Cast Iron Griddle {REVIEW}

When you spend as much time in the kitchen as I do, there are certain items that practically never get put away:

• my favorite knife
• my wooden cutting board
• certain pots
• my cast iron pan
• my cast iron griddle

That last item is a bit more new to me, one of those things I had on my “maybe I want to try one of these things” list for quite some time before I ordered one. Now I use it multiple times almost every day!

Related: Recipes For A Cast Iron Skillet

How Do You Use a Cast Iron Griddle?

I’m telling you, this thing is so versatile. I love it.

When I started making a list of all the ways we use the griddle, it just kept going and going. Because it can be used both on the stovetop and in the oven, it’s a workhorse for sure:

• Fried eggs all the time!
• Homemade tortillas – Fitting 2-3 at a time is key!
• Pancakes
• These are my grain free coconut pancake
• Biscuits
• Gluten-free flatbread
• Homemade pizza
• Fried potatoes
• Baked potatoes (which I don’t wrap in aluminum foil)
• Veggies for dinner if my cast iron skillet is already in use
  • The pic is from one of our company meals, and I was able to keep the sauteed veggies warm in the oven easily with the griddle. So convenient! To saute/steam vegetables, I’ll put a large metal lid on top to keep in the heat.

• Salmon patties
• Chickpea wraps, and just about anything else that you might need to flip over while cooking!

Other people ask about my cast iron griddle all the time! Take a look.

How the Cast Iron Griddle Works

The cast iron griddle goes across two burners and really can cook across the entire surface once it’s warmed up. It’s not going to be exactly even – there’s always more heat directly over the burners – but the middle area is far from a dead zone. (I used to use a non-stick electric griddle, and that had its warmer and cooler areas as well, just so you know!)

I store it in the oven when I actually need my burners for something else, but most of the time it just lives on the stovetop, ready for any quick meal. The reversible aspect is pretty cool, and I’ve used the “grid” side a few times to make cool grill marks on meat. However, the grooves were a bit of a pain to clean, so I default to the flat side, which is clean with a quick swipe of my rag.

The seasoned surface, unlike my other cast iron pan, is perfectly slick all the time. I don’t ever run water over it, partly because it’s huge and very heavy and would be difficult to get in the sink, but mostly because it doesn’t need it. I scrape any problem spots with a metal spatula, wipe with a cloth and trust that my 2-5 minute preheat will kill any germs the next time I use it. This streamlines my cleanup so much!!! (You know how I hate dishes…)

The griddle offers me a large surface for big batch cooking (all of mine seems to be that way nowadays; I can’t even imagine how long it would take to make pancakes in a round skillet!) and also keeps things warm a long time out of the oven when I use it to bake. It makes the most delectable crispy bottoms on biscuits, rolls, and this gluten-free flatbread recipe is even better on cast iron than my previous favorite stoneware.

Have you ever made Chicago-style pizza? My cousin taught me how, and it begins with cooking the crust 3 minutes on the stove top in cast iron pans. With this griddle, obviously I can’t pile up deep dish toppings like true Chicago pizza, but for our regular pizza nights, I’ve started using the griddle and starting on the stovetop for a few minutes, then moving to the oven to bake.

GoodNESS hold onto your taste buds when you try this! The crispy crust is the best I’ve ever had.

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