13 Easy Sheet Pan Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What is the basic of sheet pan dinners? ›

A sheet pan takes the concept of a one-pot meal and flips it onto a pan. It saves time, makes clean-up easier, and doesn't require expensive equipment or fancy ingredients. Just start with your protein of choice, then add vegetables, fat and flavorings, and roast at high heat until everything is golden brown.

Lining the pan

Cleanup is a breeze when you line the baking sheet with parchment paper or foil.

Temperatures range from 375-400°F for sheet pan meals. Depending on the vegetables and protein you've chosen, it may take anywhere from 35-45 minutes to cook thoroughly. Remember if you've chosen something you know will overcook in that period, you want to add it in later on in the cooking time.

At their best, sheet-pan dinners are easy, convenient, and delicious. They key is to be smart about them. Here's how.

Quarter sheet pans are typically 9 by 13 inches (a standard size for sheet cakes), half sheet pans are 18 by 13 inches (this is the size of most pans described simply as baking sheets) and full sheet pans are 26 by 18 inches (too big to fit in many home ovens, but the standard commercial size).

Larger Baking Sheets can be used to bake any savory dishes you can think of, such as roasted, baked chicken, and one-pan sheet meals. On the other hand, smaller-sized Baking Sheets are ideal for baking sweet treats, such as sheet cakes, brownies, and cookies.

We recommend foil over parchment paper for sheet pan cooking. As it conducts heat, foil can help accelerate the cooking process and help browning.

When Not to Use Parchment Paper. Parchment paper is not designed for high-heat cooking. Avoid using it in your oven or on the grill if temperature will exceed 400 degrees, says Michelle Weaver, chef at Charleston Grill in South Carolina, as there's a chance it could catch fire.

Since parchment paper doesn't have a helpful “this end up” sign with an arrow, it takes a little detective work. Just hold the paper up to the light and look for the side that's slightly glossier or shinier. It is the shiny or glossy side of the parchment paper that should be face up on your baking sheet or cake pan.

The metal of your sheet pan is at a cooler temperature than your hot oven. Metal expands as it heats. The large surface of your sheet pan will heat and expand faster than the short rimmed sides. This creates stress right where the flat base meets the raised lip, causing some pans to buckle or twist.

Should you preheat a sheet pan? ›

Without preheating the baking sheet, ingredients that contain a lot of moisture will essentially start to steam in their own juices before they roast, softening and never quite developing that crispy exterior you want.

Any layer cake recipe that yields three 8" or 9" cakes will work in a half sheet pan with no adjustments needed. If the recipe yields two 8" to 9" cakes, I increase the recipe by 1.5 (if you measure by weight, rather than volume, this is a cinch).

To keep that crisp coating from getting soggy from the veg, use a wire rack to raise the breaded ingredients above the moisture in the pan. Use the same approach when you're roasting a cut of beef or pork so the juices baste the ingredients while the meats gets gloriously browned.

Ina's Answer: I use aluminum sheet pans that you can buy at any cookware store. If any food is baked on after I use them, I put them in the sink with the hottest tap water and soap and let them soak overnight. The next morning they should come out perfectly clean, using a Brillo pad if necessary.

Do You Need a New Sheet Pan? If it's constantly warping, yes, that's a bad thing and you might just need to buy a new, sturdier pan. But if your pan's getting dull or dark, it's actually a good thing because you'll be able to get even more delicious browning.

A sheet pan, also referred to as baking tray, baking sheet, or baking pan, is a flat, rectangular metal pan placed in an oven and used for baking pastries such as bread rolls, cookies, sheet cakes, Swiss rolls, and pizzas.

A full-size sheet pan's dimensions are 18” x 26”. You can fit one full-size sheet pan on each of your commercial oven's shelves. Perfect for high-volume settings, full-size baking sheets are the most common sheet pan size in commercial settings.

A full-sheet pan measures 26-by-18 inches and typically has sides that are about one inch high. They're generally too large for practical home use—in fact they won't fit in many home ovens.

Buy a Commercial-Grade Half Sheet-Pan

The standard size for a half sheet-pan (or “rimmed baking sheet”) is 13"x18". All of the sheet-pan dinners we develop in the Test Kitchen are developed to fit perfectly on that size pan—try making one of those recipes on a smaller jelly roll pan or cookie sheet and it won't work.