That sure seems a mystery to me but I can only imagine that the skillet doesn't get as hot...are you turning the burner up really hot? Maybe an electric wok or a stand alone burner or a good electric skillet? Probably you need to turn the heat up higher on this type stove than you are used to with a coil type stove top which gets scorching red hot quickly. I've never had a glass cooktop but I don't really think I'd want one, I'd be afraid I'd scratch it up with a heavy skillet...seems too delicate to me but I know people that have them and love them.

Ive never had a glass top either, but my guess would be that it is taking a lot longer for your pan to heat up. Can you try a longer pre-heat at a higher temp?

Alexa

Here are my quick suggestions:

1. Have an electrician check (with an amp clamp, if you know how) and verify that in fact your burner is getting the specified electric power.

2. Check the burner�s control, and make sure that it is not cutting out power to the burner before full on.

3. You need a frying pan that has a very flat bottom and extremely heavy, like a cast iron pan, to retain a lot of heat.

4. Spin your veggies, get rid of as much water as possible. Water makes stir frying impossible.

5. Have all you ingredients preheated in a microwave (not fully cooked) before you stir frying them.

Let us know how things work out.

dcarch

Too little info -- are you using a wok or a skillet? What do mean by it "tastes terrible and is awful"?

IMO -- it is probably your technique or the quality of meat -- not sure what problem the stove could be causing.

I can't stir fry on my crappy gas stove, either. More like stir steaming. Yeh, it's frustrating.

You could investigate getting an outdoor wok burner. Natural gas would be best if you have it available. Otherwise, you're stuck w/ using a propane burner and having to mess w/ propane bottles.

Or, if you already own one of those turkey fryers, I'm sure that it would work better than a glass top electric stove.

All my life I have had gas stoves. I love gas stoves. But unfortunately, there isn't gas in the area so I when I bought a new stove I bought a glass top. A Whirlpool Gold.

And as much as I would rather have a gas stove, this one performs well. No problem with any cooking method including, wok and stir frying. The burners heat up fast. Two of the burners have dual controls to fit different size pots.

I haven't had to buy any special pots. I use my vintage Griswold cast iron on the glass top without a problem. I even stretch a double griddle on an angle across two burners to bake pancakes or tortillas.

If I had one complaint it would be keeping the damn thing clean.

Unless your stove is malfunctioning, I hate to say it but it might not be your stove.

Ann

Stinky, make sure your pans are completely flat with not even the tiniest wobble. The entire bottom of the pan needs to be touching the stovetop. Otherwise, you won't get enough heat to the pot.

I have a glass top, too and although I hate it, I don't have any difficulty turning out a good meal just as I did before on electric coil or gas ranges.

Like Ann, my biggest complaint is keeping it clean. Every single little water spot, etc. shows, and heaven forbid something should spatter or boil over!

My burners do not all heat at the same speed or to the same degree. But I have never had anything come out tough or tasteless that I didn't "accidentally" overcook or screw up in some other way.

For stir-frying I find my old West Bend electric wok works best.

Linda

so far "For stir-frying I find my old West Bend electric wok works best" sounds like your best option to get it hot enough.

You can get a flat bottom wok. They are "supposed" to work on your kind of cooking surface. You can also buy a stand alone burner (hotplate) - electric coil, butane or induction just for using the wok, and canning (if you do that, too).

I'm not clear exactly how your stir fry is turning out. It sounds like you're saying it is overcooked.

When you stirfry meat the usual problem is that the meat releases its juice faster than the heat can cook it off, so the meat ends up slowly boiling rather than quickly browning. If you continue until the liquid is boiled off and the meat browns, by then the meat is way overcooked. Since these are typically small thin pieces, they overcook very quickly.

You can deal with this by adding heat. Turn burner to max, preheat the pan, you want it rocket hot, then add oil which should start almost smoking, and then meat. Use a pan that retains heat and can be safely heated to very hot. Like a cast iron pan. Not a coated non-stick pan. And cook in small batches - if you dump in 1 lb of meat the pan will cool too much, so try batches of six oz. Oil also retains heat, so more oil is worth a try.

You can also deal with it by reducing moisture. Dry the meat with paper towels or spinner, store it uncovered in the refrigerator (dries it out), dust with cornstarch or flour - which will help browning too,

And you can also start with chilled meat, to give yourself a bit more time before the meat interior overcooks.

Wow, thanks for all the responses everyone!

Arkansas girl-Yes, the burner gets super hot. Hotter, I think, than the old stove. I DO have an electric wok by Breville, that is nice. Due to grease splattering, can only use it sitting on top of the stove, under the hood. I'm a little nervous about it sitting on top of the glass, though I suppose if I were very careful, it's a possibility. Thanks!

Caliloo-Will try preheating longer!

Dcarch-Will check that all is working (Seems to be) and will get rid of water on the veggies, etc. Appreciate the tips.

Stir fryi- I use a Calphalon wok, in fact I have two by Cal. One I hate & will probably give away, one is not bad, though not terribly traditional either, as it has stick resistant coating. The chicken has terrible texture and flavor. As I mentioned, not necessarily all to blame on my new stove, lol!

Ci-lantro- You're too rugged for me! I'm a little chilly inside my kitchen as it is right now! I'm willing to work at this, but I'm not cooking outdoors! If you cook outdoors, I'd love to come sample your cooking though!(I love cilantro!)

Ann-I'm encouraged that you, a gas cooking aficianado, are having good luck with your electric stove & sound pleased with it. I agree, btw, cleaning it is quite time consuming every night...looks great when I'm finally done though!

Bumblebeez...HI! I hear what you are saying. I bought the second Calphalon wok because it had a flat bottom. Paid $40.00 for it, so it's not all that great a pan. Cheap stainless steel is the culprit, I think. It is, however, the ONLY flat-bottom wok I have seen. Thanks for your reply...will keep a lookout for the elusive flat wok!

Doucanoe-Another satisfied customer! Thanks, it's good to hear that. Yes, the cleaning process (& it IS a process) is a bear.

Rob-Yes, I may have to reach for the Breville wok and be verrrry careful placing it on the glass cooktop so I can use the vent above. Grease splatters everywhere when I stir fry! My other concern about using the wok on top of the stove is the heat not coming from the stove "shocking" the glass & breaking it. The owner's manual to this stove was very intimidating...lots of "don'ts."

Momj47-Will keep looking for that flat-bottomed wok. Thanks.

Johnliu-Great tips...thanks so much!! I will follow up on your suggestions. Maybe I do put too much in the pan at once. Yes, I do use a coated, non-stick wok(which in reality is very sticky, btw)...not good either. Will make more effort to reduce the moisture of all ingredients.

Do y'all use chicken breast meat or thigh meat to stir fry, or does it depend on the recipe? I saw a recipe today that used thighs, & I usually use breast. Thigh meat is more tender as a rule, so I may try that too.

Went to the Chinese grocery store today & wanted to ask the shopkeeper there for tips but she was just swamped, so I didn't. Was so happy to come home & find all these suggestions. I'm going to be busy trying them out! Sounds like there may be hope. Thanks again, everyone!

stinky-gardener-I can't offer any suggestions - sorry- but can tell you that I have a glass top Dacor & a small kitchen with limited counterspace. I use my Paninni on top of my stove all the time. No problem. I want to use it under the hood.

I started a thread prior to Christmas asking opinions about the Breville Wok - I still haven't bought it - I can't make decent real stir fry on my Dacor (I have heavy flat pans & hot burners). Do you like yours? The oil splatters you mentioned is another reason why I would want to use it on top the glass cooktop. If the exterior bottom gets incredibly hot, I wouldn't want it sitting directly on a countertop. Thanks!

Stinky, HI back!!

You need to carefully examine your cooking methods, in addition to your wok.
Things that came naturally on your old stove for you are different now, so ...

Are you overcooking the chicken- chicken can get rubbery from steam and overcooking.

Is the oil splattering? This is a good indication of how hot everything is.

If you were making satisfactory stir fries before, then it has to be the stove- which means the heat.

Everything is either getting hot faster than your old stove or not getting hot enough, or not fast enough.

I would do some trial testing of chicken to determine what the issue is, so you can adjust correctly, before making another stir fry.
In the meantime, how about making a pork roast and some roasted vegetables?

Magothyrivergirl, thanks so much for informing me about using your panini maker on the stove with no problems. That's really good to know. My manual said that abrupt changes in heat could shatter or crack the glass. I can't take the hot wok and place it on a burner that isn't on, for example.

Yes, the Breville electric wok is great. I'd highly recommend it. Got it on Amazon last year. A Christmas gift card paid for half of it! I placed on my old metal stove with the coils without a thought of course. Middle of December this year had granite countertops installed, which are supposed to be bullet-proof as far as heat is concerned, but I really need the hood to be right over it, so the stovetop is still the best spot!

Bumblebeez, thanks so much for your additional thoughts. My guess would be this stove gets hotter, and gets hotter faster than the old one. I agree, I need to experiment, (maybe during the day, before dh comes home!) Tonight I'm fixing tofu stir-fried with ground pork & veggies. That will turn out fine & I need a break from messing around with chicken (& for a dinner to turn out reasonably well this week!) Thanks again.

I made chicken cashew on my induction stove tonight. Even though my stove can get pretty darn hot if I want it to -- I don't turn it up too high because it would ruin my All-Clad non-stick pan.

So, I would say I sauteed the chicken instead of stir-fried but frankly, the end result doesn't taste any different (saute or stir-fry).

My chicken did release a bunch of liquid, so I actually strained it, returned it to the pan and continued cooking.

One thing I will add is that I tried using a wok with my old KA electric smoothtop -- the wok bottom was so small compared to my smallest burner that the burner kept cycling on and off -- probably not good for the stove.

Stinky- Thank you for sharing your opinion of the Breville Wok. I am going to order it - got some money for Christmas from MIL & I like to be able to tell her what I got with it.

You made me look at my manual again for my cooktop ~LOL~ mine says "The glass ceramic composition can withstand temperatures of 1300 degrees F, while also being capable of handling severe and sudden temperature changes."
My top is Ceran and almost 10 years old. I am not saying it is better (I actually dislike the oven), but cooktops should withstand sudden temp changes - just turning it on high is sudden. I have only known of 2 tops that cracked --and both times the owners dropped something heavy from a cabinet above. My manual does say not to use a wok ring or trivet directly on a burner.

Good luck with your dinners-I would go back to using the Breville Wok.

Stir-fryi, your cashew chicken sounds yummy! What part of the chicken did you use? Btw, Al-Clad pans are not in my cupboard (or in my future!)I assume your screen name an indication of a love & talent for stir frying?

Magotheyrivergirl, glad to hear you're going for the wok. Let us know what you think about it after you've used it a few times.

YOU made me go look at MY manual again, lol! Guess what, I could not find the prohibition against placing hot pans on "off" burners! Did I imagine this? Maybe I was so stressed out from reading the other "don'ts" that I made one up of my own!

It did say: Don't use cast iron. Don't use pans with scratched or dirty bottoms (No dirty bottoms allowed ever!)Don't use pans with painted finishes. Don't drag a pan from one burner to another. Don't use pans with circles or grids on the bottom. Don't ever, under any circumstances, allow aluminum foil to touch the cooktop. Whew! My sister said that a lot of this was CTB (cover their butt) stuff. Probably.

I would be willing to wager that your 10 year old stove IS better than my brand new one, simply because, in spite of all the technology out there, they just don't make them (anything) like they used to! That's why I haven't bought a stainless fridge yet. All the 2010 models got lousy reviews (except for Samsung, but their's is too big for my kitchen. I want a down-sized counter-depth) So, I still have my big white fridge which is probably 12 years old, but it works! A friend of mine said I should spray paint it!