Best nonstick woks

The trade-off, stated first

Stir frying is a high-heat technique. The pan is run far hotter than almost anything else in domestic cooking, food goes in and comes out fast, and the characteristic flavor comes from brief contact with a very hot surface.

Non-stick coatings have published temperature limits, and they are well below that. Run a coated wok hard enough to stir fry properly and you are cooking above what the coating was designed for, every time. It will not poison you - the mechanism and the actual risk are in is nonstick safe - but it will degrade the coating fast.

This is the honest summary: a coated wok is not a wok that is easier to look after. It is a large curved sauté pan, and it is good at what a large curved sauté pan is good at.

What a coated wok is genuinely good at

• Noodles. Pad thai, lo mein, anything starchy that welds itself to bare metal.
• Fried rice, at moderate heat, where release matters more than sear.
• Braises and curries, where the curved shape is just a large pot.
• Eggs in volume. The shape makes scrambling and omelettes easy.
• Steaming, with a rack and a lid.
• Anyone who will not season a pan. That is a legitimate position and it deserves a straight answer rather than a lecture.

What it cannot do

1. Wok hei. The seared, faintly smoky character of restaurant stir frying needs a surface temperature no coating survives.
2. A hard sear on protein. Same reason.
3. Flame contact up the sides, which on a gas hob is part of how a wok works.
4. Metal utensils, and a wok is the pan people are most likely to use a metal spatula in.
5. Deep frying at length, because sustained oil temperature sits near the coating's limit.
6. Last. No maker publishes a coating lifespan, and a wok is the hardest life a coating gets - how long nonstick lasts.

Your stove decides more than the pan does

The general version of this, including what genuinely cannot be done without a wok on a domestic hob, is in stir frying without a wok.

The carbon steel case, put fairly

A carbon steel wok costs less than most coated ones, tolerates any temperature, takes metal utensils, and becomes more non-stick with use rather than less. Its single disadvantage is seasoning: it arrives needing work, and it needs drying and oiling after washing.

That disadvantage is real and it is the reason coated woks sell. It is also smaller than it looks, because a wok seasons faster than a flat pan - high heat and a lot of oil is exactly what builds seasoning, so normal use maintains it.

If the seasoning barrier is the only thing stopping you, a pre-seasoned wok removes it entirely - best carbon steel woks compares the three we have audited.

If you are buying a coated wok anyway

Reasonable decision, taken with open eyes. These are the checks that matter:

• Flat bottom, unless you have a gas ring. Measure the flat area - some "flat-bottomed" woks have a contact patch of four inches.
• Published temperature limit. If the maker does not state one, that is the specification.
• 14 in across the top is the standard useful size. Twelve is too small for tossing; sixteen will not fit most burners.
• A long handle plus a helper handle. A full wok is heavy and the helper handle is what makes it pourable.
• Buy cheaply. This is a consumable. A premium coated wok wears out on the same schedule as an inexpensive one.
• Skip the lid if it is glass and you intend to use high heat. Buy a metal one, or a bamboo steamer that sits in the wok.

Which coating you are being sold, and what each name actually commits the maker to, is in nonstick coating names decoded.

What we have audited

Our ledger contains three carbon steel woks and four coated flat pans. It contains no coated wok - the ones we looked at publish a coating trade name and a diameter and very little else, with no temperature limit and no gauge.

So the picks above are the pans we can actually cite, in the two directions this question goes: carbon steel if you want a wok, a coated flat pan if you want release. For the coated wok market itself: flat-bottomed coated woks, and check for a published temperature limit before you buy.

Making a coated wok last longer than it wants to

1. Medium-high, not maximum. The whole point is that you are trading heat for convenience - taking the heat anyway gets you neither.
2. Never preheat it empty. Oil in the pan from the start.
3. Wood or silicone only. A metal spatula in a wok scrapes the exact spot you cook on.
4. Cool before washing. Cold water into a hot coated pan warps the base and lifts the coating.
5. Hand wash. Even where a maker permits the dishwasher, detergent shortens coating life.
6. Do not stack anything inside it. A pan rack or a cloth liner - how to store pots and pans.

The cleaning specifics are in how to clean nonstick pans.

Which to buy

1. You want a wok that works: a 14 in carbon steel wok.
2. You want a wok and will not season one: a pre-seasoned carbon steel wok solves the actual objection.
3. You want release and cook on electric: a 12 in coated skillet beats a coated wok on a flat hob.
4. You want one cheap coated pan for sticky food: a heavy-gauge coated 10 in, treated as a consumable.