Is Preheating Your Oven Actually Worth It?

You know the drill: It's the dreaded witching hour, when everyone in the car has crossed over from happy to hangry, and you're too tired to do the math on how long it takes to order a pizza, versus driving home to bake a frozen one. (Twenty minutes? Two thousand hours? I can barely do math even when I've had lunch.) 

Saving your future self a few bucks, you decide on "home" pizza—maybe throw in a few chicken nuggets to quash the tween eye rolls—and stumble into the kitchen to stare down an ice-cold oven. Ugh. Is waiting the extra time to preheat the oven worth it? (And can you defrost a slice of pepperoni with a hair dryer any faster?) 

Short answer: Preheat your oven for the best results. Pour yourself a little glass of me-time while you wait, because preheating guarantees evenly cooked casseroles, caramelized roasted veggies, and crispy tater tots. There's a little wiggle room for the anti-preheating cohort when the food is precooked, but it might not get dinner on the table any faster. 

Do You Need To Preheat Your Oven for Frozen (or Fresh) Pizza? 

When it comes to frozen pizza, the box instructions are designed to work in any oven across America. That means that if your oven preheats fast, and mine heats up like a turtle in honey, we both still start cooking at an equal number of degrees Fahrenheit, and get consistent results in roughly the same time. 

While a frozen pizza could technically start in a cold oven, it will need to be thawed before cooking, and it might require a few extra minutes to get brown and bubbly. Unless your range comes with one of those brilliant "no-preheat pizza" buttons, you can't go wrong with preheating your oven.

If you're baking a fresh pizza, you'll always want to preheat, since a blazing hot oven best mimics a professional pizza oven.

Chicken Nuggets Do Better in a Preheated Oven

Did somebody say frozen chicken nuggets? While you could start frozen nuggets in an oven without preheating, it probably won't do the once-crispy breading any favors. For zero chance of soggy outsides and cold dino nugget-insides, preheat the oven to the suggested temperature. 

Even though frozen chicken nuggets appear golden brown straight out of the package, I like to completely eliminate the possibility of foodborne illness by letting the package instructions show me the way. Preheating the oven, and baking the nuggets to an internal temperature of 165°F, makes this a winner, winner, chicken… you get it.

Preheat for Casseroles and Roasts

Casseroles, roasts, and roasted veggies don't necessarily demand a preheated oven, since these types of dishes cook for much longer than, say, a frozen pizza. However, whatever time I may have been hoping to save by popping frozen mac and cheese into my cold oven is immediately eaten up by the length of time it takes to heat through. 

Got a sweet pre-cooked casserole you're pulling out of the freezer? Thaw it ahead of time in the fridge, and preheat your oven to bake. You'll also want to preheat if you're starting a casserole chilled from the fridge.

Yes, you can probably get away with not preheating your oven for frozen cooked foods—if you have to. But even though it may feel like the longest 20-ish minutes of your life, preheating your oven guarantees that grandma's Tuna Noodle Casserole is going to taste as creamy, noodley, and potato chippy as you remember it.