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See why.The Best Paella Pans
Are all paella pans created equally?
By Last Updated Sept. 1, 2022. Appears in Cook's Illustrated May/June 2005, America's Test Kitchen TV Season 17: A Spanish Affair
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In Spain, paella is traditionally cooked on the grill in a carbon-steel paellera. This pan’s shallow, wide shape maximizes the surface area of the paella, allowing for rapid evaporation of the cooking liquid and optimal socarrat (golden rice crust) development. We wanted to find the best paella pan for the home cook—a pan that would be easy to use and wouldn’t cost too much for this special-occasion dish. Further, it had to hold enough to feed six to eight people but still be small enough to fit comfortably on our winning gas and charcoal grills.
We determined that the best size was between 15 and 16 inches in diameter and ordered five pans in that range, priced from $24.95 to $79.00. While we included one stainless-steel pan in our lineup, the rest were made of the traditional carbon steel (including one enameled model). Carbon-steel pans usually require some seasoning and/or maintenance to prevent rusting; before testing, we followed the manufacturers’ instructions to prepare the pans for their first use. Methods varied, but none took longer than a half-hour to complete, and maintenance between uses took as few as 3 and no more than 13 minutes. (The enameled carbon-steel pan requires no seasoning or special upkeep.)
We used each pan to cook batches of our Paella on the Grill on both charcoal and gas grills; this recipe calls for careful observation and periodic rotating and moving of the pan around the grill for even cooking. We were happy to find that the grilling didn’t damage any of the pans. Better still, they all proved capable of turning out nicely cooked paella. Some, however, required extra attention and more rotating and moving. In general, the thinner the pan, the more quickly it will heat and cool and the more directly it will reproduce any hot or cool spots in your fire. Your paella will cook faster, and you’ll need to be vigilant (and rotate the pan more frequently) to keep the heat even and ensure that the socarrat doesn’t scorch. This is especially true of thin pans with dark finishes, which absorb and radiate more heat than lighter-colored ones.
Our winner, the Matfer Bourgeat Black Steel Paella Pan ($49.98), was the thickest and heaviest pan we tested. As a result, it took the longest to heat up—but once it was hot, it stayed evenly hot across the pan and thus required less manipulation to produce paella that was consistently cooked from edge to edge. When we did need to rotate the pan, it was easy, as the handles rose above the lip of the pan; other pans had handles that extended horizontally, bumping into the sides of the grill and bringing our knuckles too close to the fire.
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Everything We Tested
Highly Recommended
- Care: 1.5 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 3 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 3 stars out of 3.
Heavy and thick, with easy-grip vertical handles, this sturdy, handsome carbon-steel pan made it easy to produce evenly cooked paella and perfectly browned socarrat. The pan required initial seasoning and maintenance, but the resulting patina was practically nonstick, ensuring that the socarrat released effortlessly and that cleanup was simple—with few crusty bits stuck to the pan, a brief scrub was usually all that was necessary before reheating and oiling.
Recommended
- Care: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
This coated carbon-steel pan had horizontal handles that brought our knuckles close to the heat and made it hard to rotate the pan without lifting it. It was also dark and thin, leading to some of the fastest cooking times and requiring some attention to prevent burning the socarrat. But with a little vigilance, it made excellent paella. Better still, it needed no seasoning or maintenance; the dark enamel was a breeze to clean.
- Care: 3 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
Because it’s made of shiny stainless steel, this light and thin pan absorbed less heat on the grill than darker, matte carbon-steel pans of similar specifications. As a result, it heated up and cooked the paella relatively slowly; this made it a bit easier to control but also impeded the formation of socarrat. Its handles extended horizontally over the fire, bringing our hands closer to the heat and requiring us to lift the pan to rotate it. This pan required no seasoning or maintenance to use and was easy to clean.
Recommended with reservations
- Care: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 2 stars out of 3.
The slight heft and medium thickness of this paella pan gave us a bit of a buffer against the heat, making it somewhat easier to use without scorching the socarrat. But its horizontal handles bumped into the sides of the grill and brought our knuckles closer to the flames, and it did require some maintenance (heating and oiling) between uses.
- Care: 1 stars out of 3.
- Ease of Use: 2 stars out of 3.
- Performance: 1.5 stars out of 3.
The thinnest and lightest of the pans, this model heated up and cooked the paella very quickly, requiring more vigilance to prevent the socarrat from burning. And like the other lighter carbon-steel pans, it had horizontal handles that exposed our knuckles to the heat. But if you’re willing to babysit the pan—and put in the effort to season and maintain it—this paellera is a fairly low-cost means to a special dish.
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Reviews you can trust
The mission of America’s Test Kitchen Reviews is to find the best equipment and ingredients for the home cook through rigorous, hands-on testing. We stand behind our winners so much that we even put our seal of approval on them.
Miye Bromberg
Miye is a senior editor for ATK Reviews. She covers booze, blades, and gadgets of questionable value.
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