Nearly everyone has faced the predicament of needing to put more than one dish in the at the same time when cooking a big meal such as a holiday dinner, party, or family meal. It’s not always easy, but it can be done.
You can cook more than one thing in the oven at one time, but you may have to make adjustments to the oven temperature, and you’ll have to watch the cooking time for each dish carefully. In general, all dishes in the oven together will take a little longer than usual to cook.
Although a few lucky folks have a double-oven range or more than one oven to use, most people have to make do with just one. But since that single oven has two racks, why not make use of both of them if you need to?
It makes sense to cook a roast and a casserole together and slip in some baked potatoes while you’re cooking the chicken breasts. Many people have cooked multiple things together without giving it a second thought.
Most people, however, will have to learn a few strategies to cook multiple dishes successfully.
How to Cook More Than One Thing in the Oven
Cooking always involves as much art as science. It will take a little trial and error to perfect your ability in using your oven to cook a big meal with many different dishes.
There are some general “rules of thumb” you can follow to be successful when cooking multiple dishes in the oven at once. Whatever you do, you must keep a careful eye on all dishes in the oven to make sure they are cooking properly.
You won’t find too many recipes that give advice on how to cook one dish at the same time as other dishes. However, you can learn some techniques and strategies to manage the vast differences in cooking needs that you will encounter.
Before starting, you will need to consider a few things about your oven and the foods you are cooking.
First, you must determine what oven temperature each dish requires. This gives you a starting point for figuring out what temperature to set when you put the two dishes together.
Secondly, you’ll need to know the cooking time for each dish. It’s likely that one dish will take longer than the other to cook. Timing will be important and can affect the quality of your food.
The final consideration is the content of the food. Mixing certain dishes will pose no problem, but some just won’t be compatible. For example, you won’t want to cook garlic shrimp and bake chocolate chip cookies at the same time.
Can You Cook Two Things at Different Temperatures in the Oven?
Managing the oven temperature is perhaps the trickiest of part of cooking multiple things in the oven, especially since the recommended oven temperatures can vary widely for different dishes.
The best way to cook foods that require different oven temperatures is to adjust the temperature halfway between the two temperatures. This “meeting in the middle” won’t have a significant effect on the quality of the food, but it may increase cooking times.
If you’re making two dishes that require the same cooking temperature, it’s not a problem to place them both in the oven together. For instance, the usual oven temperature for both beef roast and baked potatoes is 350° F (180° C), so they’ll cook nicely together.
But often, one dish will need to cook at a higher temperature than the other. Let’s say you’re cooking a roast and you want to add a side dish of roasted asparagus, which has a recommended cooking temperature of 425° F (220° C). Here’s where it can get complicated.
The recommended solution is to raise the temperature halfway between 350° and 425° F. Those temperatures meet in the middle at about 375–385° F (about 190–200° C).
That’s an odd temperature, but oven temperatures are always approximate, anyway. A few degrees either way is not going to make a huge difference in the cooking process.
You may ask, what will happen to the roast if it’s cooked at a higher than normal temperature?
The temporary temperature rise shouldn’t affect the quality of the roast since asparagus requires such a short cooking time (about 15 minutes) compared to the roast (about 2 hours, depending on how rare or well done you prefer it). As long as the roast is not already overdone, it should be fine at a higher temperature for a few minutes.
Meat is especially forgiving when it comes to temperature changes. If you are concerned about meat being overcooked or undercooked, consider getting a food thermometer to determine the internal temperature.
Staggering the cooking times ensures that everything comes out hot but does not overcook. Meat needs to rest about 10 minutes before it’s carved, so you can take out the roast and hike the temperature up to finish the vegetables, if you wish.
However, use caution when deciding to lower or raise oven temperatures. Dishes that require crisping, such as oven-fried chicken, may not get the crunchy outside you desire if you lower the temperature for too long, especially early in the cooking process.
Watch all dishes carefully whenever you make temperature changes, but if you can, avoid opening the oven door to peek at them. Opening the oven door causes heat to escape and lengthens your cooking time.
Will It Take Longer to Cook Two Different Things in the Oven?
All other factors considered, loading up your oven with more than one thing will affect overall cooking time.
When you have more than one dish in the oven at once, it’s likely that the food will take longer than usual to get done. Cooking multiple foods in the oven at once may increase cooking time by 10–15 percent for some or all of the dishes.
This happens because several pans in the oven will block the air circulation. For effective cooking, the heated air in the oven needs to surround the food, and when the oven is too crowded, that can’t happen easily.
There’s not much you can do about this problem except to be patient and let the food cook for a longer time if needed. Try to leave some room between dishes to let the airflow.
Putting dishes into the oven at different times can also affect cooking time. The new dish will be at room temperature, and introducing it into a hot oven will cause the oven temperature to decrease temporarily. Opening the door will also cause heat loss.
The cool-down won’t affect the food quality, but it will add a few minutes more cooking time.
Overall, set your oven timer for the expected cooking time, but don’t rely on it. The only way to know for sure whether the food is done or in danger of overcooking is to monitor it closely.
Can You Cook Any Kinds of Food Together in the Oven at Once?
Another complication in cooking more than one thing at a time is the type of food. Some foods naturally go together (meat and potatoes) but others are at odds.
Don’t try to cook savory foods and sweet baked foods at the same time. Adjusting the oven temperature to the middle of two different cooking temperatures can have a negative impact on the taste and quality of baked foods.
Most baked foods require a consistent oven temperature and plenty of air circulation. A cake, for instance, will not rise properly if it’s baked at too low a temperature, or it will rise and then fall as it cools.
Cookies baked in an oven that’s not hot enough may not crisp or may spread out and lose their shape so they resemble pancakes.
However, you can put two pans of batter or dough in the oven at the same time, as long as they cook at the same temperature and for the same length of time. Two pans of brownies baked together will turn out fine.
To help food cook evening, you should rotate the dishes from one rack to the other halfway through the cooking time.
There’s also the possibility that a strong odor of the savory dish may affect the flavor of the baked good.