Skillet Or Griddle: The Best Pan For Easy French Toast

Nothing beats starting the day with an indulgent, custardy slice of French toast bathed in maple syrup. But when it comes to cooking French toast, is it better to use a skillet or a griddle? To settle the debate, we spoke to celebrity chef and cookbook author Andrew Zimmern at the 2026 New York City Wine & Food Festival. 

The star of "What's Eating America" and "Bizarre Foods" had a clear winner: "Oh my God, griddle. So much easier to flip bread." While both tools are similar in function, they have considerable differences in design; as a skillet has higher sides and a handle, whereas a griddle has a flatter, larger surface area. As you can imagine, it's much more straightforward to slide a spatula underneath the toast when there isn't a rim in the way.

Along with effortless flippability, a griddle allows you to cook multiple slices of French toast at once, avoiding the age-old problem of the first piece getting cold while the last one finishes cooking. Searing too many slices of toast in a skillet at once isn't ideal because overcrowding the pan lowers its temperature, increasing the likelihood of ending up with soggy toast. You may be able to fit a couple of slices at a time, depending on the size of your skillet, but nowhere near as many as you can on a griddle.

There are many types of griddles, offering plenty of choices. Electric griddles have the advantage of allowing you to regulate temperature, making French toast (which can easily scorch over high heat) easier to cook. That said, stovetop griddles can be more convenient because they don't require any extra counter space.

For Zimmern, the key to making perfect French toast is having the right griddle for your kitchen. "There's now griddle tops for your outdoor grills. You have griddle tops that fit across multiple burners in your home, whether it's over electric burners or gas ones. So I would just make sure you get one that's the right size for you. And then once you have that, everything becomes pretty darn easy," Zimmern explained. As for brands, he doesn't have a favorite. "As long as it's a good cast iron and you've seasoned it well, you're not going to have any issues with anything," he shared.

While buying a griddle specifically for French toast isn't necessary, there are plenty of other uses for one, even if a skillet may seem like the more versatile tool that most of us probably already have at home. Turn your kitchen into a diner with pancakes galore, become a stir-fry master, or use a griddle to make the crispiest, thinnest smash burgers.