Stir fry fire!

ok, so me and my lass wanted to make a stir fry this evening, so we had some chicken and noodles and some veg. realise we have no clue what we are doing after my lass sticks the chicken in the oven... I point out that im sure you fry it and I look it up on the net. so I followed the instructions and stuck a canny bit of oil in our pan (got nee wok... looking at the win a wok thread now...) and get it cooking really hot till it starts smoking. once that happened next step was to add chicken, stuck that in and boom! the whole lot erupts into a towering inferno, my lass takes the brave and logical step to leap back screaming leaving the gas on... so I leap past her knocking the breadboard full of chicken onto the floor and turn off the heat, flames cool a bit and i moved the pan. the extractor fan and overhead cupboards covered in smoke marks.... so just cleaned that up and now im wondering, wtf did we do wrong?

You went and turned the cooker on :D :p Seriously though it sounds like you were lucky, Pan fires can often lead to far worse consequenses. I'm the same in the kitchen, my girlfriend doesnt trust me at all when I offer to cook :eek: Oh and you might have had too much oil in the pan ( and was the chicken defrosted?, if so still lots of moisture/water, hot fat and water=bad mixture=fire)

Looks to me like you had too much oil in the pan and got it too hot.

Stir fries tend to use very little oil, especially so if you're using a non-stick wok. You should use just enough oil to coat the pan WHEN HOT (cold oil is thicker and hence you'll use more).

The best way is to get the wok or fry pan fairly hot, then add the oil in a thin stream until you believe you have enough. Tip the pan around gently to coat the inside then tip the excess oil, if any, out into a glass bowl.

Now get the oil hot enough to JUST start smoking and stir fry there.

What you should have doen with your fire is to have turned the gas off and left the pan alone, unless there was a risk of it setting fire to something else, like the ceiling or something. In that case, and this goes for chip pan fires too, get a tea towel, run it under the tap and give a good wring out... I cant state this enough though WRING IT OUT!!! The cloth only needs to be damp.. then carefully place that over the pan and leave it.

The cloth will starve the fire of oxygen and put it out, however, DO NOT lift the cloth off until the pan has cooled down completely... if the oil was hot enough to catch fire and burn, it will still be hot enough to re-ignite, so never lift that cloth off until everything has cooled down.

Now, the most important thing here is to not use a wet cloth but a damp one. The reason is that if any water gets into hot fat it immediately becomes steam, yes?

Now, imagine dropping some water into fat that is on fire. The water will sink through the fat, being more dense, evaporating as it goes. This will cause the fat to spit and bubble, which increases the surface area available to burn.. the result is a fireball. Not nice and not condusive to a good evening.

indeed, once i turne dthe heat off the flames lowered a fair bit so i waited for it to go out completely and then i shifted it, it did catch fire again but only a little bit, tbh wasnt expecting that to happen and I knew how to deal with it with a wet cloth as you said, thing is these things just do not occur when there is damn fireball on your hob! hehe, anyway everything is ok and a lesson well learned. shall keep all that in mind when we try again tomorrow (wet towel on standby...)

i use an oil spray when frying - you just pump it up and spray ;) the oil in a thin mist over the pan so you don't need too much.
with stir-frys, i tend to brown the chicken in the wok then add onions and other stuff to it, then the noodles at the end. always taste yummy :)

Had a chip pan fire years ago....OMG. Put the pan full of oil on to heat up as I wanted to fry some poppadums. Went to watch the TV and forgot all about it, until I saw a glow through the serving hatch (1970's modern home). Rushed into the kitchen through thick dark smoke. Then...errr...WTF do I do? I know all the stuff about wet tea towel etc, but panic gripped me. I picked up the flaming pan and threw it out the back door.

So not only did we have to refit the kichen and totally redecorate the house (smoke got EVERYWHERE), we also had to replace the fence just outside the back door which burnt down.

Anyway...who wants me to cook them a meal ;) ?

Clingy....thats funny as hell :)

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Originally Posted by Zak33

Clingy....thats funny as hell :)

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Mmmm, Yeah....my EX-wife didn't think so :eek:

lol clingy, It is one of those things, so out of the ordinary that when it happens your mind just goes "errrrrrrrr....." Luckily us fellas allways manage to sort it out, if a bird had done it you would have lost the whole house, no doubt!!!! (esp after seeing my g/f's reaction)