The 6 Best Woks for Quick Stir-Fry Dishes at Home

Final Verdict

Our Best Overall pick is the Yosukata Carbon Steel Wok, a top-performing, traditionally-styled wok that works with any cooktop—including open flames. For a beginner wok, we recommend the Souped Up Recipes Carbon Steel Wok since it comes with everything you'll need.

How We Tested Woks

We tested 18 woks side-by-side in our Birmingham, Alabama, testing lab to find out which were easiest to use and produced accurate readings. Additionally, our expert testers use certain models in their home kitchens and regularly supply us with home-cooking insights and updates on long-term wear and tear.

We Observed

• A wok's material matters: Cast iron will get to the high heat needed for searing and wok hei, but it's dense, which takes a long time to heat up, and can stay too hot for too long. Carbon steel and nonstick or hybrid nonstick woks will get to a high temperature quicker, and cool down fast. The material also needs to be durable due to all the moving and shaking while cooking.
• A wok's handle is equally as important: A too-short wok handle could mean it getting too hot to handle (or worse, using a kitchen rag and risking it catching on fire). An uncomfortable handle means tossing food with two hands or arm fatigue while cooking. The worst handle is one that can't be taken off and can't go into an oven when the wok itself needs proper oven seasoning.
• A wok's price tag is just that, a price tag: We tested a few woks more expensive than any on this list. We found that there wasn't anything extraordinary about their performance or design, and a couple were even harder to use.

We Rated

• Design: The best woks have classic sloped sides, enough cooking space for a 4-person household, useful handles, and look great when left out on the stove. We rated woks higher when those handles stayed exceptionally cool when over high heat.
• Ease of use: Woks are meant to be moved around during cooking. We assessed how easy a wok was to maneuver on the stove, especially when we were tossing food around while making stir-fry or fried rice.
• Performance: To analyze a wok's heat conductivity and distribution, we boiled water in each, monitoring how long it took to come to a boil and how long to cool down. We also recorded how well a wok-seared beef and browned rice.
• Ease of cleaning: Wok cooking is best with oil at high heat so you can achieve a great sear and some wok hei. But that can also mean lots of fond. We created fond in each wok and then monitored how much cleaning you'd need to get the wok back into shape for your next dinner.

About Our Testers

• Our Lab team has spent collective decades working in professional kitchens, developing recipes, and testing kitchen gear.
  
• Donna Currie, a seasoned food writer, cookbook author, and recipe developer, has tested hundreds of products for us over the past seven years. She's tested a number of woks for us but absolutely raves about her gorgeous Circulon SteelShield Wok.

What to Look for When Buying a Wok

Material

• Traditional woks are constructed out of carbon steel, an alloy made of iron and carbon. It has many similar properties to cast iron: it holds heat well, can be used on any sort of cooktop (including open flame and induction), and is extremely durable. Carbon steel is lighter and less brittle than cast iron and is also more responsive to changes in heat. The malleability of carbon steel also lends itself well to shaping and pressing, so the surface of a carbon steel pan will be smooth in comparison to the rougher surface of a cast iron pan. However, raw carbon steel requires a lot of seasoning, and all carbon steel is higher maintenance than other materials, as it must be hand-washed, kept dry, and oiled frequently. In a home kitchen, the metallic odor will take some time and use before fading. Additionally, rounded-bottom woks are only suitable for gas stoves with a wok ring.
• Cast iron is another heavy-duty material perfect for high-heat cooking because of its ability to maintain heat—this makes it the perfect choice for searing and deep-frying, and also for keeping foods warm for a long time. While cast iron requires a little bit of special care to maintain its seasoning, cookware made from this material has a very long lifespan and can be used on virtually any cooktop. This material is great for big-batch stir-fries; however, hot handles and heavy weight make it unsuitable for tossing if that’s your wok style.
• As with nonstick skillets, foods cooked in nonstick woks release easily thanks to the slippery coating, and any debris leftover from cooking is easily removed. Nonstick coatings can come in a few forms, from cutting-edge ceramic to hard-anodized aluminum. However, nonstick coatings are more delicate than uncoated metals, are prone to scratches and flaking, and historically can’t be used with metal or sharp utensils. The maximum cooking temperature for nonstick pans is usually lower than that of other materials, so if you’re looking to get the char that a traditional wok would give, you may want to opt for another version.
• Stainless steel is a top choice for quality cookware because it is durable and resistant to stains and other damage. A wok made of this material will typically have a heat-conducting aluminum core surrounded by layers of 18/10 stainless steel, giving it some heft and thickness. These types of pans are not only beautiful to look at but will also stand up against sharp or metal cooking utensils without getting scratched. Plus, they are generally easy to care for.

Size

Home woks come in a wide range of sizes, from small 8-inch versions that are ideal for singles, all the way to 36 inches for feeding a party. A good average size to have is a 12- or 14-inch wok, which fits well on a standard stove, and can typically feed three to four people depending on their appetites. It will give you enough room to stir-fry a generous amount of food without worrying you might accidentally toss some of it out of the wok.

Round or Flat Bottom

Traditional, round-bottomed woks are meant to be used with a special stove featuring a burner that is fitted to cradle a wok. This setup creates a hotspot at the bottom while sending heat up the sides of the wok, and also allows for a smooth scooping motion to stir ingredients around.

Flat bottoms are an evolutionary allowance for flat cooktops. These center the hot point on the surface that touches the burner, taking a longer time for the sides to capture and keep higher temperatures. 

If you opt for a round-bottomed wok, you’ll be more likely to create restaurant-style results, but you’ll also need a special ring to allow your burner to hold the wok—and a gas stove. If that sounds like a hassle, opt for a flat-bottomed wok—this style will sit directly on your existing cooktop without needing any special accommodations.

Heating Capacity

Restaurants that specialize in wok cooking often cook at temperatures higher than you can achieve on a home stove, so a traditional carbon steel wok will easily stand up to the highest heat on your range. Cast iron and stainless steel can also withstand high temperatures—double-check with the manufacturer to verify the cooking range of your wok. Nonstick pans generally do not do well with very high heat, so if you’re looking to achieve a restaurant-quality stir-fry, you should choose a pan with a higher temperature threshold.

Maintenance

Traditional carbon steel woks can be cared for very similarly: use a non-abrasive scrubber and water to remove any debris, wipe the surface dry with a paper towel, then follow this guide to maintain its seasoning. Stainless steel woks can often go in the dishwasher but double-check the manufacturer’s guide to ensure it is not handwash only. For nonstick woks, you’ll want to use a nylon scrubber along with gentle dishwashing soap, and avoid using metal utensils or sharp implements that could damage the coating. 

FAQs

What is wok hei?

The common and poetic definition for wok hei is "breath of the wok." You’ve seen it in action if you’ve ever watched traditional wok cooking, the moment clearly identifiable as small flare-ups burst in and around the dish. Most importantly, it’s the vital, critical difference between limply sautéed and briskly wok-fried—an immeasurable quality that adds unplaceable depth and gorgeous warmth to stir-fried dishes.

What can you cook in a wok?

"Woks are incredibly versatile," says Chen. "Stir-frys are easy because you can toss the vegetables easily in the conical shape of a wok as it creates more even cooking. One can deep fry, steam, poach as the shape allows for more efficient use of liquids like water and oil."

What is the best way to prepare your wok for cooking?

Since heat is the most important element for successful wok cooking, you'll want to make sure your pan is preheated before adding any of your ingredients, particularly before you stir-fry. "Always heat the wok first before a dash of oil to prevent any food from sticking," says Chen. Once the oil is smoking hot, add your ingredients—you're more likely to achieve something close to wok hei this way.

Is a gas or electric stove better for cooking with a wok?

A gas stove, while still not ideal at residential safety levels, is an improvement over electric, and a significant one if yours is equipped with a turbo burner. As regulated as they are, they still offer the dynamism of flame cooking, which travels up the wok’s walls faster and differently due to a broader emittance range. It also frees up your options to include round-bottomed woks as well—you’d just have to purchase a wok ring to hold it in place. 

What are the pitfalls of woking on an electric stove?

High heat that climbs at a steady rate up the walls of a wok is critical to this cookware’s ingenuity. With an electric range, whether it’s coil, glass, or induction, a flat bottom is your only option, so it takes longer for the sides to heat up. Unfortunately, this puts the sides’ readiness for cooking at odds with the base, which is in direct contact with the element; some ingredients may then scorch while others may never reach the browning you desire. 

What are the downsides of wok-cooking on a gas stove?

Gas burners have a dead zone in the middle, which means that although the sides of your wok will get hellaciously hot, the base will have several inches of indirect heat right in the spot you want to sear.

What is a wok ring?

Typically, a wok ring is a piece of metal that cradles the base of a round wok, keeping it in place above your gas burner and concentrating the heat around the curve of it. It’s not recommended for electric stoves and serves no purpose for induction ranges since it can’t channel emitted heat the way it can flames, and may also scratch your cooktop. It is also called a wok stand and can be used to place your round-bottomed wok on a counter or table for serving. 

What should I look out for when cooking in a flat-bottom wok?

Although flat-bottomed woks provide more direct-contact surface area for moisture to evaporate, it also creates a larger pool for it, too, which often collects faster than it can vaporize, resulting in boiled, not stir-fried, dishes. To avoid this, seek out smaller bases and higher walls for best performance.

Why Trust The Spruce Eats?

Food is in Su-Jit Lin’s blood—particularly Chinese-American food, a unique regionalization of cross-cultural cuisine only just beginning to receive its due. The product of two generations of immigrant restaurateurs, she literally grew up in a commercial restaurant kitchen, surrounded by woks and the roar of the open fires that gave them their magical breath. Her dream home kitchen includes a range (or even just a burner!) capable of channeling that kind of wok-encompassing heat. Despite that, her theatrical skills in Chinese cooking are lacking: She still can’t flip a thing in any wok…or pan, for that matter. 

Bernadette Machard de Gramont, an LA-based writer who specializes in global food and wine content, updated our recommendations after our first round of Lab testing. After a 2-year stint at Williams-Sonoma Headquarters in San Francisco, she now researches and tests a variety of cookware, bakeware, and wine tools, and interviews field experts for their insight.

Sources

• George Chen, founder and executive chef of China Live in San Francisco, a multi-storied food emporium featuring a restaurant with daily changing seasonal menus cooked from 8 specialized stations that merge traditional Chinese and Western culinary equipment.