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The Best Stovetop Griddles

Making brunch is a cinch with a stovetop griddle. Which model is best?

By Updated Aug. 12, 2021
Update, August 2021

Our previous winning stovetop griddle, the Calphalon Classic Nonstick Double Griddle Pan, was recently discontinued, so we tested a promising alternative. We now have a new winner: the Cuisinart Chef’s Classic Nonstick Hard Anodized Double Burner Griddle. We love its large, upright handles; spacious cooking surface; and raised edges. It also scrubbed clean easily and came through our durability tests unscathed. This griddle is versatile: compatible with induction, electric, and gas cooktops alike.

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See Everything We Tested

What You Need To Know

When we're cooking for a crowd, we love using our favorite electric griddle, the BroilKing Professional Griddle with Backsplash. But it's quite large, making it a less appealing option for cooks with limited storage or counter space. Stovetop griddles are more compact and easy to store and still give you the extra cooking surface you need to make lots of pancakes, eggs, bacon, grilled cheese, and even steaks or burgers on top of your range in relatively few batches. Since we last reviewed these griddles, our winner and several other models were redesigned or discontinued. So we put eight new models, priced from about $44 to about $230, to the test, using them to cook pancakes, eggs over easy, and big pub burgers. For this review, we chose models designed to straddle two burners, since single-burner griddles don't offer much of a size advantage over our favorite skillets.

All the griddles performed well during testing, browning pancakes evenly, cooking eggs consistently, and searing the burgers respectably. But a few factors made some models more durable and easier to use, clean, and maintain than others.

Dimensions Matter

Not surprisingly, since we use these griddles to cook large batches of food, we liked models that gave us as much space as possible to cook on, preferring those that had a usable surface area of at least 160 square inches. More specifically, we preferred griddles with cooking surfaces that were fairly wide. Models less than 9.25 inches wide were a bit too narrow, requiring us to stagger and squeeze in just six pancakes at a time instead of the eight we could make on wider griddles.

Models with Walls Limit Flare-Ups

Many of the models had walls on their sides that rose up at least an inch above the cooking surface. While these walls occasionally got in the way when we flipped pancakes or eggs, they proved their value when we seared burgers, helping contain any grease that was released. Griddles with no walls allowed that grease to spatter or flow over their edges—even when the models had dedicated grease troughs—causing dangerous flare-ups as the fat hit the flame.

As a result, we much preferred models with walls. Although those walls didn't entirely prevent flare-ups, they significantly decreased their frequency. The higher the walls, the better the protection; a height of 1 inch or more was best.

We Prefer Discrete Metal Handles

We also liked griddles with handles that extended up and out from the cooking surface; they were easier to grab and lift than griddles with flat handles that were simply cut out of the base. The handles of one griddle were coated with silicone, which melted a little during a flare-up; ...

Everything We Tested

Good : 3 stars out of 3.Fair : 2 stars out of 3.Poor : 1 stars out of 3.

Highly Recommended

Recommended

Recommended with reservations

DISCONTINUED

*All products reviewed by America’s Test Kitchen are independently chosen, researched, and reviewed by our editors. We buy products for testing at retail locations and do not accept unsolicited samples for testing. We list suggested sources for recommended products as a convenience to our readers but do not endorse specific retailers. When you choose to purchase our editorial recommendations from the links we provide, we may earn an affiliate commission. Prices are subject to change.
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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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