What to make in a sauté pan

In a sauté pan, a frying pan with higher sides, you make dishes that start with searing and then get sauce, stock or cream. Examples are paella, risotto, chili con carne, pasta finished in the sauce and shakshuka. You can also brown and roast meat in this pan; it's just not the most convenient for long braises. The material of your sauté pan matters once tomato or wine goes into the pan.

What to make in a sauté pan

Six dishes for the sauté pan, with recipes from our site

For most of the dishes below, you add so much rice, sauce or stock after searing that a regular frying pan quickly becomes too small. Each dish has a recipe on our site, listing the sauté pan among the required equipment.

Meatballs finished in tomato sauce

According to our recipe for Italian meatballs in tomato sauce you brown the meatballs all over first and then let them finish cooking in 800 grams of peeled tomatoes.

Paella and risotto: rice that absorbs the stock

Paella starts with chicken that browns to a golden color and is set aside briefly; vegetables, tomato and rice follow, and the rice cooks through in the stock. In our classic Spanish paella with chicken and prawns a 28 cm sauté pan and a lid are listed among the required items. For that recipe the Beka Hapjespan Cicla ø 28 cm is a good choice: it has that size and a glass lid.

With risotto the rice also cooks through in stock, only you add the stock little by little.

Six dishes for the sauté pan, with recipes from our site

And more

In a sauté pan you can finish pasta that you've cooked separately in the sauce. That's how our carbonara with seaweed tagliatelle ends.

Chili or curry for a large group

If you're cooking for a group, you can make a chili or curry for everyone in the sauté pan. Our Mexican chili con carne simmers gently with tomato and red wine.

Shakshuka: eggs that set in the sauce

Eggs can also cook without frying in a sauté pan: in shakshuka they cook in the sauce. In our shakshuka with eggplant and feta that's a sauce of chopped tomatoes, and the eggs set under the lid.

Chicken that goes into the oven after searing

After searing, our chicken thighs with eggplant go into the oven at 220 °C, and the recipe specifies using an oven dish. If your sauté pan itself can go that hot in the oven, you can leave the oven dish in the cupboard.

For oven use, the product pages of the sauté pans currently available list these limits:

Up to 250 °C: the three sauté pans from SCANPAN.
Up to 220 °C: the enameled cast-iron sauté pan.
Up to roughly 200 °C: the two from Beka and the two ceramic ones from De Buyer.
Oven-safe, but no temperature specified: the carbon-steel sauté pans from De Buyer.
Not oven-safe, or no info listed: the three from Sola.

So the 220 °C from the chicken recipe rules out the SCANPAN pans and the enameled cast-iron pan. The SCANPAN Hapjespan HaptIQ ø 28 cm can even go up to 250 °C, and the product page states the same limit for its lid.

Can every sauté pan handle tomato and wine?

No: carbon steel has an issue because the acid strips away the layer you built when seasoning it. That acid is present in many of our sauté pan recipes, including the meatballs, the paella, the chili and the shakshuka above.

You can use a carbon-steel sauté pan for dishes without acid, such as the carbonara above or a risotto without wine. If the bottom becomes lighter after a tomato sauce, you simply season it again.

A risotto with white wine and a tomato sauce are given as examples on the product page of the Berlinger Haus Hapjespan Mat Bordeaux ø 26 cm. Its interior is made of enamel, and according to that page it does not react to acid. At 26 cm it is, however, a size smaller than the pan used in the paella recipe.

You can also make dishes with tomato or wine in stainless steel, like the Cicla used for the paella, and in pans with a non-stick coating.

Can every sauté pan handle tomato and wine?

Can you also brown or roast meat in a sauté pan?

Yes: browning meat is the first step in the meatballs, the paella and the chicken thighs above. Anything you can fry in a frying pan you can also fry in a sauté pan. A sauté pan with a non-stick coating is most convenient for eggs and fish. For meat where you want a crust, a stainless steel or carbon-steel pan is more suitable.

You can stir-fry in it, although at home you won't get it as hot as in a restaurant in any pan. If you're considering a wok, you might first read about the difference between a wok and a sauté pan.

You can also roast meat in a sauté pan. Tough cuts that need to stew for hours are easier in a braising pan. A dish like our chili, which is ready after about half an hour of gentle simmering, is fine in a sauté pan.

Choose from the sauté pans in our webshop a pan that fits the dish you want to make in it.

Can you also brown or roast meat in a sauté pan?

Related products

Beka sauté pan with lid Maestro Alu Ø 28 cm – ceramic non-stick coating

In stock

4.5 (2)

€129,-

de Buyer Sauté Pan / Sauteuse Ceranoa - ø 24cm / 3.3 liter - ceramic non-stick coating

In stock

~~€119,95~~ €99,99

-16%

De Buyer sauté pan - Sauteuse - with 2 handles - Mineral B - ø 32 cm / 5.5 liters - without non-stick coating

De Buyer sauté pan - Sauteuse - Mineral B - ø 32 cm / 5.5 liter - without non-stick coating

Sola Sauté Pan / Sauté Pan with Lid Ceramic Deluxe ø 28 cm - Ceramic Non-Stick Coating

In stock

4.8 (5)

€86,99

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Sauté Pan

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Ceramic Sauté Pan

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