![Three roasting pans displayed on a dark gray counter](https://cdn.statically.io/img/www.foodandwine.com/thmb/JaUBvUE1eLC7IvIAVsdOh0gbudU=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/Best-Roasting-Pans-FW-Social-40e55f09b670482288cfcb8ca4af753d.jpg)
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Whether you're making prime rib, a rack of lamb, beef tenderloin, or any other impressive dinner-party dish, a roasting pan is a must-have tool for party hosts and cooks who love to entertain. It's a relatively small investment that can make big meals a breeze and has lots of uses, from turkeys and hams for holiday celebrations to a classic Sunday roast.
To find the best roasting pans on the market, we put more than a dozen options to the test from brands like All-Clad, Cuisinart, and Le Creuset. We roasted more than 50 pounds of chicken and potatoes, made countless batches of gravy, and spent lots of time scrubbing in the sink to rate and rank the best roasting pans for home cooks. It's time to get roasting.
Best Overall
Cooks Standard 14" by 12" Stainless Steel Roaster
Sturdy, fairly priced, and able to brown foods without sticking, this pan gets our top recommendation.
It's on the small side.
We couldn’t get over the sturdy feel and stylish design of the Cooks Standard stainless steel pan. The hefty handles on both pan and rack are easy to handle, and the mirror-shiny finish is sure to impress. In testing, we got deep browning of our potatoes and chicken drippings, but nothing burned or stuck to the bottom. It was easy to stir together a delicious gravy on the stovetop with no worries about staining or damage.
The Cooks Standard is dishwasher-safe, but it was so easy to hand-wash with a soapy sponge that we didn't find it necessary to use the machine. The price of this pan is fantastic to boot, at less than half of the average in our tests with no decrease in quality. It gets our biggest seal of approval.
Our big complaint about this pan is that it's fairly small. Many roasters are a couple of inches longer and wider and can accommodate an extra-large Thanksgiving turkey or Easter ham. But if you plan to roast huge items, you can simply upgrade to the larger Cooks Standard roasting pan, with the same design and more space at a higher (but still below-average) price.
The pan is stovetop-safe, though if you use an induction cooktop, you'll have to skip it. Steel is usually compatible with induction, but certain kinds of stainless steel — including this pan's — incorporate non-magnetic metals that interfere with induction heating.
Dimensions: 15.75 x 12 x 5.5 inches | Material: Stainless steel | Rack style: V-shaped | Stovetop-safe: Yes | Dishwasher-safe: Yes
Food & Wine / Russel Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russel Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russel Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russel Kilgore
Best Value
Farberware Nonstick Steel Roaster
This basic nonstick roasting pan works beautifully and is one of the cheapest on the market.
It can't be used on the stovetop or put in the dishwasher.
This was the single cheapest pan in our tests, but it finished near the top of the rankings in almost every category. The traditional flat rack creates enough room to keep veggies and protein separate; Our chicken came out tender, with potatoes that were browned and crispy in the right places. The nonstick coating is quite effective, which is almost a problem when making gravy: There are fewer browned bits in the bottom of the pan to create flavor. Nonstick also doesn't transmit heat as effectively as bare steel, so you'll probably have to increase roasting times by a few minutes.
Hand-washing this pan is easy thanks to the nonstick coating, though it is somewhat delicate. It can't go in the dishwasher, on the stovetop, or in an oven over 450°F. But at this price point, its basic abilities outweigh the shortcomings. It’s large enough to cook a holiday bird or party-sized roast and could be perfect for someone taking on hosting a fancy dinner.
Dimensions: 16 x 11.25 x 2.5 inches | Material: Nonstick-coated steel | Rack style: Flat | Stovetop-safe: No | Dishwasher-safe: No
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Best Splurge
Cuisinart MultiClad Pro Roasting Pan
This beautiful stainless-steel pan offers lots of room, is built to last, and cleans as easily as nonstick.
It's fairly expensive, and can't be used with metal tools.
Besides the price, we love everything about this pan. Its shallow U-shaped rack offers stability to a turkey or standing rib roast, while leaving plenty of space toward the sides to roast vegetables beneath. The thickness of the steel and the construction of the handles and rack are top-notch, and it feels like a professional-level tool. In testing, it held up to our high expectations, cooking perfect chicken and potatoes, making gravy on the stove, and hand-washing as easily as if it had a nonstick coating.
Cuisinart's MultiClad Pro line has inner and outer layers of steel surrounding an aluminum core, which makes the material heat more evenly in the oven or on the stove. It's a lot more expensive than the brand's thinner, all-steel Chef's Classic pan, but it also did a lot better in our tests. This pan can go on the stove or in the dishwasher, but to keep the steel pristine, you can only use wooden or silicone tools. Metal is forbidden.
Dimensions: 20.75 x 6.25 x 13.25 inches | Materials: Stainless steel, aluminum | Rack style: U-shaped | Stovetop-safe: Yes | Dishwasher-safe: Yes
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Best Dual-Height
Rachael Ray 16" x 13" Roaster
Rachael Ray’s large, inexpensive roaster is extra-versatile thanks to its reversible rack insert.
It can't go in the dishwasher or on the stove, and metal utensils will scratch its nonstick coating.
The rack for this pan can sit low to the bottom and only allow a little airflow under food for even browning, or it can flip over to sit higher and make room for whole veggies to cook in the drippings beneath a bird or a roast. It's such a simple design feature, but it makes a big difference in versatility. Plus, the rack's feet on one side act as handles on the other, so you can grab and remove it with ease in either configuration.
Not only does the Rachael Ray pan have this rack innovation, but it's also just generally an excellent roaster at an excellent price. It's huge, at 16.5 by 13.5 inches, and the nonstick coating was quite effective in avoiding sticking and burning in testing. Potatoes cooked impressively evenly, if not browning quite as intensely as they would have in a bare steel pan.
The downside is that the pan is fairly thin and fairly fragile. It's not safe on the stove and is hand-wash-only, and you should probably steer clear of metal tools to avoid scratching the nonstick coating. It's lightweight and kind of generally feels like the budget model that it is.
Dimensions: 18.48 x 13.78 x 5.47 inches | Material: Nonstick-coated steel | Rack style: Flat, dual-height | Stovetop-safe: No | Dishwasher-safe: No
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Best Oven-to-Table
Le Creuset Stainless Steel Roasting Pan
This high-quality stainless steel pan performs as beautifully as it looks.
You can get a similarly high-performing pan for less money.
Legendary French brand Le Creuset is perhaps best known for enameled cast iron Dutch ovens, but it makes classically beautiful versions of all kinds of cookware that are built to last. This roasting pan is top-notch in the oven and looks lovely at the table. With proper care, it could be passed on to the next generation of turkey dinners.
But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. In testing, the Le Creuset roasting pan cooked incredibly evenly without any sticking or burning thanks to its thick steel. The v-shaped roasting rack makes basting a bird a cinch and leaves lots of room for veggies. Plus, it has a nonstick coating, so you don't have to worry about scrubbing off bits stuck in the corners.
Inside the pan, there are grooves around the edge to help separate juices from whatever's roasting in the bottom, a helpful feature for making pan sauces. And it's completely stovetop-safe, so you'll never need a second post-roasting cooking vessel. This pan can go in the dishwasher, but when it was time to clean, all we needed was a standard household sponge and mild dish soap. Le Creuset even says you can use metal utensils without damaging the finish! However, for all this performance, it's expensive.
Dimensions: 19.1 x 14.2 x 5.3 inches | Materials: Stainless steel, nonstick-coated steel | Rack style: V-shaped, nonstick | Stovetop-safe: Yes | Dishwasher-safe: Yes
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Best Large-Capacity
Nordic Ware Copper Turkey Roaster with Rack
This nonstick pan is inexpensive and big enough to roast the largest of turkeys.
Cooking was somewhat uneven, and it can't handle temperatures over 400°F.
If you're throwing a fancy dinner party with a crown roast at its center, you need an extra-large roasting pan. Or maybe you want to roast off every root vegetable from your farmer’s market haul before pureeing them into a comforting soup. Regardless, surface area is the name of the game, and Nordic Ware's turkey roaster was the biggest in our tests, at more than 18 inches wide on the inside. But it was nowhere near the most expensive.
This pan's nonstick coating makes washing up as simple as can be, but it's kind of delicate. You can't use metal utensils, and it can't go in the dishwasher. Heating above 400°F can damage the nonstick; you'll have to keep both stovetop and oven temperatures moderate. Cooking was somewhat uneven across the surface thanks to the cheaper aluminized steel material, though this matters less with the longer, lower-temperature cooking the pan is designed for.
This Nordic Ware pan is probably not going to be the only bakeware you need, but if you want to roast huge foods and don't want to spend a lot of money doing so, it's a good piece to add to your kitchen.
Dimensions: 13.8 x 21.3 x 3.5 inches | Material: Nonstick-coated aluminized steel | Rack: U-shaped | Stovetop-safe: Yes (up to 400°F) | Dishwasher-safe: No
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Our Favorite Roasting Pan
The Cooks Standard 14-inch by 12-inch Stainless Steel Roaster aced our tests with its clean design and versatility. Exceptionally capable and very easy to clean, this sparkling stainless steel roasting pan is our top pick. For excellent results with a nonstick surface and an exceptionally low price, we recommend the Farberware Nonstick Steel Roaster with Flat Rack.
How We Tested Roasting Pans
We chose a total of 18 roasting pans to compare side-by-side in our product lab. We made notes on general design and construction and then performed a set of identical tests.
- Roasting Test: We used each pan to make a classic whole roast chicken with potatoes, using a 3- to 4-pound bird and a pound and a half of baby yellow potatoes. With the oven set to 425°F for stainless pans and 400°F for nonstick models, we roasted the potatoes for about 15 minutes until slightly tender, then placed the chicken on the rack on top and cooked the deepest part of the thigh to reach 165°F. We noted how evenly the chicken and potatoes cooked, how well they browned, and whether anything burned or stuck to the pan.
- Gravy Test: Using the drippings left in the pan after roasting the chicken and potatoes, we made a simple pan gravy. We used a whisk or metal spatula to scrape the bits off the bottom, noting any sticking or damage caused by the tools. For pans that are stovetop-safe, we also added flour to cook into a roux and then stirred in chicken stock to complete the gravy, looking at the evenness of heating and how well the bodies of the pans dealt with the stovetop.
- Cleaning Test: After we finished the roasting and gravy tests, we hand-washed the pans and rack, observing how much food stuck to them and how easy it was to scrub off. (Some of the pans we tested are dishwasher-safe, but we hand-washed them all as a fair comparison.)
After completing these tests and making our final ratings across categories, we revealed the retail prices of the pans to consider value. At the time of testing, the pans ranged from $30 to $425, with an average of $139.
![A roasted chicken and potatoes in the Cuisinart MultiClad Pro Roasting Pan](https://www.foodandwine.com/thmb/LOOvTPv8wlZUeNMaTsen-1sEgbA=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/faw-roasting-pan-test-cuisinart-multiclad-pro-triple-ply-stainless-cookware-16-inch-skillet-rkilgore-3-08-98e95354e2c94943aa326fd67185a4f6.jpeg)
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Factors to Consider
Size
A roasting pan is supposed to be a fairly large piece of cookware, but there are many different sizes available, ranging from a vessel that can only hold a chicken, to massive commercial roasters that can't even fit in a home oven. For a small to medium Thanksgiving turkey, you should look for a roasting pan that's at least 14 inches wide on the inside, with a 16- or 18-inch pans for bigger feasts. (Most pans have roughly the same depth, so width is most important.)
But the exterior dimensions and height of the pan matter, too. Roasting pans are fairly deep, with large handles sticking off the sides. Larger models that are dishwasher-safe might not actually fit inside some dishwashers, or take up the whole rack all by themselves.
Material
Roasting pans are almost all made of steel, a dense material that transfers heat more evenly over long cooking than the aluminum used in lighter bakeware. Bare stainless steel offers a beautiful mirror-shiny look but can stick to food. Nonstick-coated steel is easier to clean but isn't as good at browning and might not be dishwasher-safe or useable on the stovetop.
Rack
Almost any roasting pan will include a removable rack that sits inside to elevate food off the bottom. This allows for air circulation above and below for even browning. Without the rack, your turkey would steam in its own juices on the bottom of the pan, or burn when the juices evaporate. Roasting racks come in different shapes and styles: V- and U-shaped racks help hold a bird or roast in place during cooking, but plain flat ones are more common with cheaper pans. If you like to roast veggies in the bottom of your pan, look for a taller rack that leaves plenty of room.
Frequently Asked Questions
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What is the purpose of a roasting pan?
A roasting pan is an especially thick and heavy pan designed for even cooking of large pieces of meat — think whole birds, whole fish, roasts, tenderloins, that kind of thing. They're also large enough to cook meat and vegetables at the same time, browning and caramelizing both for soul-satisfying one-pan meals. Many roasting pans are safe to use on the stovetop, too, so you can make a sauce from you cooking drippings without needing an extra dish.
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What's the difference between a baking pan and a roasting pan?
Baking pans and roasting pans are both made for cooking food in the oven, but baking pans are generally lighter, smaller, and intended for shorter cooking sessions. There are lots of different types of baking pans, from the all-purpose sheet pan to the loaf pan and muffin pan, and they can be made of metal, glass, ceramic, or other materials.
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What is fond?
Many roasting recipes refer to "fond," a French term for all the little bits of drippings that brown and stick to the bottom of the fan during cooking. There's lots of flavor in fond, and it's key to making a delicious pan sauce. Just pour off excess fat, add a liquid like stock (or brandy), and scrape up the fond.
Other Roasting Pans We Tested
![Spatula scraping the bottom of a Made In Blue Carbon Steel Roasting Pan With Rack](https://www.foodandwine.com/thmb/qtCofTf1mwMR5ti-0dbHa3-7B-A=/1500x0/filters:no_upscale():max_bytes(150000):strip_icc()/faw-roasting-pan-test-made-rkilgore-11-08-5be3fb92034f4c0bbf6c966fdfdd8881.jpg)
Food & Wine / Russell Kilgore
Strong Contenders
All-Clad Stainless Steel Large Roaster with Nonstick Rack (Amazon)
This heavy-duty model is all-nonstick, with a coating on both pan and rack that didn't interfere with even cooking in testing. Our chicken and potatoes came out a bit light in color, but the pan performed nicely in the stovetop gravy test. The high price is the only reason this All-Clad isn't on our list of winners.
Hestan Provisions Stainless Steel Classic Roaster (Amazon)
Another model that did well in testing but can't quite justify its cost, this stainless steel roaster made amazing, buttery, browned potatoes thanks to a rack that leaves lots of room underneath. It didn't transfer heat quite as effectively to the chicken, which took a long time to cook and never got more than a blond shade.
Circulon Nonstick Roasting Pan (Amazon)
An inexpensive pan with a huge capacity, the Circulon could be a good budget choice. The main issue is rack design: The rack sits very low in the pan, leaving very little room for veggies. Our test chicken was cooked unevenly, browning on top where it rose above the sides of the pan and staying more pale below.
GreenPan Padova Reserve Ceramic Nonstick Roasting Pan (Amazon)
If you want a heavy-duty nonstick pan, GreenPan's can handle metal utensils and the dishwasher, plus it heats up to 600°F. We got no sticking in testing, but our potatoes ended up very dark and crispy before the chicken was done. The rack also doesn't fit snugly and can slide around in the bottom of the pan, an especially glaring design issue given the high price.
What Didn't Make the List
The roasting pans that weren't our favorites ran into a variety of issues in testing. Some nonstick models didn't do a good job of browning, while some bare-steel ones had hot and cool spots that led to scorching. We didn't like that a few pans were especially delicate and limited in temperature and stovetop use, while others tested well but had a ridiculously high price.
Our Expertise
- Christa Glennie has been a freelance writer and food editor for nearly 20 years, specializing in food and drink trends, agriculture, the regional foodways of Western New York, and the restaurant business. She is also the author of two cookbooks. Her respect for simplicity and uncluttered counters in the kitchen ultimately fuels a desire to find and own well-designed, multi-purpose, best-in-class kitchen tools.
- Food & Wine commerce writer Jason Horn updated this story with further testing insights. He has a master's degree in journalism and attended culinary school, and has also covered food and drinks for almost 20 years, including at Cooking Light, Serious Eats, Liquor.com, and Playboy.