Best electric skillet overall
James Brains/Insider
Zojirushi Gourmet d’Expert Electric Skillet comes with two pans and a steamer, has a user-friendly design, and did the best job of heating evenly in our tests.
Pros: Heats evenly, comes with two pans and a steamer, user-friendly controls, easy to clean, a long cord that detaches easily for safety, produces delicious and evenly-cooked fried chicken, burgers, and pancakes
Cons: Small cooking surface
Several features set the Zojirushi Gourmet d’Expert Electric Skillet (model EP-RAC50) apart from other skillets we tested. It comes with two pans: a deeper pan for soup-type foods, including hot pots, and a flatter plate for frying and grilling. The set also includes a tempered glass lid and vented steamer.
The setup was intuitive and took about five minutes. The skillet has a long cord that detaches when something pulls on it, which is a great safety feature. And, the Gourmet d’Expert has user-friendly controls. You simply move the slider on the face of the unit to the temperature you want. In contrast, the other models we tested relied on poorly-placed dials.
I was impressed with the even heating of the Zojirushi. While the other models were hotter around the heating element — exhibiting a telltale dark ring in our flour test — the heating element location wasn’t as evident with the Gourmet d’Expert as the flour darkened more evenly.
The Zojirushi skillet did a good job of cooking fried chicken, burgers, and pancakes. While it was the slowest to heat oil, it was the fastest to cook the fried chicken in only 25 minutes. The meat was juicy and the skin was as evenly cooked and tasty as it gets. Plus, the skillet produced a great sear on the burgers, and the pancakes cooked evenly and quickly.
Cleanup was a snap. While the pan isn’t dishwasher safe, you can remove it from the base to wash it by hand, and grime slid right off thanks to the nonstick coating.
The biggest negative with the Gourmet d’Expert is it’s the smallest model we tested. It fit the fewest burgers, pancakes, and chicken thighs.
