The Best Turkey Roasting Pans

We chose these five against six criteria, in this order. If you use the list and ignore our picks entirely, that is a fine outcome.

1. It has to fit the bird, and your oven. The pan should be about two inches longer and wider than the turkey so hot air can circulate; a bird wedged against the walls cooks unevenly on the sides that touch. Then measure the oven, because handles add length — a 16.8-inch pan can be nearly 21 inches across the handles, and domestic oven cavities are not as wide as people assume.

2. Depth is a trap. Three to three and a half inches is right. Deep-sided pans look more capable and cook worse: the walls shield the lower half of the bird from radiant heat and hold steam around it, so the legs go pale and the skin stays soft. Every pan on this page is between 3.25 and 3.5 inches deep, and that is not a coincidence.

3. Weight and handles decide whether you drop it. A 16-pound bird plus a pan plus half an inch of hot fat is a real load, carried in oven mitts at an awkward angle. Look for riveted handles wide enough to grip in mitts, and be suspicious of any pan that feels light for its size. Thin pans also warp, and a warped pan rocks on the burner.

4. The rack, and whether one is included. A rack lifts the bird out of its own drippings so the underside roasts instead of stewing, and — just as important — it gives you a way to lift a cooked turkey out in one piece. Pans sold without a rack are not disqualified, but you have to buy one, so count it in the price.

5. Material, which mostly decides the gravy. Clad stainless with an aluminum core browns well and can go on the stovetop, so the drippings become gravy in the same pan. Hard-anodized nonstick is the easiest to clean and builds the least fond. Enamel on steel is cheap, takes serious heat, and is oven-only. Foil is a one-day pan that needs support underneath.

6. Where it lives for the other 360 days. A roasting pan is one of the most awkward objects in any kitchen. If the honest answer is “nowhere,” a disposable pan or a roaster oven is a better purchase than a beautiful pan you resent.

What we deliberately did not weigh: brand prestige, mirror finish, and anything sold as part of a cookware set — a roaster bundled into a twelve-piece set was chosen by the set, not by you. Our full method is on how we pick.

Work from the bird, then check the oven. Plan on roughly one to one and a half pounds of raw turkey per guest, which is where the bird weights in the left column come from.

Then measure the oven, not the pan. Open it and measure the usable width between the rack supports and the depth from the door seal to the back wall. Subtract an inch on each side for air. That number, not the bird, is your real ceiling, and it is why people end up returning pans.

Above about 18 pounds we would rather cook two birds than one, for exactly the reasons set out in our guide to feeding 20 people: two 12-pound turkeys cook faster, fit ordinary pans, and give you twice as much skin.

A roasting pan is not the only way to get a turkey cooked, and for some kitchens it is not the best one.

A metal roasting pan is the default. It browns best, it lasts, and the good ones make gravy on the stovetop. The costs are money, storage, and the fact that it occupies your oven for four hours on the one day you need that oven for six other things.

A disposable foil pan is the right call if you have nowhere to store a pan, if you are cooking a second bird, or if you are roasting somewhere that is not your own kitchen. Put a baking sheet under it and it behaves.

An electric roaster oven solves a different problem: it cooks the bird somewhere other than your oven. If the thing you are dreading is juggling potatoes, stuffing and rolls around a turkey, that is worth more than any pan upgrade. It browns less well, which is why we suggest finishing the bird in a hot conventional oven — and that finishing step wants a shallow pan anyway. The full argument is in roaster oven vs oven, and the models are in the best electric roaster ovens.

A turkey fryer is a different dish rather than a different pan: 45 minutes instead of four hours, outdoors, with real fire risk to manage. We set out that trade honestly in turkey fryer vs oven.

If you have a budget for one thing, make it the rack rather than an upgrade from a cheap pan to an expensive one. Three things change when the bird sits on a rack instead of the pan floor:

• The underside roasts in hot air instead of stewing in an inch of liquid, so the skin underneath is edible.
• Drippings stay clear and usable rather than scorching under the bird where it touches hot metal.
• You can lift a finished turkey out in one movement, by the rack, without impaling it on carving forks.

If your pan came without one, a flat chrome wire rack sized to the pan is the cheap fix. A V-rack cradles the bird higher and is genuinely better for browning, but check that it fits your pan before buying — most are sized for 16-inch rectangular pans.

If you have nothing at all, the field fix is a bed of thick-cut onion, carrot and celery about an inch deep. It holds the bird off the floor of the pan, and the vegetables go into the gravy afterward. It is not as good as a rack. It is much better than nothing.

Set the oven rack position before the bird goes in. Lowest or second-lowest, so the top of the turkey sits roughly in the middle of the cavity. Moving a hot oven rack with a loaded pan on it is how people burn their forearms.

Do not fill the pan with liquid. Half an inch of stock or water is plenty to stop the drippings scorching. More than that and you are braising the bird and creating a scalding tray to carry.

Cook to temperature, never to time. Published food-safety guidance puts cooked poultry at 165F, measured in the thickest part of the breast and the inner thigh with the probe away from bone. Our probe placement guide covers exactly where.

Plan the exit before you open the door. Clear a landing space, put a trivet or folded towel on it, and pull the pan onto the oven door with one mitt while your other hand takes the far handle. Two people is not overkill for a 20-pound bird.

Rest the bird off the rack for 20 to 30 minutes, then carve. While it rests the pan is free for gravy, and anything already finished should be holding at 140F or above — that floor, and the methods that hit it, are in keeping food warm for a party.

Buying by pan size instead of oven size. The most common return in this category. Measure the cavity first, allow an inch of air on each side, and remember the handles.

Buying the deepest pan available. Depth reads as capacity and cooks like a steamer. Past about four inches the sides start shielding the bird from the heat you bought the oven for.

Carrying a loaded foil pan by its handles. Put a rimmed baking sheet underneath at the start and never touch the foil handles again.

Putting an enamel or nonstick pan on a burner. Enamel on thin steel is oven cookware, and direct flame is how it crazes and chips. Nonstick has a temperature ceiling — Calphalon rates this pan to 450F. If stovetop gravy matters to you, that is an argument for clad stainless, not a technique to improvise.

Skipping the rack to save money. The rack is the cheapest part of this purchase and does the most work. Cook the bird on the pan floor once and you will understand why.

Putting a chipped enamel roaster away wet. Chipped enamel exposes bare steel, and bare steel rusts. Dry it properly and it lasts decades.