The Best Cast-Iron Skillets of 2021

Lodge is a family-owned business in Tennessee that has been in operation since 1896. The Chef Collection skillet is a relatively recent introduction. This 12-inch skillet is about two pounds lighter than the traditional Lodge cast-iron pans, and therefore easier to maneuver.

But when it comes to cooking, it’s no slouch. In our tests, cornbread fell right out when the pan was turned upside down, steak cooked with a nice sear, and even scrambled eggs lifted right off the surface. As the Chef skillet isn’t as deep as the original design, it holds in less steam as it browns, giving crustier results.

However, it also leaves less room for oil when you’re making fried chicken. As the skillet is rounded at the edge where the sides meet the bottom, it’s easy to flip pancakes or stir beef and broccoli.

The small rounded handle is designed for comfort and is particularly easy to grasp right where it meets the body to give you good control. On the opposite side, there’s a large helper handle that does just what it’s supposed to do, help, so you get a good grasp when you’re carrying a skillet loaded with peach cobbler to the table.

While Lodge does not offer a set warranty, it claims it stands behind its products and will always solve customers’ complaints to their satisfaction.

You’ll pay a little more than for the classic model, but the Chef skillet is still very affordable and worth the uptick in price.

If you want the heat retention properties of cast-iron without the maintenance, the enameled Staub Cast-Iron 12-Inch Fry Pan is our top choice. This should come as no surprise as Staub's Dutch oven is another Reviewed favorite.

On the exterior of the fry pan, the enamel finish comes in a choice of six shades. The interior has a matte black enamel surface that is somewhat stick resistant but will never substitute for a traditional nonstick coating.

It’s not necessarily easier to scrub either the inside or the outside clean, but you don’t have to worry about rusting and can even toss the Staub in the dishwasher.

This skillet is on the lighter side for cast-iron and has particularly well-defined pour spouts that make it easy to pour out drippings. Made in France, it comes with an astronomical price tag.

Close your eyes and envision a vintage cast-iron skillet and you’ll probably see the Lodge Classic. Like other Lodge skillets, it’s made in South Pittsburg, Tenn. However, it’s more reasonably priced and is widely available.

This Lodge skillet has a wide bottom diameter and it’s deep so it provides lots of room for browning burgers or for frying a big batch of spuds.

Oil won’t bubble over when you add battered chicken pieces to the pan. And the skillet’s pour spouts make it easy to drain all that oil without dribbling. The generously-sized helper handle provides a good grasp even when you’re using a bulky oven mitt or pot holder.

Although the Blacklock 39 is a bit pricier than most Lodge cast-iron pans, it’s less expensive than the new generation of artisanal cast-iron pans or many stainless-steel skillets.

Weighing in at about 6 pounds, it's the lightest of all the skillets we tested, and we found it the most comfortable to work with. Lodge pre-seasoned it with three layers in the factory so it has a smooth finish out of the box and will be that much closer to developing a patina—the natural nonstick coating that forms.

We found it easy to flip over fried eggs and serve a mess of scrambled eggs. At close to 2-inches deep, this skillet easily holds enough oil for deep frying a chicken.

Our only criticism of this high-quality pan is that the rounded and shallow pour spouts make it a little tricky to pour off bacon grease without dribbling.

While enameled cast iron looks terrific with its colorful exterior and is easier to care for than unfinished cast iron, it’s generally exorbitantly priced. But not the Ayesha Curry Cast-Iron Skillet—it’s extraordinarily affordable. If you’re looking for an enameled pan, but don’t want to spend a lot of money, this is our top pick.

At about 8 ½ pounds this is one heavy piece of cookware. But it’s also impressively large, and has the widest diameter across the bottom of all the skillets we tested, which means you can brown off more pieces of beef stew meat at once.

At this price your selection of exterior colors is limited to teal, brown, and white. And although this skillet will not require the TLC that cast iron does, the manufacturer advises against using a dishwasher as the rim is untreated cast iron and could rust.

The inexpensive AmazonBasics Pre-Seasoned Cast-Iron Skillet is a real workhorse. It’s the deepest pan we tested and among the widest which means you can load it up with the most food to cook at once. However, at about 8 ½ pounds, it’s also one of the heaviest, giving your arm muscles quite a workout. You definitely don’t want to store it on a bottom or top shelf.

It’s manufactured in China and you’ll notice that although it's pre-seasoned, it has a rough finish. However, that didn’t handicap it when it came to releasing food. Scrambled eggs lifted right off, leaving almost nothing behind to clean up. The handle is longer than on some which means the skillet will have to be placed off center in the oven.

Like the AmazonBasics, the Victoria skillet is rough around the edges, literally and figuratively. However, it did an excellent job at every cooking task, turning out a well-seared steak, easily holding enough oil to cook a whole chicken, and releasing eggs as if it had a Teflon finish.

It’s a wide and deep pan, which is easy for simmering a one-dish dinner. But it’s long handle makes it a little tricky to place in the oven. Plus, we found the pour spouts are prone to some dribbling.

The Utopia Kitchen Pre-Seasoned Cast-Iron Skillet is another basic black skillet that comes from China and is very reasonably priced. After unpacking it, you’ll notice immediately that the finish feels quite rough. Wide and deep, it can easily fry up a whole cut-up chicken at once.

In spite of its coarse surface, the pan developed a slick surface at the end of our testing so that fried eggs slid right out. As its pour spouts are sloped and shallow, they make it difficult to neatly pour out gravy.

Smithey Ironware is a 5-year-old brand that manufactures its products in the United States. It bills its No. 12 skillet as a “modern heirloom” that’s designed to be a better, more well-thought-out cast-iron product.

The first thing you'll notice is that it looks different. Rather than traditional black, the Smithey No. 12 is a gorgeous bronze shade. As it’s highly polished during the manufacturing process, it has an interior surface that feels incredibly smooth. This distinctive, artisanal skillet will set you back a whopping $200.

Of all the pans in our cook-off, the Smithey is the heftiest, weighing it at over 8 pounds 10 ounces. It offers a good depth for deep frying or cooking a big batch of chili. Unfortunately, in our cooking tests, it didn’t perform as well as skillets costing about an eighth of the price.

Almost immediately we noticed that the finish seemed to wear off, too. Smithey does warn that this will happen and says that over time a black patina, like the ones on traditional nonstick skillets, will build up.

While the smooth surface felt like glass when we scrambled eggs with a wooden spoon, the eggs stuck to the pan and left us with a bigger cleanup job than traditional cast-iron pans. And when we tried to flip out cornbread, it stuck to the pan.

This skillet comes with the best of intentions, but we can’t justify spending the big bucks for a pan that looks a little different out of the box.

Although the Staub 11-inch Traditional Skillet is produced in France, it has the straight sides that give it the look of a classic American cast-iron skillet.

Inside it has a black matte enamel interior and on the outside, a shiny colorful enamel finish which is dishwasher safe. This Staub weighs just over 6 pounds, so it’s relatively easy to work with. However, that may be in part because it’s an inch smaller than the other skillets we tested. The smaller interior surface also means you won't be able to fry all of your cutlets at once.

This skillet is enameled on the bottom, which made it feel like it was sliding on the burner. This can be scary if it's filled with bubbling oil.

The story of Finex started in Portland, Ore., where its founders set out to reinvent cast-iron cookware as a craft product. Recently, the company was acquired by Lodge and is now manufactured in Tennessee. However, the cookware still has all of the characteristics that make it unique.

The Finex 12-inch Cast-Iron Skillet is octagonally shaped and has a coiled stainless-steel handle. It’s seasoned with flaxseed oil, which gives it a bronze color. It’s highly polished cooking surface is so smooth that it feels like glass under a spatula. The Finex continues to be sold for a premium price.

All of this attention to detail did not produce a better performing skillet. This skillet was less nonstick than the traditional skillets we tested.
To begin with, the first corn bread we baked stuck to the pan. Eggs stuck to the pan, leaving behind gunk to scrub off. By the time our tests were finished, patches of seasoning had been stripped off, exposing the bare metal underneath.

Not only does the handle get hot, but it’s very bulky to grasp. The cooking surface of the pan is the smallest of all we tested so it can accommodate the least amount of food.

While the Finex is nice and deep for frying, it’s not wide enough to cook a whole chicken cut into 8 pieces in one batch. Although the octagonal shape creates a lot of pour spouts around the perimeter, they are prone to dribbles.

You’ve gotta love the signature design of the aptly named Le Creuset Signature Skillet. This enameled cast-iron model comes in your choice of 16 colors on the outside with matte black enamel on the inside.

It’s a beauty for items like a Dutch baby pancake or a frittata that you want to serve right from the pan at the table. Because of its enamel finishes, you can clean this skillet in the dishwasher, but the cooking surface won’t build up a nonstick patina.

As it’s shallow, the Le Creuset isn’t ideal for deep frying. If you add too much oil, you risk having it bubble over when you add your battered chicken pieces. This French made pan is pricey but comes with the brands great reputation and in its collectable colors.