What cooking technique closely resembles stir-frying?

The technique that closely resembles stir-frying is sautéing food quickly over high heat. Both stir-frying and sautéing involve cooking small pieces of food rapidly in a small amount of fat, typically in a hot pan. This method allows for quick cooking while preserving the food's texture and enhancing its flavors.

In stir-frying, the ingredients are often cut into small, uniform pieces to ensure they cook evenly and quickly at high temperatures, usually in a wok. Similarly, sautéing uses a skillet and requires constant movement of the food to achieve a desirable color and texture without burning. The high heat contributes to the Maillard reaction, which creates complex flavors and appealing browning on the food surface.

The other cooking techniques listed—baking, steaming, and slow cooking—differ significantly from stir-frying in terms of heat levels, cooking speed, and results. Baking involves cooking food evenly with dry heat in an oven, steaming uses water vapor to cook food gently, and slow cooking in a crockpot relies on low heat over an extended period to tenderize ingredients.