So like a griddle maybe?
April 5, 2018 6:58 AM   Subscribe

My family is now big enough that I generally have to cook for five, and I frequently cook for 8 or 12 (now that I have returned to the McGee homeland and have many, many nearby relatives). I have a lot of recipes that involve doing meat (for example) in a skillet. I'm at the maximum skillet size my stovetop can accommodate (about 12"), and I can fit four chicken breasts. I need to fit five! What's my solution?

Replacing the stove is not an option. I'm working with a four-burner gas stovetop. Sometimes I can fit two skillets (depends on what else I'm making). I already cook in batches sometimes but sometimes it doesn't really work for the recipe. What products or techniques do people use to get around this limitation? Links to specific products totally appreciated if you have something you love.
posted by Eyebrows McGee to Food & Drink (36 answers total) 4 users marked this as a favorite
 
My dad uses one of those countertop plugin skillets to solve this. Like this one. As a bonus it frees up space on his stovetop. Cleanup is easy.

He has plenty of counter space, though.
posted by notyou at 7:05 AM on April 5, 2018 [10 favorites]


What Notyou said. Many of the B&Bs I've stayed at has one or two of these going in order to feed guests a never-ending supply of pancakes, bacon, etc.
posted by HeyAllie at 7:07 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


I have a great big Black & Decker electric skillet that works really well for these sorts of things. It's also awesome for making pancakes for a big crowd without having to eat in shifts.
posted by xingcat at 7:07 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


A sauté pan has straight sides and therefore more surface area on the bottom then a skillet. My nominally 12” All-Clad sauté pan is also larger in diameter even at the rim than my nominally 12” nonstick skillet.

If the recipe doesn’t require a pan with sides, consider a propane grill. We use ours all year.
posted by jon1270 at 7:11 AM on April 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


I have used this griddle for tortillas and pancakes. It goes over two burners of the stove.

My preference for this kind of thing (especially anything in quantity, like griddle scones) is an electric griddle, though.
posted by blnkfrnk at 7:13 AM on April 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


I have an extra electric burner. I bought it to be able to keep my aluminum soup pots when I changed to induction, but it's useful for a number of things, including keeping things hot or gently simmering when I am doing other stuff, and I can put it on the dining table to keep it off my countertop. (I don't have an instant pot or a slow cooker).
Also, like jon1270, I can do most stuff in my sauté pan. I love that pan.
posted by mumimor at 7:14 AM on April 5, 2018


My mother also uses an electric skillet for things like this. It typically comes out on Christmas morning for the big pancake breakfast.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 7:19 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


Have you thought about changing up your cooking methods for those extra large meals? For example, if you're doing something like seared pork chops in a skillet you could throw them in a low oven (275 or so) on a sheet pan until they're almost done. Then, you can either finish them under the broiler or do the sear in the pan on the stovetop. The benefit here is that all the pieces get cooked to the same level of doneness and you'd only need a minute or so per side to get the sear in the pan so you can crank through them quickly and the last ones in won't get cold.
posted by backseatpilot at 7:24 AM on April 5, 2018 [6 favorites]


Yes - I grew up in a family of seven and my mom used her electric skillet almost daily.
posted by Kriesa at 7:25 AM on April 5, 2018


Something like this may also be useful.

But, something a little lower-tech, or at least cheaper: Are you using your oven? Because you could do batches and keep everything warm in a warm oven. I've also adapted recipes for the oven, or just switched to doing things like roasts, braises or casseroles that can be done in the oven.
posted by General Malaise at 7:25 AM on April 5, 2018


I highly recommend switching to cooking them breasts in the oven (at high heat, turning halfway, covered if you find them getting dry). Like, there are excellent suggestions on here for griddles and things, and sure, that's all great, but what I'm hearing from you is that cooking for a large group is becoming the norm for you and that makes me say, fuck it, throw in the towel, it's likely the stove doesn't fit your lifestyle very much. It's okay. Your stove can still do a fry up in a giant wok or boil a pot of sauce and pasta. But stoves don't scale well for some things and this is exactly why God made ovens.
posted by MiraK at 7:29 AM on April 5, 2018 [5 favorites]


There are a few things you can do. . .

One is to get yourself a portable induction burner, if you have induction-compatible cookware and/or are comfortable acquiring some. These can be put just about anywhere and can be useful in expanding your "stovetop cooking space."

Another thing you could do is acquire a larger diameter high-quality saute pan (i.e., a pan with low straight sides) with a large thermal pad on the bottom. The large thermal pad (e.g., a line such as Paderno Grand Gourmet Series 1100 with its 7mm aluminum bottom) will spread the heat around and also accumulate thermal energy to help compensate for a lack of brute-force power in your stovetop.

Another option is to get a circulator (I recommend a Joule) and embrace sous vide cooking. Sous vide chicken breast, for example, is so much better than that produced by any other technique that I have a hard time imagining doing it any other way. Especially useful for larger groups.
posted by slkinsey at 7:33 AM on April 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


Whenever I have large groups over, I use the 18'x14' Baking Steel Griddle. I can have eight burgers going at once on it. They have several sizes and it's a very versatile piece of kitchen equipment. It's also very heavy and you will lose a toe if you're not careful.
posted by AaRdVarK at 7:37 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Haha, yes there is probably a rational reason for casseroles.
When my grandmother was making hamburgers, she'd just sear them very quickly on high heat on the pan in batches, and then transfer them to the oven where they would lie on a big bed of caramelized onions. SHe'd keep some count of them so if you liked them less than rare (her preferred mode), you could get your's from the first batch, which was still medium rare. Well done wasn't an option.
posted by mumimor at 7:38 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Response by poster: I do use the oven for some things, but other recipes don't swap to the oven well. (I also do use a saute pan sometimes, which helps.)
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:41 AM on April 5, 2018


I asked this question back in 2012 and I ended up buying the Broil King. We've been very happy with it since, though I'm not sure I've ever cooked meat on it as we're only a family of 3. Works great for everything else though so I'm sure it would do meat just fine.
posted by bondcliff at 7:41 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


Yeah, either change up your cooking method to use the oven more often or get yourself an electric skillet. I have one that I use every Christmas and New Year's Day for brunches. It's AMAZING because I can fit SO MANY French Toasts on it at once. Makes my life so much easier.

I've also used a cast iron griddle pan on my cooktop but it's more fiddly because the burners are never going to be at the same temperature (gas cooktop) so I have to be careful about watching everything. But that's an option, too.
posted by cooker girl at 7:42 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


My best techniques for bulk cooking:

Reversible electric griddle grill
Sheet pan recipes, doubled or tripled
Advanced sheet pan meal prep like these breakfast sandwiches (I make a version of this every Sunday including sheet-sized thin loaves of keto bread, for the week. Making everything, baking in two shifts, and assembly takes a little under an hour.).
Instant Pot
Rice cooker (cooks so much more than rice)
Batches of sides prepared in advance

To some extent, unless you want to use two skillets at a time (which obviously you can) you may have to sacrifice the exact recipes you could easily use before. Almost everything can be translated to oven-cooking, and if you want a sear you can use the pan before or after to do that in two batches, along with pre-heating your oven dish.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:00 AM on April 5, 2018 [3 favorites]


The longer baking steel griddle to cover multiple burners at the same time. I have the “mini” and it’s AWESOME:

https://shop.bakingsteel.com/collections/griddles
posted by alchemist at 8:05 AM on April 5, 2018


Depending on your oven and the recipes, using the broiler will get you closer to skillet-like cooking than using the oven like normal. Imagine it as a grill but upside-down. Adjust the rack so the meat is close to the broiler and then preheat the pan so when you add the meat it gets a little heat from below but is mostly cooked via the broiler. This of course works better if the meat is thinner, so for chicken breasts you can get good at butterflying them, for pork chops you can get them thin-cut. If you're doing fish, broiling is almost ideal. It'll take some getting used to and some practice, since broilers are finicky, but worth it.
posted by Mizu at 8:14 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


Response by poster: Right, I totally know how to use my oven and broiler. But I have some recipes that need to be done in a stovetop situation and won't work in the oven, often involving multiple steps and pan sauces. Sometimes I can do these in the oven and then bring the oven dish to a burner to make a pan sauce, sometimes that won't work. While I realize I could just give them up, some of them are family favorites and I'd rather not. So I need options for skillet stovetop cooking larger quantities, not ways to use my oven for meat.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 8:18 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


The point of my grandmother's method (searing on stove top and then oven-ing) was that she still had the pan juices from the searing part. I know she used some home-made stock to supplement those juices with. I'd imagine that drying out would be a huge problem with chicken breast, and I think my gran would put them in a pan in the oven after searing with some of her chicken stock to avoid that, then pour the stock into the sauce-making pan on the stovetop just before serving. She was very secretive about her cooking so I only got glimpses of it.
As mentioned above, my own solution is an extra burner. I have a griddle too, but it doesn't work for this purpose at all, because you can't really collect the juices.
BTW, here, it is easy to buy meat jelly. I really stunned my grandmother by using store bought meat jelly for pan gravy rather than homemade frozen stock. If you can get it, it makes a huge difference, the gelatin delivers a lot of sticky loveliness to any pan sauce. But I wouldn't use it for chicken.
posted by mumimor at 8:40 AM on April 5, 2018


In that case an induction burner, or maybe two, is probably your best bet since you get the most flexibility for the space around the pan. If it's a residential stove, you're probably not going to get great results with a large commercial cooking vessel (with high enough sides to replicate skillet recipes that have liquid in the pan) or wok meant to sit on top of a grated gas top or flattop, there's just not enough BTUs.

So yes, you probably could find a 16 or 18" skillet* but getting and keeping it hot enough is a big deal at that size/surface area, and will be unsteady and probably a little underpowered on an induction burner too, which is where the 16-20" electric skillets come in, but they're all nonstick which may undo the primary requirements of your recipes as far as browning.

*These are generally meant for specialized dishes. Not even caterers use them on the regular, they just cook in multiple pans, because weird stuff starts happening in large skillets w/r/t moisture even if you have the BTUs, and you end up with everything boiled instead of skilletted.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:48 AM on April 5, 2018 [5 favorites]


oh and BTW, I have given up on a lot of those old family recipes that seem made for a gigantic wood fired stove. But there is one my family won't let go of, and that is pan-fried whole flounder. If we are more than two, the flounders will take up the whole stove. So what I do is bring the *new* potatoes to a boil some time before I normally would, cook them for 5 minutes with a lid on them, and on the lid, I melt butter in a bowl. When it's time for frying the fish, I take off the potato pot to the countertop but leave on the lid and butter-bowl.
When the fish are ready, I put them on a heated dish, drain the potatoes and put them in another heated dish, and then combine the pan juices from all the pans in one, add the melted butter and a lot of chopped parsley and cook for a minute. Then I pour the sauce over the fish and serve it all.
I think the principles of this approach can be adapted for other recipes.
posted by mumimor at 8:54 AM on April 5, 2018


Electric skillet is basically the answer to this. We primarily use ours for French Toast every Sunday, because you can fit 6 slices at once. It's also useful for cooking a 2 lb bag of kale in one go (it cooks down so much!). I think it would handle your chicken situation fine as well.
posted by telepanda at 9:08 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


You've probably already thought of this, but it took me a shameful amount of time to figure this out. Two large skillets fit better if they are both on the front burners on my stove. Pan sauces mean I can't readily use my griddle. That often means I have to cook sides in the Instant Pot, but such is life. I have a portable induction burner if I'm desperate for another burner, but it's more a toy I use when cooking outside.
posted by advicepig at 9:24 AM on April 5, 2018 [2 favorites]


If you have the outdoor space: I got this propane griddle about a year and a half ago and... it's kind of my favorite thing. I don't use it every day, or every week, but when I do, it's incredible.

Large batch of pancakes for four hungry adults in one go, or a monster batch for eight in two. Smashed burgers as good as Shake Shack. Searing the hell out of stew meat -- without unplugging the smoke detectors! -- better than the stove can do. (Scrape up the bits left on the griddle and it's as good as pan fond. Haven't tried deglaze-and-scoop, but there is a drip tray.) Live your at-home teppanyaki dreams. Normal cookware works just fine on it too, if a bit slow to heat up through conduction.

The family gatherings of 8-12 would be perfect for it. It's not the most portable thing in the world, but it's better than a gas grill. Fits in our Fit with space left for a marine-size cooler and two adults.

Downside: badly needs a rigid cover. I had a homemade coroplast one for a while but the company just (?) put a metal one out and it literally arrived to my home this morning.

If you already have a gas grill (I don't) they might make griddle plates for it, essentially accomplishing the same thing.
posted by supercres at 9:30 AM on April 5, 2018 [4 favorites]


Oh the advantage over countertop electric skillets is that those just don't get hot enough, especially if you're used to a gas range. And you can't use metal utensils. Fine for pancakes or flattop-style omelets, not great for searing. This is a carbon steel surface, like a traditional wok (but heavier) or, duh, carbon steel pans.

Needs some upkeep, but mine hasn't corroded in the slightest. Just season it like you would a wok. Dish soap is fine. I often clean it with all-purpose cleaner like my countertops, then rinse with a garden hose, then heat it up to dry in a snap.
posted by supercres at 9:37 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


Cuisinart makes a beautiful 12" X 15" electric skillet, but the reviews are brutal ("too noisy"?!).
posted by jamjam at 9:45 AM on April 5, 2018


We have this electric griddle and love it! No sides though so it would only work for certain types of recipes. But, it's cheap enough that it might still be worth it for those recipes it's good for. We've had it maybe 4 years and it is still going strong, which I find pretty impressive for the price!
posted by rainbowbrite at 10:00 AM on April 5, 2018


A portable induction burner is the answer. It has a super wide heat range (wider than an electric skillet) and allows you to use any cookware you choose, so long as it’s induction-compatible.
posted by HotToddy at 10:36 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


We have a stovetop griddle that's about 12 inches square. I like it but I do not love it. Turns out even over a single burner the difference between the hot spot and the cold spot is big enough that I have to do a lot of shuffling to get everything to cook evenly (our burner is hottest between 9 and 11 and coolest from 2 to 5, and there are lobes all around the circle). I'm wary of any stovetop griddle that spans burners, because I imagine that would only increase the difficulties of managing the hot and cold spots.

If you can find an electric griddle that gets hot enough for a good sear, that's probably your best bet.
posted by fedward at 10:47 AM on April 5, 2018


Any chance of modifying the recipe to use chicken breasts cut up into chunks rather than whole chicken breasts?
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 10:47 AM on April 5, 2018 [1 favorite]


My solution has been to just use a griddle that spans two burners. It's something like this, but not sure if that's the exact one as I got it years ago. Mine has one side that's flat, and then another side with a raised grill. It's true that the part not directly over a burner doesn't get quite as hot, but I've used it to batch cook chicken breasts before, and found it totally adequate for the task.
posted by litera scripta manet at 11:08 AM on April 5, 2018


I agree with supercres, if you have the space then an outdoor griddle OR if you have a Weber BBQ grill then get the griddle plate for it. In the Australian market the griddle is included in the original kit. But you do not even need a griddle if you are heating pans, which a grill will do handily and can be made into an outdoor oven, too. I use my outdoor BBQ all the time for everyday roasting, keeping stuff warm, sauté ingredients and all that.
posted by jadepearl at 1:41 PM on April 5, 2018


If you already have a wok, give it a try. They hold a lot of food. I have used a cast iron skillet with higher side, which makes it easier to cook larger batches. Many recipes can be converted to a Dutch oven.
posted by theora55 at 6:41 AM on April 6, 2018


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