1. If using meat or fish in stir fry, dust pieces in cornflour first before cooking, to help make pan juices slightly thicken at end of cooking.
2. Make sure meat is cut into thin strips so that it can cook quickly.
3. Make sure wok is smoking hot before adding oil. Use flavourless oils with a high smoking point such as sunflower, vegetable or groundnut oil as other oils, such as olive oil, burn easily.
4. Swirl oil around wok so that sides of wok are coated. This will stop ingredients from sticking.
5. Add aromatics such as chilli, ginger and garlic first, stir quickly so they don't burn. Immediately add meat, again moving it around quickly so it doesn’t burn. The meat will only take a minute or so to cook, for beef and fish, or 2 to 3min for thinly sliced chicken. Tip meat and aromatics to a plate and set aside.
6. Pour a splash of water into wok to help steam vegetables. Put vegetables that take longest to cook in wok first, such as peppers and mangetout. Add vegetables that will soften quicker, or lose their bite more easily, last, such as bean sprouts. Once vegetables are cooked, add meat back to pan and let it warm up before serving. Stir through spring onions to taste at last minute. Serve immediately.
Use your skills to make these triple-tested recipes:
Stir-fry with tofu recipe
Prawn, veg and egg fried rice recipe
Cheat's Chinese chicken recipe
White ceramic bistro plate, White China tea plate, White China oval plate, Sophie Conran. Classic glass bowl (1 litre), Classic glass measure jug (0.5 litre), Pyrex. Wok, wooden spoon, chef's own.
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An experienced and highly skilled team of food writers, stylists and digital content producers, the Good Housekeeping Cookery Team is a close-knit squad of food obsessives. Cookery Editor Emma Franklin is our resident chilli obsessive and barbecue expert, who spends an inordinate amount of time on holidays poking round the local supermarkets seeking out new and exciting foods. Senior Cookery Writer Alice Shields is a former pastry chef and baking fanatic who loves making bread and would have peanut butter with everything if she could. Her favourite carb is pasta, and our vibrant green spaghetti is her weeknight go-to. Lover of all things savoury, Senior Cookery Writer Grace Evans can be found eating crispy corn and nocellara olives at every opportunity, and will take the cheeseboard over dessert any time (though she cannot resist a slice of tres leches cake). With a wealth of professional kitchen know-how, culinary training and years of experience between them, they are all dedicated to ensuring every Good Housekeeping recipe is the best it can be, so you can trust they’ll work (and if they don’t – we’ll have the answer for why*) every time (*90% of the time the answer is: “buy an separate oven thermometer”!).
