11 recipes to make in the Always Pan (2024)

Love it or hate it, the Instagram-famous Always Pan is here to stay. Some users argue its looks won’t last forever, but others swear it’s the perfect kitchen tool.

Since my initial testing in 2020, Our Place has updated the pan with a stronger, oven-safe, and more scratch-resistant material. The brand even released a Mini Always Pan for smaller servings.

I’ve used this pan for breakfast, lunch, and dinner—here are some ideas for Always Pan recipes that I’ve tried and found success with over the years.

What to cook for breakfast

1. Eggs

Regardless of your egg preferences, the Always Pan will deliver. Don’t get me wrong—I still adore my cast iron skillet and copper cookware for many kitchen tasks, but on hectic mornings, the Always Pan is the only pan I use for fluffy scrambled eggs or perfect fried eggs because clean-up is so easy.

This is an especially ideal task for the Mini Always Pan, which provides the perfect size for whipping up a few eggs.

$120 at Our Place

2. Pancakes

Compared to the other pans that I’ve used, this pan's smooth ceramic surface makes cooking pancakes a breeze. The Always Pan produced evenly cooked pancakes during our testing.

The pan comes with a beechwood spatula that can help you gently flip the pancakes. But if you're looking for more versatile tools, opt for Our Place's Utensil Essentials set.

If you're feeling extra ambitious, you may also want to give these jiggly Japanese pancakes a try.

$75 at Our Place

3. Frittata

We’ve talked about the flipping platter that can help make delightfully crunchy tahdig, but did you know it’s also great for frittata over the stovetop? Not only does frittata have an amazingly custardy and creamy texture, but it also helps you get more delicious vegetables into your diet.

$50 at Our Place

4. French toast

If you’re looking for a way to use stale bread, try your hand at French toast. The Always Pan is a convenient tool to make this dish, as its shape offers a wide and deep opening for pan-frying the toast to perfection.

What to cook for dinner

5. One-pan pasta

While I enjoy cooking, I sometimes struggle to put multiple dishes on the table on busy nights. One-pan meals are great for such occasions because they leave me less of a mess to clean up afterwards.

I like using the Always Pan for one-pan meals because it’s nonstick and heats up quickly, so I spend less time cooking and cleaning.

6. Steamed vegetables

Steaming as a cooking method has definitely grown in popularity lately. The stainless steel nesting steamer, included with the Always Pan, is a handy tool to steam or blanch vegetables quickly. The steamer has two metal handles on the sides to help you lift it when the cooking is complete.

7. Chili, stew, and soup

This spacious pan is useful for making small batches of soup, curry, or stew for two or three people.

The aluminum build is sensitive to fluctuation in temperature, which makes this pan desirable when cooking stews or soups that require regular temperature changes throughout cooking. Plus, the two spouts on opposite sides are thoughtfully designed to help pour liquids with ease.

Make sure you have plenty of serving bowls on hand for when friends inevitably start to gather around the table during soup season.

$50 at Our Place

8. Reheating leftovers

If you aren’t a huge fan of microwave cooking, you can use this pan to reheat leftovers or frozen dinners. Its aluminum construction conducts heat quickly, as I found out when I tested it. Plus, it heats evenly across the pan so you don’t have to worry about hot spots and uneven cooking.

9. Deep-fried eggrolls

On special occasions and holidays, I make fried eggrolls (spring rolls) from scratch. Since my homemade rolls are much softer than the frozen version, it’s difficult to cook them in the oven or in an air fryer.

The Always Pan is a great tool for deep frying, as the deep pot allows me to fry a large amount of food at once. And the Fry Deck attachment makes post-fry drying a breeze. I also appreciate the metal steamer, which can double as an oil strainer when I deep fry foods.

$30 at Our Place

10. Stir fry everything

Whether you’re making fried rice or throwing a bunch of vegetables together before they go bad, this pan is lightweight enough to meet most of your stir fry needs. It’s also deep and wide enough to accommodate a large amount of ingredients at once.

11. Steamed dumplings

As someone who keeps an emergency dumpling stockpile in the freezer, I can’t tell you how excited I was when I found out about the bamboo steamer attachment that fits snugly over the Always Pan.

When I moved to Boston, I struggled to find a quality bamboo steamer that would fit on top of my existing pots. Our Place’s spruce steamer is well-made and easy-to-clean—I’ve been using it over and over again with the Always Pan.

$30 at Our Place

Prices were accurate at the time this article was published but may change over time.