The Worst Mistakes You're Making With Stir-Fry Ingredients
Stir-fry, a.k.a. the fancy name for "taking all the random leftover ingredients in your fridge and throwing them in a pan with oil." And yet, somehow, a beautiful dish always takes shape. Snap peas, tofu, chicken, shredded carrots, bok choy, broccoli, bell peppers, and green onions are all likely items to be tossed in, but really anything goes so long as you follow the veggie-protein-sauce blueprint. Whether you're a broke college student, a parent looking for an easy meal, or someone just trying to reduce food waste, the stir-fry might be calling to you — but before you answer the call, take heed of a few crucial tips to get it right.
A stir-fry is made by tossing all your ingredients together in a pan on high heat, but the main challenge of any one-pot dish is making sure each piece cooks to perfection. Shredded carrots will cook faster than, say, cubes of chicken, so adding them to the pan at the same time just isn't going to cut it. And speaking of cutting it — just like when you're making a sheet pan dinner, it's essential to cut your stir-fry ingredients into uniform sizes. Even among the same ingredients, having one huge chunk of stemmed broccoli and others chopped will lead to a result you can likely predict: Some burnt broccoli, some undercooked broccoli, and maybe one or two pieces of Goldilocks broccoli — just right. Focus on uniformity among your veggies, and they can all be Goldilocks pieces, perfectly cooked.
Order of operations
"Order of operations" may be a mathematical term, but it applies here as well — whoever said you wouldn't use elementary school math in your adult life? Although the ingredients for a stir-fry aren't specifically ordained, there is a specific order you should follow for putting the ingredients you choose in your pan to ensure they're all fully cooked.
First, add a shallow frying oil of your choice, like olive oil, to a well-seasoned wok or frying pan. Cook your protein of choice, and then remove it from the pan once done and set it aside. Next, cook your aromatics, like garlic, ginger, and onion, and enjoy how delicious your entire kitchen smells before adding in your veggies. Once they're done to your liking, you can add your protein back in to warm it up and toss it all with your sauce of choice. Veggies that aren't mushy, meat that isn't cold, and nothing that's questionably undercooked — sounds like the perfect method to us.