Nordic Ware 2-Burner Review

The Nordic Ware 2-Burner Griddle is a low-profile, lightweight griddle pan made from formed aluminum and coated with non-toxic, durable, ceramic non-stick. It's incredibly easy to clean, and can accommodate a wide range of foods and cooking techniques. It's especially great for camp cooking — it's easy to store and bring along for adventures. It's equally at home in your regular kitchen rotation. We found its durability and versatility to have especially high value considering the low price. You can have long-lasting quality in this griddle pan for less than a diner breakfast for two.

Non-Stick Properties

If you're not careful, your eggs and pancakes will slip right off of the Nordic Ware 2-Burner, even with very little or no added oil. For most moderate-temperature cooking, we flipped, fried, and scrambled with no issues and absolutely no residue left behind. Same goes for when you use this griddle pan as a baking sheet: cookies essentially slide off, and cook with a perfect, crispy, caramelized bottom. We've cooked on this griddle pan consistently for a couple of years now, and the non-stick coating works as well as the day we started using it.

Like many other ceramic-coated griddles in the lineup, you can expect the Nordic Ware 2-Burner Griddle to stain a bit with very high heat cooking or if items burn. We appreciate that this griddle is made from ceramic, an effective, non-toxic alternative to forever chemicals like PFAS and PFOAs. Ceramic needs to heat up more slowly for the best cooking results, and generally isn't a great choice for high-heat cooking or broiling. While it can be used with metal utensils, softer, rubber or silicone spatulas are ideal for preserving the surface. We'd also recommend taking the time to hand-wash it rather than using the dishwasher to increase its longevity.

Heat Distribution

As a simple griddle pan with no electric heating element, the Nordic Ware griddle takes on the heat of whatever it's placed upon. It's relatively thin in its construction, so heat easily travels through the griddle. As long as the heat source is consistent across the bottom, this griddle has decent (although not outstanding) heat distribution.

We found the Nordic Ware Griddle a bit too small to effectively span two burners on most home kitchen stoves. Generally, the best tactic is to place the pan either over a consistent heat source that spans across the entire bottom, over just a single burner, or in the oven. It also works effectively when placing it on an outdoor grill (like for roasted veggies) or even over an open fire for camp cooking.

Grease Management

Grease management isn't a strong point for this style of pan. It has very shallow sides that can easily overflow with excess grease or drippings. We learned this the hard way, trying to roast chicken thighs, and then had a tough time draining it while hot with the small, hard-to-grip handles.

On the upside, the shallow sides do make the Nordic Ware exceptionally easy to drain and to clean. As long as you stick to cooking foods with minimal grease or drippings, this pan works just fine. This isn't a great go-to for cooking massive amounts of bacon or sausage, and it won't work for braising or cooking with added liquid. We still like the incredibly simple design, but you'll want to keep its limitations in mind.

Cooking Versatility

While upon first glance, the Nordic Ware is quite unassuming, it's up for a variety of cooking tasks and in a wide range of environments. At just two pounds, it's also one of the lightest griddle pans on the market, which makes it packable for car camping, river trips, and backcountry hut cooking. We enjoyed using it as a baking sheet in a pinch, and ultimately, we would be able to slim down our pan cabinet with the addition of this high-value griddle pan.

The biggest downfall of Nordic Ware's versatility is its shallow sides. We tried to oven-roast a glazed pork tenderloin in it, and had to deal with precariously balancing it out of the oven for fear the drippings would overflow and cause a grease fire. As noted, this can also be an issue with a large batch of particularly greasy bacon. The low-profile handles are also challenging to grip, adding to this predicament. We were able to overlook these downsides and were just a bit more careful about when and for which foods we used this griddle pan.

Cleanup

The Nordic Ware 2-Burner Griddle nabbed the highest honors when it comes to easy cleanup. It has just about every factor working in its favor for superior cleaning. The entire griddle is easy to clean off, with no spaces where grime could accumulate. Since this griddle has effective non-stick and very shallow sides, it's so easy to clean. It consistently had the fastest cleanup time of every griddle in the lineup. This gives it even higher utility for camp cooking, when you don't want to spend any extra time on cleaning.

The only slight downside (which isn't much of one) of this griddle is that the bottom, which is uncoated, can tarnish and blacken easily over an open flame or high heat source. Ultimately, we thought this just gave the griddle a more distinguished and rustic look as a well-loved piece of cookware. The ceramic non-stick surface can also be stained by high-heat cooking.

Should You Buy the Nordic Ware 2-burner Griddle?

With the highly affordable price tag, durable construction, and range of use, there's little reason not to add the Nordic Ware 2-burner Griddle Pan to your kitchen arsenal. It's also very compact, lightweight, and easy to store. From our testing, it also proved durable for years of use.

What Other Griddles Should You Consider?