Chinese Cooking Essentials

When I moved away for college and my parents sold their Chinese restaurant, I felt overwhelmed. How was I going to replicate any of my favorite familiar dishes without the budget, storage space, or access to Asian restaurant supply stores? But I gave it a shot and I can assure you it’s far more doable than you might believe. 

A Chinese kitchen only requires a few foundational pieces, many of which can be used for multiple types of cuisines or ingredients. So whether you want to master dumplings, from-scratch sauces, hot pot favorites, dry-fry dishes, fried rice, or noodles, these are the tools you’ll need.

Essential Chinese Cooking Gear

A Rice Cooker

When I was growing up, my mom would make family-style mains and each of us would have our own bowl of rice. One of my favorite anecdotes is when my then-baby brother wasn’t given any when we sat down for lunch. He asked, “If we don’t have our rice, how will we know when we’re done [with the meal]?” My mom laughed at this, but it shows what a staple rice is in Chinese culture.

A rice cooker makes cooking rice easy. The best bang for your buck is a mid-level model with multiple pre-set programs like the Hamilton Beach Programmable Rice Cooker, which won our review. It excels at making a basic bowl of white rice as well as other styles, like brown or short-grain rice. If you want even more control, check out our splurge pick from Zojirushi: It has sensors that can detect moisture levels and recalibrate for ideal steam release, as well as 10 settings, including white rice, sushi rice, mixed rice, and sweet rice.

A Carbon Steel Wok

I’ve tried to make do with a large skillet instead of a wok, but stir-fried vegetables leaped overboard with abandon. A wok’s high walls keep food contained and create various heat zones so you can accommodate different cooking times and ingredients. For instance, when I cook chicken and broccoli, I’ll move the broccoli up the slope of the wok to keep it from getting overcooked while the chicken sears at the base. A wok also lets you grease the cooking surface by drizzling oil down the sides and redistributing it by splashing it back up instead of having to constantly add more.

Carbon steel woks, like our winner from Yosukata, are the traditional and greatly preferred choice of Chinese cooks everywhere. Like cast iron, they get better with time, becoming more slick and nonstick. They’re also relatively affordable, lightweight, and conduct heat well. 

You’ll want one with a long handle—a Northern-style wok—as it keeps your hand a safe distance from the hot pan. And unless you have a wok ring, a flat-bottomed wok is your best bet. 

A Tall Stock Pot

Soups and braises are a large part of Chinese culinary heritage. At my parents’ restaurant, a permanent fixture on the kitchen line was an enormous pot filled with the from-scratch bone broth that formed the basis of every sauce. Beyond broth and stock, a large stock pot is also useful for soaking, swirling, and cleaning large quantities of leafy greens (and boiling noodles!).

In our review of stock pots, we liked options with wide handles, even heating, and sturdy construction—our winner from Cuisinart had all of these qualities, making for a versatile piece of cookware. 

A Set of Metal Mixing Bowls

Chinese cooking often involves rinsing and chopping large amounts of leafy greens—so a set of metal mixing bowls is super useful. I also use them to soak ingredients like dried rice noodles, black mushrooms, and sheets of tofu skin or seaweed. Plus, having big prep bowls handy keeps counters clear and dry, ingredients organized, and your sink available. Metal prep bowls are lighter than glass and easier to keep clean. Our favorite bowls from Vollrath are durable, roomy, and great for mixing tasks big and small. 

A Chuan Spatula

A wok chuan spatula is subtly curved to follow a wok’s sides. Good wok chuans have an ultra-thin, sharp lip that can cut ingredients while cooking, as well as tiny side walls to scoop, cup, and toss large quantities of bite-sized food. When looking for a wok chuan, make sure the handle isn’t too long, which can make it difficult to control. And while a metal chuan is traditional, I prefer a silicone chuan, like this one from Staub, for its ease of use, flexibility, heat resistance, and low cost. 

A Sharp Chinese Cleaver

If you want to get serious about Chinese cooking, a Chinese cleaver is a must. They’re great for cutting meats into bite-sized pieces, mincing garlic and chives for dumplings, chopping leaves, and tenderizing proteins using the blunt edge. These square cleavers are light, thin, nimble, and were the only knives in my dad’s arsenal at the peak of his chef career; he had one for meat and another for veggies. Bonus: They’re relatively inexpensive. 

Shorter blades and handles, like that on our winning Tojiro Chinese Cleaver, offer more control and easier storage. You also want a razor-thin sharp edge, like on the CCK Small Cleaver KF1303. It’s made of carbon steel for impressive sharpness but does require more care than stainless steel and is more prone to chipping. 

A Wooden Cutting Board

Although they can be very expensive, thick, wooden butcher block-style cutting boards were the default at my parents’ restaurant. It was always years before they had to be replaced. A good wooden cutting board will resist warping and splitting. Look for a hardwood board with an end-grain pattern, which is gentle on knives but also super durable. We’ve long loved the Boardsmith Maple End-Grain Cutting Board for these qualities. 

A Sturdy Set of Tongs

No matter what type of cuisine you’re cooking, kitchen tongs are one of the most useful tools you can have. When it comes to Chinese dishes, tongs are great for stir-frying noodles, grabbing chunks of meat, taking delicate things like soup dumplings out of steamer baskets, tossing ingredients in marinade, and velveting proteins. Plus, since Chinese meals are typically family-style, they’re great for easy serving. A good set of tongs, like our longtime winner from OXO, gives you a great grip on your food (even slippery dumplings), locks easily for storage, and is sensitive to pressure and easy to hold. 

A Fine Mesh Strainer

The great news is that this is one of those tools you’ll likely already have at home. In Chinese cooking, a fine mesh strainer is used for skimming soup, rinsing rice, fishing out wontons, and draining noodles and blanched vegetables. In our review, we liked strainers with rounded handles and hooks, which let you rest the strainer over a bowl. Our favorite is the sturdy offering from Rösle, while the OXO is a good budget-friendly alternative. 

A Mini Whisk for Sauces

The secret to great, thick, viscous American Chinese sauces is using a sauce concentrate and broth and mixing in a thickening slurry of water and cornstarch—and a mini whisk is perfect for the job. Our winner from Kuhn Rikon offers control and speed and can get into corners easily. When looking for a mini whisk, be careful not to go too small, since novelty-sized ones will put your hands too close to the heat if you’re using it to cook a sauce in a pot or wok. 

A Bunch of Squeeze Bottles 

If you love Graza’s concept of easy-squeeze olive oil, here’s the hack I’ve been using for years: Just buy a few squeeze bottles. I love the accuracy they lend, letting me drape my cooking oil around the wok’s walls. At my parents’ restaurant, we used them to hold and dispense thicker sauces, like oyster sauce and hoisin, that are essential to many Chinese recipes. They’re also unbeatable for finishing touches like drizzling a thicker sauce, such as spicy mayo, on top of a dish.

When looking for squeeze bottles, you want speed but also control—no one wants a gush of oil when you are looking for a drizzle. We liked the Tablecraft Clear Heavy-Duty Squeeze Bottles, which have narrower tips that make dispensing easy and controlled. Plus, you can always cut the tips so they’re wider, making them better for thicker sauces. 

Essential Steaming Supplies 

A Dowel-Style Rolling Pin

You can buy dumpling and wonton wrappers at most Asian grocery stores, but if you want true Northern-style thick-skinned jiaozi dumplings, you’ll need to make your own dough. And if you want to make baozi, mantou, scallion pancakes, and the like, you won’t get far without a dowel rolling pin. Dowel rolling pins are great because they’re lightweight but still have the heft to flatten dough. They also make perfect rounds faster and more consistently than other kinds, too. Our top pick from J.K. Adams has a rough wood finish, which prevents dough from sticking.

A Bamboo Steamer

Bamboo steamers are useful for more than just dumplings, dim sum, siu mai, soup dumplings, stuffed baozi, or bakcang. You can also gently steam vegetables and protein.

The thicker the weave, the better the steam retention, but you don’t want the lid to fit too snuggly since it’ll expand when heated. In our review, we liked the multi-tier steamer from Hcooker, which had steel bands that prevented the layers from warping, and multiple tightly woven tiers that cooked food perfectly. 

Parchment Paper or Air Fryer Liners

Steaming buns or dumplings directly on the floor of your bamboo steamer is a surefire way to tear those precious packets of food apart. Traditionally, folks have used cabbage or lettuce leaves to line bamboo steamers, but I also like to use pre-cut perforated parchment paper or these air fryer liners. 

A Steamer Basket 

A steamer basket like the OXO Good Grips Silicone Steamer can turn any lidded cookware into a steaming vessel. Just make sure to get one tall enough so the water beneath it won’t soak your food. 

A Circular Metal Steaming Rack

Similar to the above, when paired with a pot with a lid, a circular metal steamer rack can also become an adequate substitute for a bamboo steamer in a pinch. A metal rack can turn into an elevated platform to lift, say, a bowl of saucy steamed black bean ribs, savory steamed eggs, or ginger and scallion fish. Another benefit of having a metal steaming rack, though, is that you can also use it for smoking by putting a packet of wood chips underneath. The round vents of the DS Distinctive Style Steamer Rack offer more stability for items like dumplings since you can line them with parchment paper. It’s also small enough to fit in many standard pots.

Hot Dish Tongs

If you’re steaming saucy dishes or traditional platters like the ones mentioned above, a set of hot dish tongs is an absolute necessity. Kitchen tongs can’t get under plates on a steamer rack and they don’t offer enough stability if you need to lift a large or heavy bowl. Stainless steel hot dish tongs adjust to the size of nearly any plate or bowl for easy, safe food retrieval. Look for inverted ends that can scoop the bottom of the rim of the dishware you’re using, which ensures a good grip on the dish.

Tools for Frying, Hot Pot, and Finishing Dishes

A Wok Draining Rack

Sure, paper towels on a plate or the conventional cookie wire rack are great for holding fried foods. But this wok draining rack, which hooks right onto the wok to let fried foods drain oil back into it, prevents waste and extra dirty dishes. Plus, the heat will keep your fried items from getting cold.

Look for a draining rack with a rainbow shape that fits the diameter of your wok, but that’s not so wide that it covers up too much of the cooking space beneath. 

A Spider Spoon

Sure, you can use tongs, a mesh strainer, or cooking chopsticks to scoop out deep-fried foods but a spider spoon will do the job much more efficiently, allowing maximum amounts of oil to drain while collecting the most amount of food. This tool is also well suited for scooping boiled dumplings, wontons, poached and simmered foods, and hot pot ingredients. While the wooden handles of traditional, cheap brass spider spoons stay cooler, all-stainless ones are easier to clean. We recommend the sleek Hiware Solid Stainless Steel Spider, which is well-proportioned and costs only marginally more. Plus, it’s dishwasher-safe. 

A Kitchen Torch for Wok Hei

Wok hei, that magical flame-kissed quality that makes wok-cooked Chinese food so incredible, is the missing element in most Chinese home cooking. Even my dad, in his retirement, has lamented that it’s impossible to emulate without commercial gas flames rising high up around the wok’s walls.

However, we’ve learned that a powerful kitchen blowtorch can give your stir-frying extra oomph that echoes the breath of the wok. Plus, with a good kitchen torch, you can give homemade Cantonese barbecue the char and sear that baking just can’t replicate. Spot-torching makes for precise work for meat, crisping up reheated Peking or roast duck, and a quick sweep over dishes like lo mein adds a fiery essence.

A good kitchen blowtorch should be multipurpose, intuitive, easy to use one-handed, and produce a consistent flame. Butane and propane fuel are the two options for operation, but butane is more efficient and packaged more compactly. For these reasons, we like the Iwatani PRO2 Culinary Professional Butane Torch, which is trusted by many in the restaurant industry. It’s long-lasting, has a wide, three-inch spread, a reliable trigger starter, and fast, even performance.

A Hot Pot Setup

Chinese hot pot became a royal tradition during the Qing dynasty. It’s a form of social cooking during which meat and vegetables are dunked into a simmering broth. The components typically include thinly sliced meats, tofu, leafy greens, tofu, and more. If you want to have a hot pot at home, electric hot pots are easy to set up and clean. I recommend getting one with a divider so you can use different broths. For groups of two to six people, a 12-inch one will work. 

For Setting the Table

A Set of Good Chopsticks

Great chopsticks do it all: You can cook and fry with them, eat with them, and break apart meat and veggies. Not bad for an item that can be less than a dollar a pair. Chopsticks come in a wide variety of shapes, lengths, and materials. Chinese chopsticks—as opposed to Japanese and Korean styles—feature longer lengths, less dramatic tapering, and often square tops. Ceramic, metal, wood, and plastic are common materials, but heat-resistant, lightweight fiberglass is my personal favorite. This set from Glamfields is my set of choice, with a perfect 9.5-inch length and comfortable barrel shape. I particularly love the grippy finish on the ends, which is perfect for grasping every slippery, saucy noodle.

Asian Soup Spoons

Asian soup spoons have large capacities for chunky soups and stews and liquidy dishes like mapo tofu. You use them as you would any other spoon for most soups, but if it’s a noodle soup, you’ll want a pair of chopsticks as well. Flat bottoms are best, and hooked tops help keep your spoon from sliding into the bowl. 

Rice Bowls

As I mentioned earlier, most dishes at a Chinese meal are served family-style—except for rice. At home, each of us was given a bowl of rice to eat with our meal. Good rice bowls are usually deeper than they are wide and have a two-cup capacity since that’s the size that fits best in a hand. A footed base is nice, too. When getting to the last bit of rice, it’s customary to raise the bowl and use your chopsticks to guide the remaining grains into your mouth. For that reason, you’ll also want a smooth finish on the rim. 

Dipping Sauce Dishes

Look at any set table at a fancy Chinese restaurant and you’ll see small dishes with Chinese hot mustard and chili crisp or chili oil. And for some dishes like dumplings, dipping sauce is practically mandatory. Small condiment dishes and ramekins are essential, and a good dish keeps splashing to a minimum. 

You also want a sauce dish that’s deep enough to submerge a bite, but also wide enough that the sauce won’t flow over the edge when you dunk. For that reason, I prefer small ramekins over traditional sauce dishes. However, curved edges are also really great, like the ones on these flared-edge dipping bowls. 

FAQs

What are essential tools for Chinese cooking?

Many pieces of gear are useful when cooking Chinese dishes. Some top picks include a carbon steel wok, wok chuan spatula, and a solid Chinese cleaver. 

What is the most important utensil in a Chinese kitchen? 

For stir-frying, a chuan spatula is by and large the most essential tool in my kit. A regular turner just doesn’t hug the curves of a wok properly, nor can it toss ingredients with an adequate amount of sauce. 

Why We’re the Experts

• Su-Jit Lin is a contributor for Serious Eats and has been professionally writing about food for nearly two decades.
• Her expertise in Chinese cooking, particularly American Chinese cuisine, stems from a childhood spent in her family’s restaurant on Long Island, New York, where her father and grandfather were chef-owners.