
The Most Important Pan In Your Kitchen
A saute pan is a kitchen workhorse you’ll use for everything from searing meat to making sauces. Its versatile design—featuring straight sides and a wide, flat base—makes it ideal for browning, frying, and simmering. But with so many materials, sizes, and features available, finding the right sauté pan can feel overwhelming.
Start by thinking about how you cook. Do you need a pan that heats quickly for fast weeknight meals? Or do you want something heavy-duty that retains heat for slow-cooked dishes? The right choice depends on your cooking style and the types of dishes you prepare most often.
Materials matter, too. Stainless steel pans are durable and nonreactive, perfect for deglazing and making pan sauces. Nonstick options are great for delicate foods like eggs or fish. Cast iron excels at retaining heat, making it ideal for browning or frying. Some pans even come with oven-safe handles, allowing you to finish a dish in the oven.
In this post, you’ll learn what to look for when choosing a sauté pan, from materials and sizes to handle design and lids. By the end, you’ll know how to pick a pan that suits your needs and helps you create delicious, evenly cooked meals every time.
What is a sauté pan?
A sauté pan is a versatile piece of cookware designed for tasks that require precise heat control and enough space to cook evenly. It features straight sides, a wide, flat base, and a long handle. Often, sauté pans come with a lid, which makes them perfect for browning, simmering, or cooking foods in liquid.
Unlike a frying pan with flared, sloping sides, a sauté pan’s straight sides provide more surface area and prevent liquids from spilling over. This design works well for braising or making pan sauces because it holds liquids more effectively. The flat base ensures even heat distribution, making it ideal for searing or browning.
While frying pans excel at quick, high-heat cooking, such as flipping pancakes or stir-frying, sauté pans give you more control over techniques like reducing sauces or cooking in stages. The lid is another key difference. A sauté pan traps heat and moisture, allowing you to simmer or steam foods easily—something a frying pan rarely does as efficiently.
In short, a sauté pan is your go-to for versatile cooking, combining the functionality of a frying pan with the ability to handle sauces and liquids seamlessly.
Learn How To Sauté
What are important features of a good sauté pan?
Design
The saute pan has a wide, flat bottom, so there is enough room for the ingredients without crowding them. You want the ingredients to brown quickly without burning or steaming. For example, if you are sautéing chicken breasts, if the pan is too crowded, the breasts will steam rather than brown, and the end result will be soggy.
Another advantage of a flat bottom is when making the pan “jump” on the burner. A flat bottom is a lot easier to slide back and forth than a curved pan.
Most importantly, a flat bottom provides even heat distribution. When cooking a couple of flounder filets, you want the pan’s heat to be uniformly distributed throughout the entire bottom; otherwise, you’ll end up with unevenly cooked food.
The sides of a sauté pan are straight and also low when compared to a sauce pan. The straight sides help when making a pan sauce by keeping the liquids from spilling over the sides. They also help keep the food in the pan when making it “jump.”
(I’ve got to tell you, I don’t do much pan jumping when I’m sautéing. I’m just trying not to overcook the food but I do appreciate the straight sides when I’m stirring during reduction.)
The low sides help circulate air which helps prevent the food from getting soggy and keep the overall weight of the pan down so you can move it around a bit.
12 Responses
Very helpful information. Thank you.!
You are very welcome Kat.
Thanks for all this info! I was previously looking at a Le Creuset steel shallow casserole, which seemed to do it all: sautéeing, stir-frying and being good for the oven. But its big, bowl-shaped design and small ‘ear’ handles would make it a nightmare to agitate, something I hadn’t considered. If your cookware doesn’t allow you to develop useful skills I guess there’s no point in buying it, especially when we’re talking a premium brand.
I would really like to find a heavy gauge (4 mm) 7″ aluminium vertical sided sauté pan in the UK. They sell them in the US for around $9. I use them at work and they’re ideal for one / two person portions.
Gary
Anybody have any suggestions for Gary?
A bit late n the day but you should look at Nisbetts catering website where they have a huge range of fry and sauté pans in non stick and bare metal.
what kind of pan is best for making spaghetti meat sauce…a 4 qt saute pan or a sauce pan?
I think it depends on how much you are preparing but I typically use a large sauce pan or even stock pot if I’m preparing a lot.
Hey, great website, lots of useful information. I will be cooking for two people mostly, I was wondering whether I should go with a 3 quart or a 5 quart pan. Using the pan mostly for meats and reduction sauces. Thanks!
For two people, I think you can get away with a 3 quart saute pan but what if you are having friends over and need to cook for 4 or 6 people? If you are looking for an everyday cooking pan for pan frys and pan sauces and think the 3 quart is too small and the 5 quart is too big, why not try a 4 quart? Also, I would go to a cookware store or a department store that has a cookware section and put the pans in your hands to figure out which is right for you.
I just love to cook in stainless steel cookware.
Yes! I love my all clad copper core. So far, I’ve 3 qt saute pan, 5.5 qt dutch oven and 3 qt saucepan. I may add a 2/3 qt saucepan in the near future. I threw away all my old kitchenwares.