It's Time You Add a Wok to Your Pots and Pans

We updated this guide in March 2023 to ensure all products previously vetted by the Kitchen Appliances and Culinary Innovation Lab at the Good Housekeeping Institute were in stock and correctly priced.

Woks date back 2,000 years to the Han Dynasty in China. The word "wok" means "cooking pot" in Chinese, and the pans are used for a variety of cooking tasks. While woks are best associated with making stir-fries in the U.S., any food that benefits from a centralized heat source and large, consistent cooking area can (and should!) be cooked in a wok. That means woks can be used for braises, sauces, soups, deep frying, steaming and more.

Woks traditionally have rounded bottoms (that tend to require a wok ring to help stabilize) and very smooth, rounded edges, perfect for heating quickly and evenly over a small flame. They typically have long handles that allow them to be shaken during cooking, sometimes eliminating the need to stir at all. Some contemporary styles come with lids that help with steaming and gently finishing food. While many woks are made of carbon steel, there are also cast iron, nonstick, aluminum, electric and stainless steel woks.

We’ve tested more than 100 lines of cookware over the years in the Good Housekeeping Institute Kitchen Appliances and Innovation Lab. Here, we’ve rounded up the best woks based on user reviews, our favorite brands and our categorical expertise on cooking tools. We chose an assorted variety catering to every type of chef, from the novice home cook to the professional. Our top-recommended woks are easy to clean and feature flat bottoms so they can be used on the average home stove.

Our top picks:

Read on for tips on using a wok from Grace Young, James Beard Award-winning author of Stir-Frying to the Sky’s Edge and The Breath of Wok, as well as information on the best materials for woks and accessories and tools you may need.