Oil starts to smoke
Stir-frying involves cooking at a fairly high temperature but it
shouldn’t be so high that it makes your oil smoke. This is a sign that
your oil is too hot and you may be damaging it. If this happens there is
a risk you may create a burnt, unpleasant flavour and the smoke tells
us you are creating harmful compounds in the oil. Hot oil is also likely
to spit and splutter when you add the other ingredients which may hurt
you or someone nearby. Reduce the temperature of your hob.Often, when one is frying, many tend to keep the flame at high temperature always. Once the oil is hot, lower the heat, otherwise, continuously keeping oil at high temperature makes it carcinogenic ( can cause cancer, if you often heat oil to such high temperature). This is the reason, I don't like to buy the so-called tasty snacks from road-side shop/ dhabba, as one can get oil smoking from very far !
Chicken is under-cooked
If your chicken is not prepared properly it may not cook evenly and thoroughly. Dicing your chicken into small, evenly sized pieces will ensure the time in the pan is sufficient to cook the chicken right through. Smaller pieces have a greater surface area allowing the meat to cook in a shorter time. Remember under-cooked chicken puts you at risk of food poisoning from bacterial infection, like salmonella, so it’s very important to get this right. If you’re using tofu in your stir-fry, food poisoning is less of a concern, however, dicing your tofu is still important to ensure that it is cooked evenly.
Use different cutting boards for cutting veges and non-veg, to avoid salmonella or other bacterial infections.
Broccoli is tinged at the edges and burnt
This happens, when the pan is too hot when the broccoli was added. If you
keep to the method and add the soy, honey, red pepper and water at the
same time as the broccoli this should be avoided. When we add multiple
ingredients at once we actually lower the temperature of the wok,
reducing the likelihood that the broccoli will be overcooked. Do your
prep beforehand to ensure all your ingredients are ready at the right time –
this will help avoid these types of problems. It may also suggest you
are not stirring enough which is allowing the ingredients to remain in
contact with the hot pan for too long. Remember to stir often, when stir-frying food.
Broccoli is soggy and not crisp
It’s likely that you have boiled the broccoli for too long. Remember when your stir-fry is ready you want the broccoli to be cooked but still have a satisfying crunch so don’t boil for longer than 4 minutes.
Too spicy or too salty
If your food is too salty, when possible squeeze some lime juice after you remove from the gas. Or you can add boiled potatoes, which will absorb the excess salt. Some people roll some dough and add small pieces flattened to the gravy to absorb the excess salt. If you add dough like this, make sure you keep the flame low, cover and cook till the pieces of dough are well cooked, as then it will float on top.
If too spicy, you can add some sugar/ honey/ gur/ jaggery, it depends on what type of dish you're cooking or you can add more blanched veges or some frozen peas, as it gets cooked fast.
If gravy is too thin, make a slurry either with wheat flour/ rice flour/ corn flour, mix it well, add to the gravy, simmer til it boils well and start getting thick.