Sheet-Pan Meals Are the Easiest Way to Cook—Follow These Pro Tips to Ace the Technique

They may not be sleek or cutting-edge, but never mind that: When it comes to usefulness, no other cookware in your kitchen holds a candle to the sheet pan (also known as a rimmed baking sheet). Perfect for time-saving one-pan dinners, they allow you to cook all the elements of an entire meal on a single baking sheet, which streamlines that dreaded clean-up. (A win-win, for real!) To better school ourselves on their many advantages—and glean some pro tips—we reached out to two culinary experts who've penned an entire book devoted to the art of sheet-pan cooking. Here's how they make the most of this handy utensil.

Why Sheet-Pan Cooking Is Such a Winning Technique

Sheet pan recipes are easy to clean up and wonderfully hands-off during cooking. Another high note is that they eliminate the headache of juggling pans on multiple burners, which can be challenging when feeding a crowd.

Sheet pans can be used for appetizers, main dishes, desserts, and even breakfast. It is a versatile cooking vessel full of potential, say Olga Massov and Sanaë Lemoine, coauthors of Hot Sheet: Sweet and Savory Sheet Pan Recipes for Every Day and Celebrations.

And they rival other reliable cookware in their utility.  "Unlike, say, a skillet or a Dutch oven, the surface area of the sheet pan is ideal for cooking lots of different components and segmenting them into their own sections on the pan: veg on one side, meat on the other," explains Massov.

Another bonus: Everyone can eat at the same time. "There's no one person standing at the stove, cooking everyone's portion," says Massov. "As someone who is responsible for 98 percent of meals that come out of my kitchen, that's a huge advantage."

How Sheet Pans Transform Food

Whether you're new to sheet pan meals or a longtime fan, once you take a deeper dive, expect to be bowled over. Even the coauthors, pros from the outset, were surprised by how many recipes worked beautifully on a sheet pan. "Part of the delight is that the sheet pan might be the ideal utensil for cooking a recipe you'd never imagine was baked on the sheet pan, such as the mille-feuille," says Massov.

More texture: From brownies and clafoutis to mac and cheese, textures, for one thing, became more intriguing. "We've found that we really love the ratios of crisp and tender, crunchy and soft, that the sheet pan affords," says Lemoine.

From stovetop to oven: Some recipes traditionally cooked in a pot, such as ratatouille, take on a different character on the sheet pan. "For years now I've loved making ratatouille in the oven as it's fairly hands-off, and as long as you don't overcrowd the sheet pan, you'll get lovely caramelization on each ingredient," says Lemoine. "The heat from the oven evaporates the liquid, softening the zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes, and onion, and concentrating all those sweet and savory flavors."

How to Embrace Sheet-Pan Cooking

If you've cooked a sheet-pan dinner or two before—or even if you haven't yet but are ready to try it—Lemoine and Massov have some tips that will make cooking with a sheet pan so much easier.

Employ Pantry Ingredients

A well-stocked pantry can be a home cook's superpower, setting you up for optimal sheet pan results. Lemoine and Massovs' must-haves include miso, Dijon mustard, panko, furikake, cultured salted butter, and dates—all ingredients that will elevate sheet-pan cooking.

"Of course, taste is very personal, so these are simply our preferences. (It's OK if you don't sprinkle furikake on everything!)," they say. Whatever your arsenal, having ingredients and condiments you repeatedly use at your fingertips can infuse meals with more flavor with little effort.

Prep Your Pan

• One of Massov's culinary hacks (picked up from Ina Garten) is to grease the sheet pan with oil, then sprinkle on salt, creating seasoning on the bottom of the ingredients.
• When cooking fish, or some cheeses, that might leave sticky residue behind, they recommend lining the sheets with aluminum foil or parchment paper.
• With baked goods, they leave a generous overhang of parchment paper, making it easier to lift cakes, tarts, galettes, and slab pies, from the pan.
  

Don't Crowd

• If the ingredients overlap, use an additional sheet pan so as not to crowd them. "There should be a sliver of space between the ingredients, so they don't steam as they release liquid," say Lemoine and Massov. 
• Ingredients can also be divided between a half-sheet and a quarter-sheet if there's overflow.
• If cooking with more than one pan, rotate them from top to bottom halfway through so the ingredients cook evenly.

Choosing Sheet Pans

If you're exploring the potential of sheet-pan cooking, make sure you have the right baking sheets.

Multiple Sizes

Wide and shallow, with a one-inch rim, sheet pans come in several sizes, including full-, half-, and quarter-sheet options. Lemoine and Massov recommend having at least two half-sheet (18-by-13-inch) pans and one quarter-sheet (9-by-13-inch) pan, though they each own about eight (and counting). The pans can be stacked for easy storage and take up minimal space.

Other Uses: Sheet pans are excellent for organizing ingredients in the kitchen or carrying them around, like when you're grilling. Quarter-sheet pans do double duty in the toaster oven for smaller quantities.

What to Look for (and What to Avoid)

The experts suggest steering clear of the following:

• Coated and nonstick pans, because the coating can come off on food.
• Dark sheet pans, which can over-brown ingredients before they cook through.

Instead, look for:

• Thick, heavy-gauge (13- to 18-gauge) stainless steel or aluminum pans. (The higher the gauge, the thinner the sheet pan.)
• Lemoine and Massov favor pans from Nordic Ware and Chicago Metallic. "Both brands make sturdy, resilient sheet pans that don't warp and, with minimal maintenance—talk about a kitchen workhorse—will serve you a lifetime of meals," says Massov.