The Best Casserole Dishes of 2021

Traditional styling, ease of use, and versatility make the Le Creuset one of our top choices. Although you can't loop your hands into the handles, they're large, angled out and textured so you can hold them securely.

The 4-quart dish is deep enough to accommodate close to 5 quarts and is broiler-safe, so you get a melty layer of cheese on top of an eggplant parmesan recipe. When it comes to color, you have more choices than for any other open baker.

The Le Creuset is available in 11 different shades including several neutrals, red, lots of blues, and the brand's signature flame.

Staub Rectangular Oven Dish is the only dish we tested that can be run under the broiler on a high setting, making it a great choice if you love to get the top of your mac and cheese extra brown and crunchy or caramelize sugar on top of an overnight French toast casserole. While you can't fit your fingers into the holes in the handles, you can still get a very firm grip.

The volume of this dish is 4 ½ quarts, more than enough for a holiday-size sweet potato casserole. To satisfy different tastes and color schemes, the Staub comes in red, turquoise, black, ivory, and white.

Mrs. Anderson's Baking Lasagna Pan is smaller in dimensions and capacity than the other ceramic dishes we tested. While it easily accommodated our lasagna recipe with three layers of noodles, you won't be able to pack in any extra layers. Because of its smaller size, it's lighter in weight, which, combined with very easy to grasp handles, makes this dish exceptionally easy to maneuver in and out of the oven.

This dish can take temperatures up to 500°F so if the blueberries in your cobbler are bubbling before the top is well browned, you can run the dish under the broiler to finish it off.

Under the Mrs. Anderson's name, it only comes with a red exterior with a white interior, but it is also sold as the HIC Kitchen Lasagna Pan (available at Amazon) which is white inside and out.

If you're looking for a baking dish that you can also use for shortbread and pecan bars, consider the OXO Glass Baking Dish with Lid. It measures 13-by-9-by-2 ¼-inches. The OXO has plenty of room for a peach cobbler and lasagna, but isn't deep enough for stuffed peppers or a Tex-Mex casserole with a cornbread topping.

This dish is made of borosilicate glass which is less likely to shatter than tempered soda lime glass. However, there are still occasional reports of it breaking in the oven. Be sure to follow OXO's recommendations, which include preheating your oven and not using it above 450°F or placing it in the oven directly from the freezer.

The glass handles are ample enough to give a good grip even with a bulky pot-holder. The casserole dish also has a plastic storage lid to use for storing made-ahead or leftover casseroles or carrying baked goods to a party.

Rachael Ray Copenhagen Cozy is attractive, practical, and reasonably priced. At 9-by-13 inches, it's big enough to hold more than 5 quarts, which is perfect for a deep-dish chicken pot pie or a moussaka with a thick layer of creamy sauce on top.

Even while wearing oven mitts, you can wrap your hands around the handles so when it's fully loaded, you get a good grasp. If you want to melt extra cheese on your enchiladas at the end of cooking, you can run the Rachael Ray under the broiler on the lowest setting.

We only have a few quibbles with this casserole. From end to end, it's longer than most baking dishes so will take up more space in a cabinet. And it's only available in a trendy shade of gray called sea salt.

If you want to use up a whole box of lasagna in one batch, the Emile Henry Modern Classics Rectangular Baker is your best bet. With a capacity of 20 cups, it's among the deepest casserole dishes that we tested. However, because the handles are small and angle upwards, they're hard to grasp securely. And when it's fully loaded, the Emile is heavy, so you need to be very careful when you're transferring it to and from the oven.

This is a very good-looking casserole dish and comes in bright primary colors as well as all white. As it can safely go under the broiler on the low setting, it can be used to slow cook a chicken recipe and then after it's meltingly tender, brown and crisp it on top.

With its clean design and moderate price, this baker will appeal to just about anyone. However, it has a serious flaw: It has no handles, so even though it's lighter than other casserole dishes, it feels heavier. You have to be extra careful, especially when you're taking a hot and bubbling dish like an apple crisp from the oven to the table.

It has a volume of more than 4 quarts which gives you plenty of room to layer in lasagna noodles or pile in sliced peaches.