If you ever use your oven—and I’m guessing you use your oven—you need a good sheet pan. Baking batches of cookies? Sheet pan. Roasting vegetables or a chicken? Sheet pan. Cake for a crowd? Sheet cake…which you make in a sheet pan. Need an easy meal that isn’t an air fryer or Instant Pot meal? Hellooo, sheet-pan dinner.
Best overall: Nordic Ware Natural Aluminum Half-Sheet
With so much versatility, there’s a good chance you’ll use this piece of bakeware more than any other in your kitchen, so you want to get the right one. My team and I did the heavy lifting, testing popular baking sheets so you can choose the one that’ll be a perfect partner through years of Thanksgiving hosting, weeknight dinner scrambling, and emergency cookie-making.
New in this update: I’ve added testing information on nonstick baking sheets and an explanation as to why my team doesn’t recommend them.
Several rounds of testing have proven the Nordic Ware pan to be the best out there—and one of the most affordable. It’s this mix of quality and value that earns it a top spot on our list.
What I love: It’s made of 20-gauge uncoated light aluminum, which means it gets hot quickly but also evenly, producing crispy, golden-brown results—whether you’re roasting veggies for a sheet-pan dinner or baking cookies.
The rolled edges help the pan resist warping when subjected to high temperatures. Most sheet pans will start to bend at some point during their lifespan, but the Nordic Ware stays flat for longer than its competitors. When it does warp, it tends to bulge in the middle rather than fold in on the sides, which is easier to work with.
Generally, we try to avoid recommending products that you know you’ll have to replace. However, aluminum is one of the easiest and most efficient materials to recycle on earth, so I think it’s okay here.
What I’d leave: The surface of this aluminum sheet pan will stain and discolor over time, though this won’t impact the quality of your food and isn’t itself a cause for replacing the pan. The warping that will inevitably happen after several years of consistent use, however, is your sign to recycle the old pans and get a new pack.
To extend your sheet pan’s lifespan for as long as possible, hand-wash it rather than putting it through the dishwasher, as the machine’s heat and detergent will wear away at the surface.
Our testing process consisted of several steps:
I tested uncoated stainless-steel and aluminum pans. In past years I’ve also tested sheet pans with nonstick coatings; however, I’ve since excluded them from our recommendations because nonstick baking sheets are easily damaged, wear out faster, and can’t be recycled. If you want a nonstick surface for your cookie sheet, parchment paper or a silicone baking mat is all you need.
Our top pick is far and away the best quality for the price of the bunch. But if you’re drawn to a different brand, know that the below will also get the job done.
USA Pan Uncoated Half Sheet
USA Pan is another brand you’ll often find in commercial kitchens. This is an aluminized steel pan, and performed well through all of our tests for the most part. When it came down to surface temperature, the Nordic Ware aluminum sheet warmed up and cooled down faster by an average of 25°F, compared to this pan. For what it’s worth, this didn’t have a terribly significant impact on how the cookies or sheet pan dinner turned out. Regardless, the USA Pan is slightly more expensive than the Nordic Ware, so we still prefer the winner.
The Made In is nearly identical to the Nordic Ware winner in terms of appearance and performance. It’s a great piece of equipment, and the only reason it isn’t a top pick is that it’s nearly twice the price of the Nordic Ware.
For an aluminized steel pan, this pan performed pretty well. Its ability to brown vegetables was on par with the Nordic Ware, but it’s noticeably heavier.
This pan performed reasonably well in comparison to our winner. It was easy to clean, but it warped ever so slightly despite its heavier gauge.
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Source: www.bonappetit.com
