You can’t beat the Great Jones Hot Dish for contemporary style or practicality. It holds almost 5 quarts and you can loop your hands around the handles for a very secure grip.
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Pros
Attractive design
Handles provide a very good grip
Available in several colors
Dishwasher safe
Cons
Not broiler safe
2
Best Value
Pyrex Easy Grab 3-Quart Glass Baking Dish with Red Lid
The Pyrex Easy Grab 3-quart Glass Baking Dish is a great choice for baked goods like brownies or lemon squares, while still plenty big enough for standard cobbler and lasagna recipes.
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Pros
Handles provide a good grip
Dishwasher safe
Includes storage lid
Cons
Utilitarian looking
Can only go in a preheated oven
Not broiler safe
3
The Pioneer Woman Ceramic Baker with Lid
Currently
Unavailable
This dish is deep and easy to handle. However, its flowery patterns may not appeal to those who don’t love the Pioneer Woman’s Oklahoma-ranch style.
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Traditional styling and convenient features make this dish an excellent choice. It’s easy to grasp and has a huge capacity. As it’s available in 11 different shades, it can fit into any table décor.
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Written bySharon Franke, Cooking tools maven and former professional chef in NYC.
Updated July 20, 2022
A casserole dish is an indispensable workhorse in every kitchen, perfect for cooking your favorite comfort food. It’s the piece to pull out when you’re baking lasagna or a quick and easy week-night pasta bake. It's the go-to dish for enchiladas, a favorite side dish like a green bean casserole, or making a tasty fruit cobbler for dessert.
Which of these oven-safe bakers you use impacts how much food you can prepare, how your creation comes out, and how easy it is to maneuver it in and out of the oven. Since these meals often go straight from the oven to table, appearance and ease of use as a serving dish, are also important considerations.
After extensively testing 14 popular choices over the past year, our top pick is the beautiful yet practical Great Jones Hot Dish
(available at Great Jones)
. But if you don’t want to spend as much and aren’t too concerned about its appearance, you’ll be more than satisfied with our best value pick, the Pyrex Easy Grab 3-Quart Glass Baking Dish with Red Lid (available at Walmart).
Best Overall
Great Jones Hot Dish
You can’t beat the Great Jones Hot Dish for contemporary style! However, it’s also exceptionally convenient to use. It can hold almost 5 quarts so it can be loaded up with enough scalloped potatoes for a dinner party. As you can loop your hands around the handles when you’re wearing oven mitts, you get a very secure grasp even when it’s filled to capacity.
The Hot Dish can be used in the oven to a temperature of 450°F and is dishwasher safe. The design comes in shades dubbed marinara, broccoli, blueberry, and mustard. You won’t find this dish in a big retail store, or on Amazon, though. It’s only sold on the Great Jones website.
The Pyrex 3-Quart Glass Baking Dish performs well at a great price, making it our Best Value pick.
Best Value
Pyrex Easy Grab 3-Quart Glass Baking Dish with Red Lid
If you’re looking for an inexpensive open baker, you can’t go wrong with the Pyrex Easy Grab 3-quart Glass Baking Dish. It holds less than the Great Jones but at exactly 13 x 9 x 2-inches it’s a great choice for baked goods like brownies or lemon squares. The Pyrex is also plenty big enough for standard cobbler, lasagna, and most other recipes, too.
This dish is made of tempered soda-lime glass and like all glass, is subject to breakage and some reports of shattering in the oven (it’s not resistant to thermal shock ). That’s why the manufacturer’s instructions should be followed carefully. While using Pyrex, always preheat the oven and don’t use it under the broiler. If you freeze a lasagna, make sure to defrost it before baking.
You can wrap your hands around the handles for an exceptionally good grasp even when you’re using bulky pot-holders. The dish comes with a plastic storage lid that’s handy for keeping a casserole tightly covered in the fridge or freezer, or transporting to a potluck.
Hi, I'm Sharon Franke and for a person who loves to cook, I have a dream job as a kitchen equipment tester. In over 30 years on the job, I’ve put everything from wire whisks to smart refrigerators through their paces. I use my experience as a former professional chef as well as an avid home cook in considering both how well tools perform and how easy they are to use. There’s nothing I like to check out more than indispensable cookware for everyday and special occasion cooking.
The Tests
Credit:
Reviewed / Sharon Franke
We cooked up lots of lasagnas paying particular attention to not just how well they baked, but how comfortable the dish was to handle and serve from.
I tested 14 oven-safe casserole dishes. In each, I baked a peach cobbler and a lasagna loaded with meat sauce and ricotta and mozzarella cheeses. As I worked, I noted how easy it was to arrange the ingredients in each baker, how comfortable it was to handle the dish, how well the recipes baked up, and how easy it was to serve them. Of course, I also considered if each dish was super easy to clean and how convenient it was to store. And lastly, because these pans are intended to be brought to the table, I gave points for good looks.
What to Know About Buying a Casserole Dish
Credit:
Great Jones / Adam Friedlander
We found that many of our top picks are made from ceramic, like the Great Jones Hot Dish.
In our tests, all the dishes produced acceptable baked cobblers and lasagnas in a reasonable amount of time. The differences between them were primarily in their size, how comfortable they were to put in and take out of the oven, and their appearances. As these bakers are heavy, and even more so once loaded with hot food, it’s also important to find a dish that has a good grip while using pot-holders or oven mitts.
Our top picks will always be ceramic or glass. Metal bakeware or enameled cast iron didn't make our cut for several reasons. First, metal dishes cook your food less evenly because they retain heat and get much hotter, especially on the bottoms and sides. This is especially problematic if you’re making something custardy like a bread pudding.
Second, if a metal pan is made of aluminum, as many are, ingredients like tomato sauce or eggs in your favorite breakfast casserole can interact with the metal, giving your food a gray cast and metallic tang.
Furthermore, metal pans are more utilitarian-looking and less appropriate for serving. We recommend you save metal pans for baked goods like blondies if you want crispy, chewy corner pieces, and for recipes, you don’t plan to serve from the pan.
Although all of the dishes we tested were in the 13-by-9-inch category, their actual measurements, including depth, varied quite a bit. The specifications affect how much food each one can hold. A larger pan is great when you’re cooking a double batch of baked ziti for a party but when you’re making just a few chicken breasts in a creamy sauce for a family dinner, you’re better off using a smaller dish where the pieces won’t get lost, and the sauce won’t evaporate during baking.
And if you’re preparing a recipe for apple crumb squares or brownies that calls for a 13- by-9-by-2-inch pan, those exact measurements are necessary to ensure the baked goods are the right texture and in the specified baking time.
While shopping, pay attention to a dish’s measurements and consider what you’re planning to use it for. Also, dishes with plastic lids are especially helpful if you anticipate leftovers or plan to take it to a potluck or holiday party.
Other Casserole Dishes We Tested
The Pioneer Woman Ceramic Baker with Lid
The Pioneer Woman Heritage Ceramic Bakeware with Lid has everything going for it, including an unbeatable price. Its only drawback is that it’s decorated with a flowery design that will be very appealing to anyone who loves the Pioneer Woman’s home-on-the-range style but not to those who prefer a cleaner, more neutral look.
Of all the products we tested, this was the deepest, which provides plenty of room to pile in enough baked ziti for an entire team. The large handles are easy to loop fingers through, even with a potholder, giving a secure grasp when the dish is fully loaded and piping hot.
This bakeware is oven safe to 450°F and can be used in the microwave and placed in the freezer or dishwasher. There’s also a plastic lid that latches on securely for bringing your banana pudding to a community supper or for storing leftovers in the fridge. A choice of three different floral patterns are available.
Pros
Handles give a good grip
Dishwasher safe
Includes a storage lid
Cons
Not broiler safe
Pattern may not appeal to everyone
Le Creuset Heritage Rectangular Dish
We loved the Le Creuset Traditional Heritage Rectangular Dish's styling and versatility enough that it became one of our top picks during testing.
This 4-quart dish is deep enough to accommodate close to 5 quarts of food. The Traditional Heritage Rectangular Dish is broiler-safe, so you can get a melty layer of cheese on top of an eggplant parmesan recipe, without fear of damaging it. That it's available in 11 different shades, including several neutrals tones, red, lots of blues, and the brand’s signature flame, is the icing on the cake.
However, it's not perfect: during testing, we found that its large, textured handles are angled in such a way that it makes it possible to hold the Traditional Heritage Rectangular Dish relatively securely. Unfortunately, the handles are too small to all loop your fingers through them, for added support.
Like the original Le Creuset Heritage Dish, the Stoneware Rectangle Baking Dish has classic styling but unlike its predecessor, has long open handles that fingers can be looped through for an exceptionally good grip.
While the Heritage holds over 5 quarts, this one only has a 4-quart capacity. It easily held our lasagna recipe with three layers of noodles but if you like to load in more, you might want to consider the other version.
This dish is safe in the oven up to 500°F which should be more than high enough to melt cheese or brown crumbs on a noodle casserole. When it comes to color, there’s a choice of white, gray, or red.
Staub Rectangular Oven Dish is the only dish we tested that can be run under the broiler on a high setting, making it a great choice if you love to get the top of your mac and cheese extra brown and crunchy or caramelize sugar on top of an overnight French toast casserole. While you can’t fit your fingers into the holes in the handles, you can still get a very firm grip.
The volume of this dish is 4 ½ quarts, more than enough for a holiday-size sweet potato casserole. To satisfy different tastes and color schemes, the Staub comes in red, turquoise, black, ivory, and white.
The Made In 9 x 13” Baking Dish is a good-looking casserole pan that’s easy to use. With a 5-quart capacity, it’s among the largest and deepest of the dishes we tested. It can easily hold stuffed vegetables, a multi-layered lasagna, or a hefty one-dish meal of chicken pieces with potatoes and vegetables. However, at close to 6 pounds, it’s also the heaviest dish in our lineup. You can’t loop your hands around the handles, but fortunately, the handles stick out enough to grasp firmly even when the dish is loaded with food.
The slate blue and olive-green versions of the Made In Baking Dish can be used in the oven up to a temperature of 482°F, while the white dishes with a red or blue rim are safe up to 650°F. If running a casserole under the broiler to brown off a crumb or cheese topping is a priority, choose one of the white options. The Baking Dish is also safe to use in the freezer, microwave, and dishwasher although its size may make it difficult to fit.
Mrs. Anderson’s Baking Lasagna Pan is smaller in dimensions and capacity than the other ceramic dishes we tested. While it easily accommodated our lasagna recipe with three layers of noodles, you won’t be able to pack in any extra layers. Because of its smaller size, it’s lighter in weight, which, combined with very easy to grasp handles, makes this dish exceptionally easy to maneuver in and out of the oven.
This dish can take temperatures up to 500°F so if the blueberries in your cobbler are bubbling before the top is well browned, you can run the dish under the broiler to finish it off.
Under the Mrs. Anderson’s name, it only comes with a red exterior with a white interior, but it is also sold as the HIC Kitchen Lasagna Pan (available at Amazon) which is white inside and out.
If you’re looking for a baking dish that you can also use for shortbread and pecan bars, consider the OXO Glass Baking Dish with Lid. It measures 13-by-9-by-2 ¼-inches. The OXO has plenty of room for a peach cobbler and lasagna, but isn’t deep enough for stuffed peppers or a Tex-Mex casserole with a cornbread topping.
This dish is made of borosilicate glass which is less likely to shatter than tempered soda-lime glass. However, there are still occasional reports of it breaking in the oven. Be sure to follow OXO's recommendations, which include preheating your oven and not using it above 450°F or placing it in the oven directly from the freezer.
The glass handles are ample enough to give a good grip even with a bulky pot-holder. There's also has a plastic storage lid to use for storing made-ahead or leftover casseroles or carrying baked goods to a party.
Rachael Ray Copenhagen Cozy is attractive, practical, and reasonably priced. At 9-by-13 inches, it’s big enough to hold more than 5 quarts, which is perfect for a deep-dish chicken pot pie or a moussaka with a thick layer of creamy sauce on top.
Even while wearing oven mitts, you can wrap your hands around the handles so when it’s fully loaded, you get a good grasp. If you want to melt extra cheese on your enchiladas at the end of cooking, you can run the Rachael Ray under the broiler on the lowest setting.
We only have a few quibbles with this casserole. From end to end, it’s longer than most baking dishes so will take up more space in a cabinet. And it’s only available in a trendy shade of gray called sea salt.
When it comes to style, the Food52 Dansk Generations Bakeware Oval Roaster easily beats out every other casserole we’ve tested. The work of a renowned Danish designer, it has a mid-century aesthetic that would look good on just about any table.
Because of its oval shape, we think it’s the perfect dish for a gratin with circles of overlapping potato slices. However, the Dansk only has a 2-quart capacity and is just slightly more than an inch deep.
During our testing, we squeezed in our lasagna and peach cobbler test recipes, and they rose up spectacularly, but unfortunately, both boiled over, leaving us with a messy oven to clean up. The low profile is an advantage if you want to use the dish for roasting.
On either side of the dish, looped handles protrude, which gives a good grip for placing it in the oven. However, the handles are a little awkward if you’re using a potholder or oven mitt.
This bakeware can be used in the oven up to 450°F. That’s high enough to roast a chicken or bake most casseroles but not to brown off a Parmesan cheese topping under the broiler. For reheats, the dish is microwave safe, and it’s easily cleaned in the dishwasher. It’s available in two colors, a sophisticated blue or speckled cream.
Made of white glass, the Rubbermaid DuraLite Bakeware is a practical choice. It’s very affordable, can be used in the oven up to 550°F, and comes with a plastic storage lid. With its 2 ½-quart capacity, it’s one of the smaller casseroles we tested. As it’s also only 2 ½ pounds, it’s not unwieldy.
It’s designed without handles to make it easy to stack in a cabinet but that means you must grasp the sides of the dish with a potholder while removing it from the oven.
Emile Henry Modern Classics Rectangular Baker - Large Rectangle
If you want to use up a whole box of lasagna in one batch, the Emile Henry Modern Classics Rectangular Baker is your best bet. With a capacity of 20 cups, it’s among the deepest that we tested. However, because the handles are small and angled upwards, they’re hard to grasp securely. And when it’s fully loaded, the Emile is heavy, so you need to be very careful when you’re transferring it to and from the oven.
This is a very good-looking pan and comes in bright primary colors as well as all white. As it can safely go under the broiler on the low setting, it can be used with slow cooker recipes, to help brown and crisp the meltingly tender chicken or meat.
With its clean design and moderate price, this baker will appeal to just about anyone. However, it has a serious flaw: It has no handles, so even though it’s lighter than other dishes we tested, it feels heavier. You have to be extra careful, especially when you’re taking a hot and bubbling dish like an apple crisp from the oven to the table.
It has a volume of more than 4 quarts which gives you plenty of room to layer in lasagna noodles or pile in sliced peaches.
Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.
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Meet the tester
Sharon Franke
Contributor
Sharon has tested and reviewed kitchen equipment for over 30 years. Before becoming a cooking tools maven, she worked as a professional chef in New York City restaurants.
Our team is here for one purpose: to help you buy the best stuff and love what you own. Our writers, editors, and lab technicians obsess over the products we cover to make sure you're confident and satisfied. Have a different opinion about something we recommend? Email us and we'll compare notes.