Chinese Cooking Tips
Elevate your Chinese cooking with professional tips, time-saving techniques, and insider secrets from experienced chefs.
Kitchen Wisdom
11 tips to improve your cooking
Master Mise en Place
💡 Prepare and organize all ingredients before you start cooking. Chinese cooking happens fast!
Unlike Western cooking where you can prep as you go, Chinese stir-frying requires split-second timing. Having everything ready prevents overcooking and ensures even heat distribution.
Uniform Cutting is Key
💡 Cut all ingredients to similar sizes for even cooking and professional presentation.
Even-sized pieces cook at the same rate, preventing some pieces from being overcooked while others remain raw. This is especially critical for stir-frying.
Master High Heat Control
💡 Chinese cooking requires high heat, but knowing when to adjust is crucial for success.
High heat creates wok hei (breath of the wok), but different stages of cooking require different heat levels. Start high, then adjust as needed.
Perfect Oil Temperature
💡 Test oil temperature with a chopstick or piece of food before adding main ingredients.
Proper oil temperature ensures food cooks properly without absorbing excess oil. Too cool = greasy food. Too hot = burnt exterior, raw interior.
Velvet Your Meat
💡 Coat meat in cornstarch and briefly cook in oil or water for incredibly tender results.
Velveting creates a protective coating that seals in juices while cooking, resulting in tender, silky meat that's never tough or dry.
Perfect Aromatics Timing
💡 Add ginger first, then garlic, then scallions. Each has a different optimal cooking time.
Ginger takes longer to release its essence, garlic burns quickly, and scallions lose their bite with overcooking. Proper timing maximizes flavor.
Proper Wok Seasoning
💡 A well-seasoned wok is naturally non-stick and improves with age and use.
Seasoning creates a polymer layer that prevents sticking and adds flavor. Each cooking session builds this protective layer.
Chinese Cleaver Mastery
💡 Use the flat side for crushing, the edge for cutting, and the handle for tenderizing.
A Chinese cleaver is incredibly versatile when you understand its different surfaces and how to leverage its weight and design.
Layer Cooking Times
💡 Add ingredients in order of cooking time - longest first, quickest last.
Different ingredients have different cooking times. Adding them in the right sequence ensures everything finishes cooking simultaneously.
Rescue Oversalted Dishes
💡 Add sugar, acid (vinegar), or dilute with unsalted broth to balance oversalted dishes.
Salt mistakes happen to everyone. Understanding how to balance flavors can save a dish rather than starting over.
Prevent Mushy Vegetables
💡 Blanch vegetables first in boiling salted water, then shock in ice water before stir-frying.
Pre-blanching sets the color and partially cooks vegetables, allowing for quick finishing in the wok without overcooking.
🚀 Quick Reference Guide
High Heat Rules
- • Preheat wok until smoking
- • Add oil, then aromatics
- • Keep ingredients moving
Timing Order
- • Longest-cooking first
- • Add aromatics carefully
- • Leafy greens last
Flavor Balance
- • Salt, sweet, sour, umami
- • Taste as you cook
- • Adjust at the end
Prep Smart
- • Everything ready first
- • Uniform cuts
- • Sauce mixed ahead