How to cope with eneven skillet heat

[ariemich]

I have a ceramic cooktop and use a carbon steel skillet 26 cm for stir-frying. The skillet is perfectly seasoned and smooth. To achieve uniform heating of the frying surface, I set the burner on medium-low setting (5 out of 9). Yet, when the centre of the skillet reaches, say, 230ºC, the margins are some 50ºC cooler. How can I stir-fry chicken pieces uniformly in such conditions, without part of them sticking to the skillet because of low temperature and another part being burnt?

 

[Linda0818]

I have the same issue with a couple of my skillets. Maybe others will have a better solution, but really, the only thing I've done to get around the uneven cooking of the food is move it around in the pan. Once pieces of chicken (or whatever I'm cooking) have gotten fairly well cooked in the 'hot portion' of the pan, I then move them to the side of the pan that isn't as hot, while moving the pieces that were in the 'cool portion' over to the hot side for a bit. I just go back and forth until everything is cooked evenly.

I don't generally have an issue with sticking.

 

[Badjak]

Yeah, I was going to say "stirring' like @Linda0818 explains much better than me.
Also, for a "proper"stir fry ( like Asian) you will need higher heat and probably a wok.

 

[dcSaute]

my first thought is . . . has the pan had time to pre-heat/heat up?

for cast iron and carbon steel pans (with integral handles...)
my judge of 'pre-heated' is when the handle is too hot to grip without a mitt.

this can take 4-5 minutes, it's not 'flame on & cook' stuff....

 

[Andy M.]

Carbon steel will heat up (and cool down) much faster than cast iron. But you still have to make sure it's fully heated before starting to cook.

There will always be some difference in temps across the surface of the pan based on the size of the burner. Do you have a larger burner that you can try?

 

[dragnlaw]

Wrote the following at 7am... sigh, it's now 2:30
and it's nice to see a lot of people agree! LOL....
You are moving the meat around constantly. Stir-fry is just that "stirring while frying". It is not something you can walk away from while cooking.
As the meat is cooked you move it to the cooler areas leaving space for more items to be done in the higher heat.
You can now add your vegetables for their turn at the high heat. Once they are done and pushed to the sides with the meat, you add your sauce, stir to thicken and then mix all your vegies and meat into the sauce - and you are done and ready to eat!
At least this is how I do it, only I start with the vegies first, push to one side, add the meat and then the sauce. Others may have different techniques.
and BTW - Welcome to DC!

 

[Jade Emperor]

This can be a problem in many cooking situations. As mentioned above, moving your food around is one way to keep the temperature even for cooked food.
The other way to ensure even cooking is to do it in batches. Over loading the pan is never going to work and is one of the main reasons people don’t get a great result in their stir fry (especially if using a wok)
Keep the food portions small in the pan and keep them in a warm oven as you work on the next batch.

 

[caseydog]

Stovetops have hot spots and relatively cooler spots. Move the food around in the pan, and rotate the pan from time to time when it is sitting still for a while.

CD

 

[ariemich]

Wrote the following at 7am... sigh, it's now 2:30
and it's nice to see a lot of people agree! LOL....
You are moving the meat around constantly. Stir-fry is just that "stirring while frying". It is not something you can walk away from while cooking.
As the meat is cooked you move it to the cooler areas leaving space for more items to be done in the higher heat.
You can now add your vegetables for their turn at the high heat. Once they are done and pushed to the sides with the meat, you add your sauce, stir to thicken and then mix all your vegies and meat into the sauce - and you are done and ready to eat!
At least this is how I do it, only I start with the vegies first, push to one side, add the meat and then the sauce. Others may have different techniques.
and BTW - Welcome to DC!

There is, however, another problem with such skillets: they are slightly convex. As a result, the oil flows from the center to the sides of the skillet, leaving the center bare (unless I add very much oil, which is not recommended for stir-frying). Now, if I start putting chicken pieces at the center, which has the needed temperature but is much hotter than the sides, they stick due to the absence of oil, and if I put them on the oiled sides, they don't get the high heat and are cooked in oil rather than seared.

 

[dragnlaw]

Which is probably wise to use an Asian Wok to do an Asian style Stir Fry. The heat and oil are in the centre bottom.
If you must use a flat pan then you should perhaps remove your foods when cooked and this enables you to be able to shake your pan around to redistribute your oil.
Once all is cooked return all to the pan and do your sauce.

Even woks are tilted to recoat the sides with oil as they cook. One has to adapt their available tools to achieve the end results they want.

 

[Badjak]

I'm a big wok fan and use it for much more than just Asian stir fries.

The flat bottom one that I don't like is for steaming
Of the 2 round bottom ones, 1 is used in case of acidic foods as it has a bit of a coating and the full carbon steel one for everything else
The small cast iron one is for deep frying

 

[dragnlaw]

Absolutely Badjak! The more I look at Asian recipes the more I realize that many use only Wok style pans for everything! From steaming to deep frying.
Sigh,.,,, I have 3 also but are in storage as I have no burner I could use them on. One sort of small one might fit my burner by I hate going to the Storage Warehouse as it depresses me for days wiht all the stuff in it.