Picking the Perfect Roasting Pan for a 20 lb Turkey

Lesley Stockton is a writer focused on kitchen and entertaining. Her coverage includes grilling, kitchen knives, and cookware, just to name a few.

It’s not just for holidays when you need a big roasting pan. A good roasting pan is useful for many other meals as well. You can bake lasagna for a big group of people or just make a quick one-pan meal during the week.

There are 14 pans we used to roast over 400 pounds of turkey, chicken, and vegetables. The Cuisinart MultiClad Pro 16-inch Roasting Pan With Rack is the best one we found. You can sear food on the stove or roast it in the oven with this roaster. It’s also the best value for money we’ve found for a large, versatile, tri-ply-clad roasting pan with a rack. It does the job as well as pans that cost twice as much or more.

This oval-shaped food warmer looks great and is the right size for a whole chicken, porterhouse steak, or mid-size roast, as well as side dishes like potato gratin.

But you can’t use this roaster on the stove. It’s just good for putting the turkey in for Thanksgiving.

If you can afford it, the All-Clad Flared Roaster does everything our main pick does, but better.

The Cuisinart MultiClad Pro 16″ Roasting Pan With Rack can handle a variety of cooking tasks with ease. Its tri-ply, fully clad construction and flat cooking surface spread heat evenly, making it easy to sear, deglaze, and make gravy on the stove. It’s big and strong enough to hold a 20-pound turkey, a big roast, two whole chickens, or a full one-pan meal. Large, riveted handles provide a secure grip, even with the bulkiest kitchen towels and oven mitts.

The Anolon Tri-ply Clad Roaster with Nonstick Rack is a good alternative to our first choice if it sells out. It costs about the same. This fully clad tri-ply roasting pan is spacious and sturdy, and has big, riveted handles. But the channel around the pan’s edge makes it harder to use on the stove than our other tri-ply clad picks.

This oval-shaped food warmer looks great and is the right size for a whole chicken, porterhouse steak, or mid-size roast, as well as side dishes like potato gratin.

The Mauviel M’COOK B 5-Ply Oval Pan with Brass Handles might be just what you need if you don’t have a lot of space in your kitchen or want a smaller, more stylish roasting pan that you can use for both weeknight meals and side dishes for bigger events. While it’s not large enough to hold a whole Thanksgiving turkey, the Mauviel fits a chicken just fine. For a side dish, like vegetable gratin or green bean casserole, it works great, and it looks nice enough to serve. This is the smallest and most expensive roaster we looked at, but we think its many uses and nice look make it worth the extra money.

But you can’t use this roaster on the stove. It’s just good for putting the turkey in for Thanksgiving.

You can use a good roasting pan for a lot more than just roasting a turkey once a year. The Granite Ware 19-inch Covered Oval Roaster (F0510) is a good, reasonably priced alternative if you only need one once or twice a year. It also fits in smaller ovens. We just wouldn’t use this thin steel roaster on the stovetop to make gravy and sear meat. It’s a good deal if you only want to roast turkey and don’t plan to use the Granite Ware roaster for anything else. It’s only a third of the price of the Cuisinart and doesn’t do as many things.

If you can afford it, the All-Clad Flared Roaster does everything our main pick does, but better.

In our tests, both in the oven and on the stove, the pricey All-Clad Flared Roaster did the best. Because the sides were flared, the heat spread out evenly, making the skin of the turkey the crispiest and golden most. All-Clad showed the best heat distribution on the stovetop, searing chicken pieces consistently across the pan. The flared All-Clad is hard to beat if you roast a lot of coffee or don’t mind spending more on the best.

Runner-up: Anolon Tri-ply Clad Roaster with Nonstick Rack

This tri-ply roasting pan is a comparably priced option if our top pick is unavailable.

Our top pick often sells out in the weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. If that happens, the comparably priced Anolon Tri-ply Clad Roaster with Nonstick Rack is a good alternative.

The Anolon did great in the oven. The golden, juicy turkey we roasted in this pan would be a swoon-worthy centerpiece on any holiday table. Anolon’s spacious 16. A 5-by-12-inch space inside can fit a big turkey, a standing rib roast, or any other big pieces of meat that are going to the oven.

But making gravy on the stovetop was more challenging. Because the liquids ran to the edges of the pan, we had to tilt and move the Anolon a bit to whisk a smooth roux and gravy. We had the same problem when we were cooking chicken on the stove: the oil gathered around the sides and not on the chicken.

Its build and design still makes it a solid pan. It’s super sturdy and the generous handles are easy to grip with towels or oven mitts. Its bent lip makes clean work of pouring pan drippings into a fat separator.

Though it’s a V-shaped style, the rack is decent. It’s rounded and has a lot of surface area for larger turkeys and big roasts. However, the rack is nonstick coated, so opt for a gentle scouring sponge when cleaning.

Anolon’s lifetime warranty covers any defective parts. But like with our top pick, it doesn’t protect against accidents, misuse, or abuse.

Why you should trust us

As a member of the Wirecutter kitchen team since 2013, I’ve looked into and tested fry pans, saucepans, cast iron, Dutch ovens, and nonstick pans. In my long career as a chef, I’ve also cooked and carved a huge number of turkeys for Thanksgiving spreads in magazines, hotel buffets, and family gatherings.

For this guide, we:

• Researched over 50 roasting pans since 2014.
• Have used 14 pans to roast more than 400 pounds of chicken and 30 pounds of vegetables.
• Talked to chefs, food stylists, and food writers who are experts in their fields.
• They talked about books like Meat: A Kitchen Education by James Peterson and The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating by Fergus Henderson that talk about roasting.
• Toured the All-Clad factory in Canonsburg, PA.
• Like all Wirecutter journalists, I test and review products without any editorial bias. People who read my editorials never tell me how they might affect business. Read more about our editorial standards.
• As required by Wirecutter, I return or donate all products I’ve tested once my evaluation is complete. This may mean that my coworkers and I test them for a longer period of time. I never hang onto “freebies” once testing is done.

We’ve considered more than 40 roasting pans and tested 16 over the years. You can use the best ones all year long because they are strong enough to hold the biggest roasts and work well on both stoves and ovens. To meet those requirements, we focused on a few factors:

Stainless steel tri-ply: Tri-ply is simply aluminum sandwiched between stainless steel. We chose pans made from this material because it lasts a long time, doesn’t react with anything else, spreads heat better, and is easy to clean. It’s also bright, so you can see exactly how much your pan drippings are browning.

Good air flow: The sides of a roaster should be high enough to keep the pan’s juices in while you move it in and out of the oven, but not so high that heat from the bottom can’t reach it. Hot air circulating all round your roast ensures that it browns evenly.

Works on the stove: You can sear, deglaze, and cook gravy in your roasting pan right on the stove. A fully clad pan with some weight to it is sturdier and more consistent over direct heat. On the other hand, a pan made of thin sheet metal or with a bottom that is sealed is more likely to warp, burn spots, and heat unevenly.

A roasting pan with a flat bottom makes it easy to sear meat and mix roux and gravy on the stove. Some pans have a trough around the inside edge that makes it hard to mix a smooth gravy or fry food evenly because the liquids run to the sides of the pan. This leaves the middle of the pan dry and susceptible to scorching.

A good size: An all-purpose roasting pan should be large enough to accommodate a big Thanksgiving turkey. Roasters that measure at least 16 by 12 inches are in the sweet spot. That’s big enough to fit a 20-pound turkey or a lot of vegetables without making the pan too crowded.

Rectangular: In general, rectangular roasting pans are more versatile than oval roasters. Both of the chefs we talked to said that oval pans look nice, but rectangular pans are better for cooking because they have more space. You can cook two whole chickens in a rectangular pan. A smaller oval roaster, on the other hand, can go from the oven to the table without taking up too much space. This makes it a good choice for people who don’t have a lot of room in their kitchen.

Ergonomic handles: Large handles make it easier to hold on to a hot, heavy pan full of boiling juices when taking it out of the oven. Strong, straight stainless steel handles that are riveted to the sides work best. The handles should be big enough to hold on to even with oven mitts on. It’s hard to hold on to the thin folding handles that are welded into the sides, which is not ideal when carrying a hot pan of fat.

Flat roasting racks: A rack allows radiant heat to flow underneath the roast or bird. Most roasting pans come with V-shaped racks, but we prefer flat ones. Like a V-shaped rack, a flat rack spans the bottom of the pan and holds the roast and nothing else. This gives you the whole cooking surface for an extra-large roast or turkey, along with aromatics and vegetables.

We roasted turkeys at 325 ºF until the internal temperature of the thigh was 160 ºF. We looked for even browning, radiant heat circulation, and consistent fond color across the bottom of the pan.

We then made gravy in each pan on the stovetop with the turkey drippings. Here, we looked at how the heat was distributed and the shape of the cooking area in the pan. Did the gravy boil all the way through or just over the burners? Were there odd depressions in the bottom of the pan that made it hard to scrape off the fond or whisk the gravy?

In the end, we made a one-pan meal in each, cooking chicken pieces first and then adding vegetables in the oven to finish. We could see how well each pan spread heat on the stove and in the oven with this test. What color was the chicken skin after it had been seared? What color were the vegetables after they had been roasted?

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