Consider yourself a student of all things sweet, savory, and altogether scrumptious?
Then, you might think you're ready to sauté — but think again.
These common mistakes could mean the difference between culinary heaven… and a meal from hell.
When it comes to sautéing, any pan won't do.
You need to use a proper sauté pan designed specifically for that use — that's according
to Jairo Ducos, director of operations and house chef at the De Gustibus Cooking School
in New York City.
He says:
"You want a pan with a heavy bottom and sloped sides.
That way the heat will distribute more evenly, and you'll be able to toss around all your
proteins and ingredients more efficiently."
Heavy-bottomed pans allow for a more even transfer of heat, while the sloped sides allow
greater access to the food so you can more easily keep everything moving.
As for pan type, Ducos says, the material the pan is made with doesn't really matter
— he likes stainless steel, aluminum, or cast iron.
You should also lean towards the largest pan possible versus one that is too small, which
causes your ingredients to pile on top of each other.
You'll know you have a good pan if you add a bit of oil to the bottom and see bubbles
all over as the pan heats up.
If you just see isolated bubbles in a couple of spots, that means the pan has hot-spots.
Ducos says:
"It's worth the money investing in a good sauté pan.
But you only need one — you don't need a lot!"
"Let's get cooking."
Whether you're sautéing fresh diced veggies or your favorite protein, sautéing always
requires a little bit of oil.
But to sauté properly, you also have to pick the right oil — one that will stand up to
the sautéing process.
Sadly, that's where many home cooks go wrong, LA chef Stephen Chavez says.
He explains:
"When you're sautéing, make sure you're using an oil that can handle relatively high heat
or that has a high smoke point."
Chavez's go-to options include soy, canola, safflower, or sunflower oil.
He adds:
"You can also use avocado oil or coconut oil, which is a little bit more trendy.
You can sauté in extra virgin olive oil, but I don't recommend it — it tends to burn
and turn bitter at a higher heat.
I don't recommend regular olive oil either.
It's just not great for sautéing."
Despite its great salty flavor, butter is also a no-go for sautéing, because all those
delicious milk fats are prone to burning at high heat.
If you have to get that butter taste in your meal, you could search the market for an Indian
product called ghee, which is a clarified butter with the milk fats removed.
Chavez says:
"We use that a lot in culinary school, because butter is gonna give you a great flavor.
But I still usually pair it with a little bit of oil as well."
Using the right temperature is essential if you want to properly sauté your food, forming
that perfect crust while also locking in all the flavor and moisture you need.
For Lisa Counts, executive chef at The Chopping Block culinary school in Chicago, that means
sautéing over high heat but only for a short period of time.
She says:
"You should always preheat your pan before sautéing.
I believe in adding the oil to the pan and preheating them together.
When the oil starts shimmering or is just about to smoke, that's the indicator of when
the pan is hot enough to start sautéing."
Getting your fry right means more than just preheating the pan, however; you also need
to cook at the right temperature.
Counts says:
"It's always best to sauté on a medium-high heat.
It's always easier to turn down the heat, but it's harder to bring it back up again.
Plus, if you start too low, then you run the risk of ingredients absorbing much of the
fat and ending up tasting greasy."
On the other hand, if you start too high, you risk burning your meal before it has had
a chance to cook through.
"Yum."
Jairo Ducos agrees on sticking with medium to medium-high heat.
He says:
"You want the cooking process to start immediately when you drop your protein or vegetable into the pan.
If it doesn't, then you end up slow-cooking or poaching your food instead of sautéing
it, and you risk everything drying out."
Many of us might think that sautéing means piling a ton of ingredients in a pan or wok
and then cooking everything at once.
But when you do this, you aren't actually sautéing your food — you're steaming it.
Heat causes moisture to evaporate from your various ingredients, and all that steam ends
up cooking your food, when it should be the oil.
This leads to limp, soggy protein and veggies instead of crispy, sautéed ingredients.
As Lisa Counts says:
"There should be very minimal overlap of food in the pan [...] Ideally, if you can still
see the bottom of the pan just a tiny bit through all of the food, that is a good amount
to be sautéing."
Chef Stephen Chavez agrees.
He explains:
"The more crowded your pan is, the more your ingredients are going to be touching each
other — and the more likely they are to steam instead of getting a good crispy seal
or crust."
Nobody likes flavorless food, and if you're going to the effort of making a nice sautéed
meal, you definitely don't want your poor spice game to put people off.
Luckily, amping up the flavor in any sautéed dish isn't hard.
"Bam!"
According to chef Chavez, creating a great-tasting sauté all comes down to seasoning.
This means adding salt and pepper at proper levels and at the right times, and including
fresh herbs or dried spices in your dish to increase the natural flavors.
He says:
"When you season, you want to season all the way through the cooking process.
So even before I put my ingredients into the pan, I may toss each of them individually
with a bit of salt and pepper.
And then I taste as the food cooks and add more salt and pepper as needed."
As for flavoring with herbs and spices, that should generally happen at the end, says Salvatore
Rizzo, owner and CEO of the De Gustibus Cooking School.
As he explains:
"You don't want your herbs or spices to end up burnt.
Unless it's a rub or crust on your beef or chicken or pork, I always prefer adding any
fresh herbs or dried spices near the end of the cooking process so they don't overcook
or become bitter."
Sautéing food basically means ensuring all your ingredients are "jumping" in the sauté pan.
Doing that, chef Christopher Diamond says, can be as simple as keeping everything moving
as you cook.
Diamond explains:
"You want almost constant movement in your pan.
Grab your big metal or wooden spoon or a large spatula, and just keep moving everything around
so it's being exposed to the hot oil on all sides and can cook through."
To make your sautéing more impressive, you can also use the tossing technique commonly
seen on TV.
And this is easier than it looks, Stephen Chavez says:
"The most important thing to remember is that it's just a little push.
As long as your pan has sloped edges, you just give it a little gentle push forward,
and the food will go up in the air like someone going off a skateboard ramp.
Then, all you have to do is catch it."
"Excellent!"
To practice, Chavez suggests putting a piece of bread in a pan and then tossing it and
catching it.
From there, you can move on to dried beans — and then actual food you are cooking.
Moisture and humidity are the enemies of sautéing, and one of the most important mistakes to
avoid when sautéing anything is to not let your ingredients get too wet.
Whether you're overcrowding your sauté pan, you aren't drying your ingredients after washing
them, or you're just cooking something that contains a lot of natural moisture, you don't
want any extra liquid in your sauté.
This is because that liquid will evaporate and create steam.
Chavez says:
"Sautéing is a dry cooking method.
It is not a moist cooking method.
[...] Don't put something that's been in a marinade into your pan without removing that
excess moisture.
If you do, you're not going to get that crispy brown crust you want from your sauté."
Since sautéing involves relatively high temperatures, hot oil, and a short cooking period, it can
be incredibly easy to overcook your food.
Even if you don't technically burn it, meat can come out chewy, vegetables might get mushy,
or the whole dish can just seem dry and tough.
For chef Counts, actually watching the progression of the food as it cooks helps her to figure
out when a sautéed dish is done.
She says:
"I generally tell people they need to trust their gut.
[...] I am always tasting my food as I cook.
The same goes for sautéing!
ABT as we say in culinary school — always be tasting."
Chef Diamond follows a similar approach to keeping tabs on the food he is sautéing,
primarily focusing on taste.
He asks:
"How do you tell when your dish is done?
You eat a piece of it.
You've gotta be tasting and eating constantly.
[...] You can't just rely on other factors like how long something has been cooking or
what temperature it's been cooking at."
Deglazing is when you use a liquid, such as wine or stock, to loosen and dissolve the
browned bits of food left in a pan after cooking.
It is most commonly used after roasting or searing, but if you're not deglazing after
you sauté a meal, you're missing out on a wealth of flavor.
Jairo Ducos says:
"If you want to increase the flavor in any sautéed dish, deglazing is a great way to
do it.
You're scraping up all that goodness on the bottom of your sauté pan.
It's fantastic."
"So good."
The process of deglazing is easy, too.
You simply remove all of the cooked meat or vegetables from the pan, set them aside, and
then add your liquid of choice until the bottom of the pan is submerged by about a quarter
of an inch.
Add a bit of butter and simultaneously work to stir and scrape up all those browned bits
from the bottom of the pan using a wooden spoon or a whisk.
This is called making a pan sauce.
Lisa Counts explains:
"I describe deglazing as adding a liquid to the pan in order to cool it down, clean the
drippings from the bottom of the pan, and create a sauce which can add depth of flavor
to your dish.
Generally, you deglaze with wine, spirits, citrus, or vinegar, but water can work as well.
Whichever you use, the sauce will absorb some of that flavor."
If you've ever been deep in the midst of rustling up an incredible dish, only to turn your back
for a second and return to a pan full of burned garlic, take heart!
You're not alone.
Chef Ducos says:
"I would have to say, especially with our classes, that burned garlic is a big problem
for a lot of home cooks.
People just don't know the timing of putting the garlic in their pan."
Because garlic is packed with natural sugars, amino acids, and sulfur compounds, it burns
incredibly easily whenever it comes into contact with a hot surface.
Chef Counts explains:
"When adding garlic to a sauté, the rule I always follow is adding it when the vegetables
are about 95% cooked.
Garlic only takes about 30 seconds to a minute to cook through — so it doesn't need to
be in a pan for very long."
Christopher Diamond says that this is the exact reason why you should have your ingredients
pre-chopped before you start sautéing.
He says:
"You always want to have your next thing ready to go when you are cooking and especially
when you are sautéing.
Step away for a second to get something, and your whole dish — including the garlic — could
be ruined."