What is America’s Test Kitchen Best Nonstick Pan? Purchasing an excellent nonstick pan is a must-have when it comes to kitchenware. Stainless steel and cast iron pans, which are great for caramelizing and searing, but the nonstick pan is an ideal choice for flipping pancakes and frying eggs.
Top 3 Picks for Best Non-Stick Pans
The slippery coating ensures that your food slides out of the pan effortlessly without any hassle cleaning the pan. But, the main problem is choosing the best pan for your kitchen needs, knowing that they are not designed to last a lifetime.
This is where this post comes in handy. We’ve expertly handpicked America’s test kitchen best nonstick pans on the market. But, before that, let’s consider the key factors to consider when choosing a nonstick pan.
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WHAT TO KNOW ABOUT AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN BEST NONSTICK PANS?
If you follow a few simple rules, your pan could last a lifetime!
- Cooking spray with nonstick properties should never be used. These sprays are incompatible with nonstick pans and cause a buildup on the pan’s surface that is impossible to remove over time. If you must use fat, use only a small amount of butter or oil.
- Avoid using the dishwasher. Even if a brand claims that its pan is dishwasher-safe, hand-washing is preferable. Dishwashers’ harsh soaps, as well as their high temperature and pressure, can dull and damage the pan’s coating, which is essential for maintaining its nonstick magic.
- On the stove, do not use over high heat. There are a few pans that can be used on high heat, but in general, nonstick pans should be used on low to medium-low heat. This is done not only to keep them running smoothly, but also to prevent them from emitting any harmful odors or chemicals.
- Never heat a pan that isn’t full. This can cause a dangerous odor to be released, and the high heat may be damaging to the pan.
HOW WE TESTED?
We purchased 14 10-inch nonstick frying pans after conducting extensive research using reputable consumer buying guides. We put these pans through extensive testing. To begin, we took note of how each was packaged and what kind of literature was included, as well as general information such as weight and dimensions.
The heat distribution of each pan was then tested using an infrared thermometer. Following that, we cooked a variety of items to test their form and function.
We seared skin-on fish fillets to see how the surface crisped and how slick it was. We tested how evenly the pans cooked, how smoothly the food moved in the pan, and how easy it was to flip and maneuver within the pan for pancakes.
We baked frittatas in oven-safe pans to see how evenly the pans cooked in the oven, how comfortable the pans felt to handle, and how easily the frittatas slid out of the pans.
Throughout the process, we recorded how much food stuck to the pan (if any) and how easily the pan could be cleaned with a dry towel or soap and water. When selecting our favorites, we took into account price, performance, and design.
REVIEWS OF TOP 7 AMERICA’S TEST KITCHEN BEST NONSTICK PANS
Top 1 – Cuisinart 622-30G Nonstick Hard-Anodized 12-Inch Skillet – Best Chef’s Classic
The Cuisinart 622-30G Chef’s Classic Nonstick Hard-Anodized 12-Inch Skillet is one of the most sought after pan on the market – and for a good reason. This heavyweight pan is well balanced by an angled up contour handle, which makes it easy to use and sit properly.
Despite the fact that this pan comes with tall, sloped edges, which might make flipping eggs a bit challenging, it has overall impressive performance. This skillet will brown your pancake evenly and get preheated quickly.
Overall, this skillet is made of hard-anodized aluminum, which is dense, highly wear-resistant, and nonporous. Therefore, making a top choice over stainless steel without trading off professional performance and extra durability.
On top of that, there is a limited lifetime warranty to protect your investment. Sadly, this won’t cover any damages done to the nonstick coating surface but defects due to craftsmanship. Talking about nonstick coating, Cuisinart 622-30G Chef’s Classic Nonstick Hard-Anodized 12-Inch Skillet features Quantanium to offer lasting food release, easy cleanup, and healthy non-fat cooking.
Pros:
- Nonporous, dense, and highly wear-resistant
- Unsurpassed heat distribution
- Quantanium nonstick interior
- Limited lifetime warranty
- Great for slowly cooking a variety of food options
Cons:
- The customer service department could be better
- Flipping with this pan isn’t anywhere easier
Top 2 – Ozeri 10″ Stone Earth Frying Pan – Best Non-Stick Coating
Another spot filled by a well-constructed pan from Ozeri. This skillet features a German-made stone-derived coating, which is free of PFBS, GenX, APEO, PFOS, PFOA, and other uncommon chemicals such as NEP and NMP.
Further, this pan delivers unparalleled nonstick performance with fewer chances of exposure to toxic substances. It sports a hardened scratch-resisting to make sure cleaning this model is hassle-free and ensure longevity.
Even better, the pan’s interior is made out of robust, heavy-duty aluminum and a magnetized base to ensure ultra-fast heat transfer. This model comes with a comfortable handle made of a heat-resistant silicone coated handle to ensure smooth handling. This ergonomic handle is reinforced to the skillet using three robust rivets.
Ozeri 10″ Stone Earth Frying Pan is compatible with induction stove, thanks to its unique construction and balanced weight.
Pros:
- Rapid heat transfer induction stoves
- Comfortable heat-resistant silicone-coated handle
- Reinforced to the pan via three solid rivets
- Hardened scratch-resistant coating
- Super easy to clean
Cons:
- Inside the pan’s surface tends to bubble
Top 3 – OXO Good Grips Non-Stick 12″ Open Frypan – Best Handles
When it comes to nonstick skillet, OXO Good Grips Non-Stick 12″ Open Frypan is a top choice. This product is made of hard-anodized aluminum, which ensures you get excellent heat retention and superior uniform cooking.
This frypan features german-engineering, which speaks a lot about its sturdiness. Not just that, this unit is free from PFOA and other toxic substances. This nonstick coating features a three-layer design to make releasing your food effortless.
Further, it comes with uniquely rolled edges to ensure a drip-free pouring of sauces. On top of that, riveted stainless steel handle, which is heat resistant thanks to its wrapped silicone, which offers a secure hold and comfortable grip.
This model is crafted using scratch-resistant materials, which ensures that this skillet serves you for many years. Also, it’s built with durability in mind and ensure it’s oven safe up to 390 degrees F. more so, it comes with a finger guard to keep your hands from getting hurt from touching hot stovetops. This 12-inch fry pan is a top choice for caramelizing onions, frying eggs, and more.
Pros:
- Durable and scratch-resistant
- Unique rolled edges
- Finger guards
- Silicone-metal construction
- Oven safe up to 390 Degree Fahrenheit
Cons:
- Poor quality control
Top 4 – Total Nonstick Thermo-Spot Heat Indicator Fry Pan by T-fal – Best Black Pan Professional
When it comes to choosing the right nonstick pan, you can’t really go wrong purchasing T-fal 2100086427 E93805 Professional Total Nonstick Thermo-Spot Heat Indicator Fry Pan. This model features a stainless steel induction base. The high-quality base made of stainless steel to offer even heat distribution, which makes it ideal for all cooktops, even induction.
More importantly, it comes with Prometal Pro nonstick feature to make this pan scratch-resistant, exceptionally durable, and safe for use. That’s not all; it makes this pan dishwasher safe as well.
Also, T-fal 2100086427 E93805 sport riveted silicone handles to ensure a secure and comfortable grip. Even better, these handles are oven safe up to 400-degree Fahrenheit. It comes with a unique Thermo-spot technology, which is a heat indicator showing that the model is perfectly preheated to lock in your food’s flavor.
The pan turns to solid red after the Thermo-Spot pattern fades off, which signals the pan has attained the ideal temperature, and you can start cooking.
Pros:
- Riveted silicone handles
- Metal utensil safe pro metal nonstick coating
- Stainless steel induction base
- Unique Thermo-Spot Technology
Cons:
- Not ideal for use with metal utensils
Top 5 – Swiss Diamond Nonstick Fry Pan – Best Commercial
This model has a spot on our list of the best non stick pan America’s test kitchen reviews is Swiss Diamond Nonstick Fry Pan. This model is a top choice for anyone looking to cook healthily without oil.
This pan, unlike most pans reviewed on this list, is oven safe up to 500 degrees F. This fry pan comes with tempered glass lids equipped with adjustable steam vents. Further, it comes with a patented diamond-reinforced nonstick surface to ensure easy cleanup, extreme durability, superior searing, and browning.
What’s more? This model makes use of physical features of real diamonds since they are better conduct of heat than metals and more durable.
Pros:
- Healthy cooking without oil
- Oven-safe up to 500 degrees F
- Easy cleanup
- Superior browning and searing
Cons:
- Warranty doesn’t hold up
Top 6 – T-Fal E93808 Nonstick Fry Pan – Best Professional
Another spot, another frying pan from T-Fal. This model features a T-Fal Thermo spot heat indicator, which indicates when the pan is ready for use. The T-Fal E93808 Professional Nonstick Fry Pan comes with Prometal Pro nonstick interior to ensure this model is scratch-resistant, which makes sure that this pan serves you for many years.
Also, it’s very durable and capable of withstanding high temperatures. This pan is totally safe for use with metal utensils. Additionally, it comes with a stainless steel disc to offer anti-wrap protection and even heat distribution. Further, it’s dishwasher safe and oven safe up to 400 degrees F.
Pros:
- Exceptionally durable and scratch-resistant
- Includes a heat indicator
- anti warp protection and uniform heat distribution
- Safe for all cooking methods
Cons:
- This model isn’t entirely flat
Top 7 – “Best flat skillet griddle” Ecolution EVRE-3228 Non-Stick Griddle Pan
The model is a versatile griddle pan to cook your favorite breaks and meals. It’s great for those looking to cook a variety of foods such as eggs, bacon, pancakes, fish, chicken, and steak.
This unit is easy to clean – thanks to its aluminum construction, which makes this model dishwasher safe. Another benefit of this construction is its even heating offer due to the heavy gauge aluminum construction.
Besides, it comes with a premium nonstick coating to make a cooking meal with Ecolution EVRE-3228 Non-Stick Griddle Pan a breeze. Not just that, it features an ergonomic grip silicone handle, which makes it a lot easier to handle this pan.
Pros:
- Premium nonstick coating
- Easy to clean
- Aluminum construction for even heating
- Comfortable grip silicone handle
Cons:
- This pan is not totally flat
THINGS TO CONSIDER WHEN CHOOSING A NONSTICK PAN
Type of Nonstick Coatings
The market is filled with a lot of branding jargon like “ceramic-titanium” or “diamond,” which makes shopping for the right model a tricky task. But when you look behind the hyped-up marketing scenes, you’ll find that there are only a few common nonstick coating types.
- PTFE
This synthetic polymer is designed to reduce friction and repel water. This material is common in joint replacements and is great for cookware set also. The most common PTFE coating is Teflon. Most top brands use this coating to ensure a better cooking experience. These coatings offer an incredible good release and last longer than other types of surfaces.
- Ceramic
This material is more like ceramic but not actually ceramic called solution-gel (sol-gel). Sol-gel nonstick coatings do not use polymers such as polyfluoroalkyl like PTFE but silica-based polymers. Because of this, sol-gel are advertised to be greener and safe for you. Nevertheless, ceramic coatings do not have a long-lasting nonstick property.
- Heat Distribution
A nonstick pan offers even heat distribution across the cooking surface to prevent your food from burning. Nonstick coating tends to break down quicker at intense temperatures, which is why we prefer pans made from anodized aluminum or cast aluminum. Both materials are not only durable and excellent conductor of heat, but also an inexpensive.
Comfort and Shape
Similarly, a model featuring flared sides offers the best cooking experience. Wide-shaped pans are easy, accurate, and quick to flip without using a spatula. If you are looking to use a turner, then wide flares provide enough space for maneuvering your food.
That’s not all: flared sides foster better evaporation, which means the skillet will collect less amount of water and ensure the golden crust is developed. Also, pans with balanced weight tend to be more stable and will sit flat on your stovetop or burner. This factor is important, especially for people using ceramic or induction cooktops where full contact is paramount.
Also, keep in mind that having a balanced weight pan without having a comfortable or ergonomic angled handle can make your experience daunting. Even better, a skillet coming with a bent lip allows you to pour off liquids such as excess batter or grease without much dripping.
TYPES OF PANS AND POTS ON THE MARKET TODAY
TYPES OF COOKWARE
Cookware is essential to any meal preparation; they are key tools every kitchen must house if you want delicious dishes as the end-result of your exerted effort. Each kind of cookware is designed for making specific types of foods like your casseroles, sauces, eggs, and any other better suited to it. Here are some of the kinds of cookware you can have in your kitchen.
1. Fry Pan/ Sauteuse
This tool is made using a layer of anodized aluminium packed in the middle of two layers of stainless steel. They are perfect for deep frying, pan-searing, braising, and slow roasting. There are high and sloping sides featured on the Sauteuse to reduce the simmering effect better when cooking.
2. Saute Pan/ Sautoir
They are similar in design with the Sauteuse pan, but they have straight and short sides to keep the food inside. Saute pans can be used for braising, searing, and simmering food. The straight sides are designed to prevent any liquids or solids from sloshing out across its edges.
3. Wok
A wok is a round-bottomed or flat-bottomed, and high-walled pan with two side handles or a long handle. They can be used to boil foods or for deep frying, and with a lid, for steaming your seafood or vegetables. The even heat distribution of this kitchen tool allows your ingredients to cook uniformly.
4. Paella Pan
This is a heavy-duty pan with a shallow inside, and two side handles; the pan originated from the Spanish dish, Paella. The Paella pan can be used for stir-frying, roasting, cooking meat or fish, baking, or as a breakfast skillet. You can prepare any kind of food that requires a wide and flat surface with the pan.
5. Brazier/ Rondo Pot
This cooking gear is similar to a sauté pan, but with two short handles, it can be used for braising or searing food ingredients. They are incredibly versatile pieces of kitchen equipment that works well in the oven as well as on a stovetop.
6. Roasting Pan
The roasting pan is a high-walled and oven-safe pan, which is commonly used for cooking food at high temperatures. The high walls conduct and trap heat very fast due to the high conductivity of the metals used for its build. As the name suggests, they are ideal for achieving some quality roasting.
7. Egg Poacher
This is a highly effective utensil which ensures the perfect poaching of eggs with ease and convenience. They feature small cup containers that use steam for cooking the eggs without the shells. Some brands feature detachable cups in the design to enable the transformation of the tool into a pan or casserole.
8. Cast Iron Skillet
This is a small but heavy-duty cooking pot made using cast iron and popularly known for its exceptional heat retention, durability, and distribution capabilities. They can be used to make dishes that require high temperatures of heat. The non-stick surface of the tool allows your food to remain unattached to insides of the skillet.
9. Cast Aluminum Dutch Oven
This is a multi-purpose kitchen tool that can be used for baking, frying, or roasting. They are thick cooking pots that can hold and distribute heat more evenly; they come with thick walls, bottom, and lids. This oven provides its users with more flexibility in the kitchen.
10. Straight-Sided Sauce Pan
This is a saucepan with a round bottom and tall, straight sides; they can be used to create or reduce your sauces as well as for making vegetable dishes. There is a strong, straight, and long handle on the side to provide a firm grip during use. They are known to be highly resourceful in making large-sized dishes.
TYPES OF CAKE PANS
These cooking vessels are better suited for baking processes inside an oven or any other appropriate place. They are known for their unique heat properties, which is necessary for baking.
1. Angel Food Cake Pan
These are special pans with a hollow inside; they come with high sides and a tall tube placed in the center. They are mostly used for making angel food cake or any other kind of cake depending on the baker’s preferences. It’s known for its unique easy-release feature, which comes in handy at the end of baking.
2. Bread Loaf Pan
This is a simple baking pan which is often rectangular with high deep walls; they are designed to give your loaves of bread their shape. They can also be used to bake cakes or any kind of bread you desire.
3. Sheet Pan
This is a flat and rectangular metal pan that can be used to bake pastries, rolls, or any flat baking product in an oven. They can also be used to bake pizza or for transporting hot dishes around in your kitchen.
4. Cake Pan
These baking pans come in different sizes and shapes; they could be rectangular, round, or square in shape. They are ideal for baking cakes or making savory dishes in an oven. They feature high walls to give your cake the form you desire.
5. Muffin Pan
This is often called a cupcake tray due to its design; the muffin pan is a baking pan with several connecting cups and hollow insides for holding your baking molds. They are designed for use in the oven, and they are ideal for personal or professional purposes.
6. Springform Cake Pan
This is a round cake pan that comes with a detachable bottom and sides; they can be used for making ice cream cakes or cheesecakes without any damage to its entire structure at the end.
7. Tart Pan
A tart pan features straight sides and, in some models, a removable bottom to slip out the baked goods easily. They come in different shapes and sizes; this is an ideal tool for making tarts shells.
HOW WE PICKED?
A good nonstick skillet has the characteristics of a traditional skillet—even heating, classic flared sides, and a good balance between body and handle—but it also has a slick coating to make cooking delicate foods like eggs and fish easier. We limited our search to open-stock, 10-inch pans, but one set of two pans was included.
If you only need one pan to cook omelets or two fried eggs, we believe 10 inches is the best size to get. However, if you need something larger to make, say, a stir-fry for four people, most of our recommendations come in multiple sizes.
Aside from that, we chose our favorites by looking for the following characteristics:
1 A Sick Flat Surface
Though we preferred skillets that released food with little or no effort on our part, we quickly realized that the super-smooth coatings of some pans could reveal a design flaw: a slightly convex cooking surface.
Flatness is important because the nonstick coating on an uneven surface causes butter and oil to slide to the lowest point, making even coverage in a domed pan nearly impossible. A convex surface can also cause two fried eggs to migrate to opposite sides of the pan, making it difficult to flip them without a spatula.
2. Even Heat Distribution
A nonstick pan that evenly distributes heat across the cooking surface will not only keep your food from scorching, but it will also last longer.
Hot spots can shorten the lifespan of a pan because nonstick coating degrades faster at high temperatures. We prefer cast or anodized aluminum skillets because they are inexpensive, a good heat conductor, and long-lasting.
3. Shape And Comfort
Nonstick skillets with flared sides, like traditional skillets, perform best. Without the use of a spatula, the wide shape allows for quick and accurate flipping. Even if you prefer to use a turner, the wide flare provides more room to maneuver under food than straight sides.
Flared sides also encourage more evaporation, resulting in less water collecting in the skillet and foods developing a golden crust.
4. Price And Longevity
A brand-new nonstick pan’s surface is the slickest it will ever be before it begins the slow march toward ineffectiveness due to use and wear.
Even with proper care, a nonstick skillet will have a shorter lifespan than other cookware because the nonstick coating will eventually wear off. We believe that $20 to $60 is a reasonable price to pay for a piece of cookware that will last three to five years.
Conclusion: America’s Test Kitchen Best Nonstick Pan
We’ve reviewed the best non stick pan America’s test kitchen on the market. But as always – the choice is yours. However, if you still find it hard to pin down the right unit, ensure that you check out our buying guide.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ceramic nonstick coatings are extremely long-lasting. They are, however, toxin-free. There are no toxic fumes, and the coating is durable. Most ceramic coatings can also be used in the oven at temperatures as high as 180 degrees Celsius.
Most professional chefs do not use nonstick pans, which is a fairly common occurrence. The majority of professionals prefer cast iron, copper, or carbon steel pans. In fact, carbon steel pans are preferred by the vast majority of professional chefs over any other type of pan.
Ceramic coating is thought to be safer than PTFE coating because it does not contain toxic chemicals like PFOA and does not emit fumes when heated to higher temperatures. McManus, on the other hand, claims that ceramic cookware is less durable than PTFE cookware.
[…] This material is best for high-heat cooking in aluminium, cast iron and stainless steel cookware. On the downside, it tends to scratch nonstick pots and pans. […]