to come to temperature before you add in oil and your ingredients. If you’re using a wok made of aluminum with a nonstick coating or hard anodized aluminum, we recommend preheating the pan on high heat for about two minutes to get the cooking surface nice and hot. Then, drop the heat to medium (don’t worry, the pan will stay plenty hot) to avoid overheating your cookware.    

• Use high smoke-point oil. Because woks cook at such high temperatures, you’ll want to avoid using lower smoke-point oils, like olive oil. Instead, reach for a neutral oil with a high smoke point like avocado oil, grapeseed oil, or vegetable oil. 

• Cut ingredients into small, uniform pieces. This tip is essential for stir-frying, but is a good rule of thumb to follow when wok cooking in general. Doing so allows food to cook quickly and evenly as you toss it around the surface of the wok. 

• Start in small batches. As you get comfortable with your wok, you’ll find it easy to whip up a family-sized batch of kung pao chicken, but if you’ve never cooked with such high temperatures before, we recommend starting in batches. This will allow you to get used to tossing food and get a sense of just how quickly proteins and vegetables will cook. 

• Keep a close eye on your pan. Unless you’re steaming or doing a longer braise, wok cooking is very hands-on—you want to be constantly stirring, tossing, and flipping your ingredients to ensure everything gets a nice even char without burning. We recommend prepping all of your ingredients ahead of time, so you can focus on keeping food moving once it goes into the pan. 

How to Season a Wok

Circulon’s woks are constructed from super-tough hard-anodized aluminum and feature a premium nonstick coating, so they don’t need to be seasoned before use. All you’ll need to do is give them a good clean before using them for the first time, and use a high-quality oil when cooking to ensure food doesn’t stick while tossing and stir-frying. 

Woks made of traditional cast iron or carbon steel, however, require seasoning to enable that all-important stir-fry toss. Here are the basics for seasoning your wok for the first time:

• If your wok is new, give it a quick wash using warm soapy water to clean off any dust, oil, and residue from its packaging. Once clean, dry it thoroughly with a soft towel.

• Drizzle a little bit of neutral, high smoke point seasoning oil onto a paper towel (trust us, you don’t need much). Then, use the towel to cover the interior of the wok with an even layer of oil, wiping up any excess with a clean paper towel once coated.   

• Set your wok on the stove over high heat and let it get very hot (if you’re seasoning a carbon steel wok, it will begin to turn black and blue as it heats all the way through).  

• Once the oil begins to smoke, turn off the heat and give your wok plenty of time to cool down. 

As you repeat this process over time, your wok will build up a patina that will keep food from sticking (though you’ll always need to use oil when cooking with your wok) and impart food with a rich flavor. 

How to Clean a Wok

The best way to clean your wok depends on its material. Here, we’ve broken down how to care for woks made of the most common materials.

Nonstick Woks

You can clean a nonstick wok in the same way that you’d clean any other nonstick pan. Here’s what we recommend:

• Wait for the wok to cool down before putting it in the sink and cleaning.

• Rinse the pan with warm, soapy water and use a soft sponge to remove food debris and oil from the cooking surface. 

• Allow stuck-on food particles to soak in warm, soapy water to release them from the cooking surface. Never use abrasive scrub pads or steel wool, which can damage and scratch the wok’s nonstick coating. 

• Once clean, rinse the pan thoroughly and allow it to dry completely before storing it away.

We do not recommend putting your wok in the dishwasher, as harsh dishwashing detergents and very high temperatures can damage its nonstick coating. 

Carbon Steel or Cast Iron Woks

Cleaning a wok made of traditional carbon steel or cast iron requires a little bit more care to preserve the patina you’ve worked so hard to build up. Here’s how to do it:

• Let the wok cool completely after cooking. Exposing it to cold water too soon is not only dangerous, but also can cause the wok to warp. 

• Rinse the wok with warm water, and clean using a gentle dish soap and a very soft sponge. Never use harsh chemicals or abrasive scrub pads to clean the wok, as they can strip the seasoning. 

• Rinse the wok thoroughly with hot water, and immediately towel dry. 

• Once towel dried, return the wok to the stove and reheat it on low heat to evaporate any remaining water. 

• If needed, re-season your wok by swirling a light coating of oil around the inside of the pan over medium heat. Wipe off any excess oil and let the pan cool completely before storing. 

• Avoid placing your carbon steel or cast iron wok in the dishwasher, which will cause it to rust.

Wok Cook with Confidence

We hope this article helped you better understand the ins and outs of cooking with a wok. Woks have been a kitchen staple for thousands of years for a reason: they’re easy to use, ultra-versatile, and can take even the simplest recipes to the next level. 

For more tips, recipes, and to shop some of the best pans on the market, visit circulon.com.