If you are on a quest to buy a wok pan for your kitchen then you would find several options along the way from the best non stick wok pans to carbon steel and fully stainless steel woks.
Since carbon steel is a common choice, mostly people don’t know the capabilities of stainless steel woks.
Upon research, we found some of the best stainless steel wok reviews that made us believe paying high price for purchasing the best non stick wok pan is of no use when you get to achieve classy result from the stainless steel as well.
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Our Recommendation: Best Stainless Steel Wok Pan
| Product | Features | Buy On |
|---|---|---|
 |
KitchenAid 5-Ply Clad Polished Stainless Steel Wok,15 Inch Five layers of heat conductive metal from base to Top to give better results of cooking It features a unique brushed base to hide wear and tear for long-lasting durability Sealed rims prevent corrosion, allowing for stir fry pan to be truly dishwasher safe |
Amazon |
What is Wok Pan?
A Wok is a traditional Chinese cooking vessel with a rounded bottom and high sloping walls with two handles on both side or one big handle.
Traditionally it is a round-bottomed, high-walled vessel; however, flat-bottomed woks are also getting popular as they can be used on standard ranges.
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It’s distinctive shape that includes round bottom, high walls and sturdy handles serve several purposes.
The rounded bottom allows high heat to remain at the center where the ingredients are located while the high, sloping walls make tossing and stir frying easy so you can mix well and evenly cook the ingredients.
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What Is a Wok Used For?
A Wok is primarily used for stir frying. Its high walls make it ideal for retaining food allowing you to quickly stir and toss while the rounded shape conducts heat very quickly making it ideal for searing meats and sautéing vegetables.
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Intense heat is a key component of wok that adds smoky flavor to the cooking.
However, at home it is nearly impossible to achieve due to the temperature difference between home stoves and professional ones.
The bottom of the Wok heats up pretty fast and the high sides provide a natural heat gradient, allowing you to stir or toss ingredients higher so that they don’t scorch or burn.
Since woks are much spacious they offer space to cook a large amount of food, it could be meat, vegetables or making fried rice for a big crowd.
It can also be used for deep frying chicken, tempura, fries, as well as steaming dumplings or vegetables with a bamboo steamer basket.
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How To Cook With A Wok Pan
Prepare your Ingredients: Before preheating your wok, make sure to prepare your ingredients beforehand.
Depending on your ingredients and recipe, slice your veggies or meat, and marinate them if needed.
Preheat the Wok: Before adding oil make sure your wok is hot enough, drizzle some water, and if it evaporates mean the wok is hot enough.
Pour in some oil into the hot wok and heat the oil until you see a bit of smoke coming out from the pan.
Heat the oil until you see a bit of smoke coming out from the pan.
Do not worried if the ingredients look a bit oil or overcooked, it is the savory coating of the ingredients only. You will know when they are tender and crunchy when the protein appears lighter.
Add Ingredients: Dump your ingredients into the wok, such as seafood, poultry, meat or vegetables.
Let them sear in and creates a bit of moisture. Stir in the herbs, spices and aromatics so they can spread the flavor and enhance the natural aroma.
Stir-fry: Constantly stir the ingredients using a spatula, tong or spoon across the wok.
Let the ingredients mix well, so the ingredients can absorb into each other and bring out the blended flavor of the herbs, spices and meat.
Add the Liquid Ingredients: Swirl the broth, sauces, and spices to deglaze the wok and kick a flavor to the food.
It will intensify the flavor and aromatics of the ingredients. Stir fry until the ingredients cooked then transfer your meal to a serving dish or plate.
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Benefits of Using a Wok
Cooks Fast: Woks can be used to cook variety of meals. Woks are technical designed in such a way to help spread high heat evenly and efficiently across the surface result in quickly and evenly cooked food.
Woks are commonly used for stir-frying, sautéing or deep frying. Stir frying and sautéing both are quick and healthy ways to prepare food.
Both need high heat and a little effort to swirl the food around for some time to keep them from scorching and give a scrumptious brown layer to the ingredients.
Adds a Unique Taste: The stir frying and sautéing technique adds flavor to the food.
The combination of even distribution of high heat and well stirring help woks to seal in the taste without letting them burn, scorch or over cooked.
Healthy Way of Cooking: Cooking with wok is a great way to make healthy food.
The reason is stir-fried and sautéed meals are typically made using fresh, healthy ingredients, that requires high heat and less oil compared to traditional cooking and frying which makes it a relatively quick cooking process means retention of food’s nutrients.
Versatile Cooking Vessel: A wok is a single cooing vessel in your kitchen that could cook almost anything.
The best thing is you can use a single wok instead of multiple pans for doing multiple tasks.
It means that you don’t need to have a lot of storage space for storing multiple pans and pots.
It is best for compact kitchens and seems more economical in terms of buying one instead of buying multiple cooking vessels.
Durable & Long lasting: A good quality wok can last you a lifetime with proper maintenance.
The best way to clean wok is to skip the soap or harsh detergents and let it soak in hot water for five minutes.
Doing this will help you get rid of stuck-on food and grease easily so you can wash the interior with hot water and a soft sponge.
For exterior you can use the scouting pad or scrubber sponge with hot water.
Make sure you dry the wok manually before storing it into the cabinet
Prepare Bulk Food: Woks are larger in size compared to the traditional frying pans or even pots sometimes.
Their shape and higher edges offers larger usable volume and help cook greater amounts of food.
They allow you to cook larger volume of food in one go.
Easy Cooking: Woks support stir fry cooking that is quick, simple and straightforward.
All you need to do is to cut the fresh ingredients into bite-size pieces and toss them into the wok after the oil is heat up and keep stirring or sautéing until you get the final result.
No Additional Equipment: Wok is a highly affordable kitchen vessel that needs no additional equipment to cook food.
You only need to have a wooden spoon or scraper. You don’t need to purchase any additional equipment or utensil which makes it an affordable kitchen staple.
Any difference between Wok pan Vs Stir fry Pan?
It is not about whether the wok is better or frying pan is good, but it depends what you are going to cook with them.
If you want to stir fry in a frying pan then it may be doable but not recommended and you wouldn’t get results expected.
Similarly, you can’t deep fry in a frying pan but you can’t sear a whole steak in a wok as well.
This is why both are great vessels in their own way and for their respective advantages.
The major difference between a wok and a pan is their shape and construction.
A wok has a rounded bottom with deep sloping sides, while a frying pan has a flat base with sides that are slightly angled.
Die to the deep rounded base, the wok keeps the food and ingredients at the center of the base of the wok where heat is concentrated that makes it ideal for stir-frying.
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Further the high sloppy sides make it easier to toss and swirl around the ingredients.
A frying pan also referred to as a skillet, has a flat bottom with slightly sloping or flared walls.
These walls are low heighted that allows heat to evaporate faster that leads to slower cooking time compared to the wok.
However, the flat bottom also allows oil, sauces, and other liquids to be evenly distributed across the pan’s flat surface.
A frying pan is suitable for cooking steaks or searing meats.
How to Choose Best Stainless Steel Wok Pan?
The right approach before buying a wok for your kitchen is to seek the best stainless steel wok reviews and find which one fits the right for you. However, we have concluded some tips for you to buy the ebst one.
Type: Always go for the made. Look what you are paying for. Check the material and construction.
If its stainless steel go for a cladded wok as they distributes heat exceptionally well across the surface and retain heat for longer time.
Flat or Round Bottom: If you on an electric cooking range then your best option is to use a flat-bottom wok.
Round bottom woks are damaging. The best thing about flat bottom woks they can be used on almost all heat sources.
Handles: Mostly, wok pans come with two metal handles to make them easy to lift in and carry.
Flat bottom woks have a long handle just like a skillet while round bottoms which are similar to Chinese woks have two handles on both sides. Long handle are easier to move and tilt when stir-frying.
Size: There are variety of wok’s sizes available in the market. Buying a specific sized wok depends on several factors, including your own preferences, the quantity of food you cook, the depth of wok you need and type of stove you have.
Lid: A wok with a lid saves time a lot, it helps to simmer food without letting it scorch or stick and lets you keep an eye even when there is less oil.
We are going to Review Top 4 Best Stainless Steel Wok
1.Heritage Steel Wok Pan With Lid
This 5 ply constructed stainless steel wok consisted of three layers of aluminum covered with Titanium strengthened 439 grade stainless steel.
This unique combination of materials makes it a 20x resistant against corrosion, provides even cooking, releases food easily and cleaning it a breeze.
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The ergonomically designed dual riveted handles are comfortable to hold and remain cool on the stovetop.
Though the Wok pan is dishwasher safe; but we find in some best stainless steel wok reviews that cleaning Heritage wok pan is a breeze.
2.Willow Non Stick Stainless Steel Wok Pan
Willow & Everett’s 13-inch wok is adapted from a traditional round-bottom Chinese wok.
Its stainless steel surface is resistant to stain and rust and the aluminum core efficiently distributes heat across the surface.
The deep non stick surface helps make healthy cooking easier and is ideal for stir fry, steaming, deep frying, boiling, and searing.
The wok is named among the best stainless steel wok reviews for its superior performance over various heat sources including induction and oven.
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The product comes with a stainless steel lid two ergonomically designed dual riveted handles and a spatula with bamboo handle. The 13-inch, 4 lb stainless steel wok is dishwasher and oven safe.
3.Kitchenaid 5-ply Clad Stainless Steel Wok Pan
The five layers of heat conductive materials provide exceptional heat retention and the exact heat control needed to deliver professional grade cooking results.
Upon finding some of the best stainless steel wok reviews, we came up with the name of this brilliant wok that is capable of giving exceptional performance.
The 5 ply clad heavy duty stainless steel wraps around a heat efficient aluminum featuring a unique brushed base so the wok can perform on almost any heat source.
The dual riveted unique black stainless steel handles are adds an elegant look that makes it a perfect choice for a serving dish at your dinner table.
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Being the best stainless steel wok reviews about this vessel complains only about the missing lid.
It is an induction compatible, broiler and oven safe staple up to 500F.
4.Cuisinart Chef Stainless Steel Pan
This 14 inch mirror finished stainless steel pan encapsulated with aluminum core to offer high quality heat conductivity that ensures the temperature quickly and evenly reaches to every inch of the wok.
Made with durable high grade stainless steel, the interior doesn’t react with food and the exterior doesn’t discolor.
The embossed measurement markings are extremely helpful in adding precise ingredients to the recipe.
As per the best stainless steel reviews, we found that almost all steel woks are dishwasher safe and so is Cuisinart Chef’s wok too.
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You can use it on induction and in oven as well up to 500F. The transparent glass lid helps you view the status of your meal so can keep it from scorching or burning by swirling the food around.
For better convenience the manufacturer has provided a stay cool helper loop handle with a main handle that is long enough for comfy maneuvering.
Conclusion
IF we talk about the best stainless steel wok pans then according to the best stainless steel wok reviews the KitchenAid 5-Ply Clad Stainless Steel Wok(Buy On Amazon) seems to be the right choice for your kitchen that is designed for precision cooking and exceptional heat conductivity.
Constructed of 5 heat conductive layers this heavy gauge wok with its deep sloping walls makes tossing and swirling extremely easy.
The tempered glass lid locks in heat and sealed in the ingredients achieve optimum efficiency. The body of this premium grade wok is corrosion resistant, broiler, induction and oven safe up to 500F.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best metal for a wok?
Carbon Steel is a traditional material used in manufacturing woks. You may found best stainless steel wok pans or best non stick wok pans but some of the best wok pans are made of carbon steel. It is comparatively lightweight, durable, inexpensive, and heats up quickly and evenly.
What wok do professional chefs use?
The best wok pans generally used by professional chefs are made of carbon steel. Carbon steel weighs less which makes it easy to maneuver, stir fry, lifting, and carrying furthermore it is best to provide even heat distribution.
Is a round or flat bottom wok better?
If you use an electric range cooker then a flat-bottom wok will work best for you. Round bottom woks are extremely good at reflecting high heat but they can damage the surface of the heat source. That’s why mostly flat bottomed woks are considered best wok pans.
Is stainless steel wok safe?
Yes stainless steel woks are safe to use. We find some of the best stainless steel wok pans in the market popular for their durability, performance and ease of use.
Is stainless steel wok non stick?
No, stainless steel woks are not non-stick. They are either tri ply or 5 ply cladded or sometimes made of steel cooking surface that’s prone to sticking tender and delicate foods like eggs, fish , and pancakes. Adding sufficient quantity of oil, and preheating the pan does help to make stainless steel wok less sticky.