Best Nonstick Frying Pans
With these pans, making perfect eggs and golden pancakes has never been easier
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When it comes to cookware, there’s nothing as useful as a good nonstick frying pan. This type has the biggest market share by far, says Marion Wilson-Spencer, a CR market analyst.
It’s easy to see why. Eggs and other sticky foods simply glide off nonstick surfaces, and cleanup is a cinch. “Nonstick pans are much easier to clean than stainless and other types of frying pans,” says Tara Casaregola, who oversees CR’s cookware tests. “All you need is a little soap and water.”
With that ease, however, come a few concerns about the health risks associated with some nonstick coatings, particularly those made with PTFE, a coating that was introduced in the 1940s as Teflon. PTFE is one of thousands of PFAS (per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances) that linger for years in our bodies and the environment.
CR’s investigative team delved into this recently in its report on whether you can trust claims about cookware being nontoxic. If this is a concern for you, our experts suggest avoiding products made with PTFE. Our ratings of more than 40 nonstick frying pans identify those made without PTFE and include plenty of frying pan choices if you want to avoid such chemicals altogether.
Below are the best nonstick frying pans from our tests, listed in alphabetical order. These pans excel at cooking beautiful pancakes and fried eggs that don’t stick. And they’re tough: All of them withstood 2,000 strokes with steel wool, receiving either very good or excellent scores on our durability test.
These nonstick picks come in a range of prices, and you’ll notice that some of the least expensive pans rival the most expensive in terms of performance. For more choices for your kitchen, see our full cookware ratings. You can also consult our cookware buying guide for advice on choosing the best pots and pans of all types, including stainless steel, cast iron, carbon steel, and copper.
CR’s take: You really can’t go wrong with the Anolon Advanced Nonstick frying pans; there are two in this set, a 10-inch and a 12-inch. Cooking evenness was superb in our tests, so you can make perfect pancakes to your heart’s content. Our fried eggs slid out without a nudge. The handle is sturdy and stays cool to the touch when you’re cooking, and the coating is durable, scoring a very good rating in our tests. This aluminum pan isn’t compatible with induction cooktops, however.
CR’s take: This nonstick pan from Caraway, a popular internet brand, is impressive. In our tests, fried eggs easily slid out one after another and the surface heated evenly, so there were no hot spots. The handle is super-sturdy, so it won’t get wobbly, and it stays cool to the touch as you cook. The nonstick coating is ceramic (made without PTFE) and stood up well in our durability test, in which we abrade the surface with steel wool (something you shouldn’t do at home!). It’s induction-compatible.
CR’s take: We tested the 10-inch pan in the Cuisinart N6122-810 Smartnest, a set that includes an 8-inch version, too. Both are very handy. Cooking fried eggs one after the other was a breeze, earning an excellent rating in our food release test, and the pan heats evenly without hot or cold spots. The handles are super-sturdy and stay cool to the touch, and the pan held up very well in our durability test, in which we abrade the surface with 2,000 strokes of steel wool. It’s not induction-compatible, though.
CR’s take: The 10-inch GreenPan Padova Reserve frying pan is included in a 10-piece set, but you can buy it separately. (The skillet also comes as part of a two-pan set that includes an 8-inch version.) And like the set it comes with, the GreenPan Padova frying pan stands out in our ratings of nonstick cookware. Eggs easily slid out of the pan one after another, leaving nothing behind and earning an excellent rating on the food release test. Cooking evenness is also top-notch. The handle stays cool to the touch and is sturdy. And while the nonstick ceramic coating did well on our durability tests, some other skillets fared better. Unlike some of our choices, however, this pan won’t work on an induction cooktop.
CR’s take: This nonstick frying pan comes from a brand known more for its colorful cast-iron cookware. While the Le Creuset Toughened Pro skillet may look drab in comparison, it has the same impressive cooking chops. It aced our cooking evenness test and did almost as well, though not perfectly, on the food release test. And it can take a lot of punishment. Durability and handle sturdiness are top-notch, and the handle stays cool to the touch as you make your meal. Made of hard-anodized aluminum on a stainless steel base, this frying pan is also induction-friendly.
CR’s take: We tested the original Always Pan in early 2022 after it became a viral internet hit. At the time, it did well (but not great) in our nonstick frying pan tests. So when the Always Pan 2.0 came out, we were eager to see if it had improved. Sure enough, it did, earning a spot among our top-tier frying pans. While the company claims to have improved the nonstick coating (which consumers had complained wasn’t that durable) we didn’t find any differences between the original coating and that of the 2.0 pan in our cooking tests. Where we did see improvement was in the new stainless-steel handle, which made the pan ovenproof and able to transfer from stovetop to oven. (The original handle was made of aluminum.) The handle sturdiness score also rose from middling to excellent in our new tests. In our other tests—for cooking evenness, food release, and nonstick durability—the 2.0 pan scored the same as the original. According to the manufacturer, the Always Pan 2.0 can be used on an induction cooktop.
CR’s take: Oxo has made inroads into cookware and consistently scores well in our tests. This frying pan heats evenly, so your pancakes will come out nicely and fried eggs will slide out with just a gentle nudge. The handle is sturdy and doesn’t get hot when you’re cooking. The ceramic nonstick coating is made without PTFE and held up very well in our durability test. Another plus: It will work on an induction cooktop.
CR’s take: The nonstick cast-aluminum Swiss Diamond frying pan earns an excellent rating for cooking evenness, and our fried eggs didn’t stick. It also earns our top rating for durability, withstanding the punishment of our steel-wool abrasion test. Construction is sturdy, and the handle stays cool to the touch during cooking. You won’t be able to use it on your induction cooktop, however.
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