Have you ever made stir fry at home and been mildly disappointed? You’ve tried to learn everything there is to know about woks, but there’s clearly still something missing. That ‘something missing’ is wok hei, the idea that your wok needs a specific fiery energy to properly cook your meal. Translating to “breath of the wok,” wok hei is the smoky flavor you find in takeout stir-fries, but it’s difficult to recreate at home. There are several factors that contribute to wok hei, and one is the flavor emitted by oils breaking down within the wok that combine with the air column of heat from the burner. The result is a mixture of steam and smoke collecting above the wok, so your ingredients char on the skillet while getting moisture from the air column. You’re essentially shooting for three cooking methods at once, which is why wok hei appears so inimitable.
The heat required to achieve wok hei is immense, and this high heat allows the seasoned skillet to impart that unmistakable flavor onto your ingredients. Note that this means your wok may briefly emit flames or flare-ups, but if you’ve ever seen the kitchen in a Chinese restaurant, you’ll know this isn’t a bad thing. Achieving wok hei is just as much a science experiment as it is a cooking method, and the complex combination of timing and ingredients makes this phenomenon difficult to recreate at home. Difficult, but not impossible.
Recreating wok hei at home
Step one of recreating wok hei: Get a wok. No more settling for frying pans; a good carbon steel wok will season nicely and tolerate the high heat you need for wok hei. If you’re using a brand-new skillet, you’ll need to learn how to season your wok and maintain it. The next step is ramping up the heat in your wok so it’s piping hot well before you add any oils or ingredients. Heating the wok dry is part of what causes the reaction between the cold oil and raw ingredients, creating the steam and fire needed. Note that you should keep your wok oil in a squeezy bottle so you can add it quickly to the edge of the wok once the time is right.
Getting your wok to the proper temperature at home can be challenging, but there are hacks that can help. First, try heating your wok on a grill. Not only is this the authentic Chinese heating method, but BBQ grills also reach higher concentrated temperatures, perfect for wok hei. The other hack is to use a blowtorch to really bring the heat. Blowtorches are relatively common in kitchens — just ask a creme brulee recipe — and are a great way to control the oil combustion needed to achieve wok hei. The torch keeps heat concentrated on your ingredients and helps regulate the wok temperature, all necessary if you want to make a proper wok hei at home.
