Stir-fry is always the answer to that ever important question: what’s for dinner? It’s quick, easy, delicious, and infinitely customizable making it the ultimate weeknight dinner when you can’t figure out what to make and want to spend zero energy on dinner. Here are 10 tips and tricks to make the best stir fry of your life!
1. Carb Life
Unless you’re on a low carb diet, the first thing your should do when making a stir fry is think about the carb. Are you having your stir fry with rice? Make that pot of rice before you start cooking so you have a fluffy bed of rice for your glossy, glistening stir-fry when it’s done. If you doing a noodle-y stir fry, cook your noodles first or at the same time as the stir-fry is going on so you have them ready to throw into the pan at the right time, at the end.
2. Prep Work is the Best Work
Prep your ingredients and workspace so that everything’s on hand before you even start thinking about turning on the stove. Stir fries cook fast and you don’t want to be mixing up your sauce or searching for a spatula while your protein or vegetabes are getting overcooked. If you prep everything, including the sauce, in small bowls or plates right near the stove, once you start cooking, everything will go super smoothly.
3. Velvet the Meat
Ever wonder why the meat in stir fry is so juicy and tender when you get takeout? It’s cause it’s been velveted! Velveting is a super easy Chinese technique of marinating meat in a bit of cornstarch, oil, and seasoning. The marinade tenderizes and seasons the meat and the cornstarch gives the meat a little barrier so it stays juicy during cooking. For one pound of meat, marinate with: 1 tablespoon oil, 1 teaspoon cornstarch, and a pinch of salt or splash of soy.
4. Temper Temper
After you marinate your meat, don’t pop it back in the fridge. Keep it on the counter (unless you live in an extremely tropical location) to bring it up to room temp. Tempering your meat means it cooks faster, sears better, and doesn’t cool down the oil in your wok (or frying pan).
5. Oil Always Love You
Speaking of oil, this is where you want to step away from the extra virgin and even regular olive oil. They both have lower smoke points and the point of stir fry is fast and hot. Stick to high smoke point oils like grape seed oil, avocado oil, or even canola.
6. Same Same But Different
Ever notice that stir fries have everything perfectly bite-sized? The reason is two fold: smaller cuts of meats and vegetables cook more quickly and the small size means that everything is easy to pick up with chopsticks. Try to cut all your vegetables and meat around the same size so they all cook at the same rate. When cooking the vegetables, add in the ones that take a bit more time at the beginning (mushrooms, carrots, eggplant, etc) and the ones that wilt instantly at the end (all leafy greens).
7. Smells So Good
The first step to any good stir fry is the aromatics: garlic, ginger, shallots, onions, or the whites of scallions. They add that extra hit of flavor in the background. Plus they smell amazing.
8. Batch it Up
If you want to do it right, cook your stir fry in batches. It’s kind of a pain but it’s how they do it in restaurants. Cooking in batches means you’ll avoid crowding the wok which leads to steaming instead of stir frying and scooping things out of the pan after it’s done cooking means nothing gets overcooked. Cook the meat, remove it, cook the veggies, then add the meat back in with the sauce and bring it all together.
9. Sauce is Life
Everyone knows that sauce is life. You want it glossy, you want it glistening, you want it all over your rice or noodles. Everyone has a different sauce to stir fry ratio. We like it when nothing is drowning, but there’s still plenty of sauce to scoop. Make sure you prep the sauce when you’re doing the meat and veggies, that way you can just pour it into the pan at just the right moment.
10. Don’t Forget to Stir
Don’t forget to stir. Usually when cooking, the general wisdom is to let the food have contact with the pan, untouched (think of that crust that you want on steak) but when making stir fry you want to keep the food moving.
That’s it! Go forth and stir fry like a boss!
Basic Stir-Fry Sauce
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup chicken stock
- 1 tbsp soy sauce
- 1 tbsp oyster sauce
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
- 1/2 - 1 tbsp sugar depending on taste
- 1 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 1 tbsp water
Instructions
- Whisk together the chicken stock, soy sauce, oyster sauce, sesame oil, sugar. Whisk in the cornstarch slurry. Be sure to mix up before adding to the pan.
Choose Your Own Adventure Stir Fry
Ingredients
- 1 lb meat of coice cut into bite sized pieces
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1-2 tbsp arromatics of choice see notes
- 2-3 cups vegetables of choice see notes
- 1 recipe basic stir fry sauce see above
- cooked noodles of choice optional
Instructions
- Marinate the meat in 1 tablespoon of oil, the cornstarch, and a pinch of salt. Set aside at room temp and let marinate for 15 minutes or up to 1 hour.
- Chop up your aromatics and cut the veggies into bite size pieces and make sure you have your sauce mixed up.
- Heat up a wok or skillet over high heat. When hot, add a drizzle of oil, then immediately add the aromatics before the heat gets too hot. Stir for a couple of seconds, then add the meat and cook, stirring occasionally, until browned and almost cooked though. Remove from the pan.
- If the pan is dry, add a bit more oil, then cook the vegetables, stirring as needed, until they just start to soften.
- Add the meat back in, give your sauce a stir, then add it to the pan. Let the sauce bubble and thicken, stirring as necessary. This is when you would add noodles in, if you’re using them. At this point your stir fry should be saucy, glossy and ready to eat!
Notes
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-Steph & Mike
This sounds great, amazing stir fry pointers. What kinds of noodles would you suggest for these pan fried noodles: egg noodle or rice noodles and thicker/udon or thinner ramen size noodles? I have tried to make stir frys and soup noodles many times and discovered it is very important what kind you use, it can make or break the dish.
hi,
any noodles will work, to be honest! it’s just a question of making sure they’re not over cooked before adding them to the stir fry.
What kind of meat are you using here ?
hi! it’s beef!
What type of noodles are these? they look so thick n juicy
hi! they are udon, you can find them in the frozen section of the asian grocery store :)
I made a chicken and soba noodle stir fry with this sauce tonight but used a different marinating method for the chicken. The sauce was really good!! I rarely make my own stir fry sauce so its good to have a simple, delicious one in the bag. Thank you!
Thank you Stephanie for excellent stir fry pointers and the best, easiest, and perfectly-ratioed sauce!! You’ve truly helped me take my Asian cooking skills to another level. :)