BY AMIEL STANEK
Welcome to Cook Like a Pro, in which we ask some of our favorite chefs for their essential techniques, along with advice on fearlessly frying, flipping, seasoning, and more.
Sometimes the simplest chef-y tool can revolutionize your weeknight dinner. Take the humble sizzle platter, a $6, 11-inch-long taper-sided aluminum oval that's used in practically every restaurant for roasting or broiling individual portions of, well, basically anything. Line cooks go through stacks upon stacks of these workhorses a night, heating handfuls of already-roasted vegetables, cooking off fish fillets, and melting cheese on burgers to order. Why do you need one? Because breaking out a big, bummer-to-clean sheet pan to toast a handful of nuts, broil a steak, make cheesy toast, or bake four chicken nuggets for the kid that won't eat pasta is just kind of amateur.
7 Ways to Sizzle:
1. Broil the béchamel on top of a croque-monsieur or Welsh rarebit till bubbling and brown.
2. In a moderate oven, toast sesame seeds or whole spices like cumin and coriander.
3. Toss head-on shrimp with olive oil and broil, turning halfway through.
4. Blast whole, small, quick-cooking fish like sardines directly under the broiler.
5. Caramelize fruit, such as pineapple rings, for a simple dessert.
6. Broil oysters topped with softened butter.
7. Cook a perfect dinner for two: broiled lamb chops with thin slices of lemon.
Get the Recipe: Broiled Salmon with Scallions and Sesame
More from Bon Appetit:
26 Gooey, Cheesy Super Bowl Party Recipes
Support HuffPost
Already contributed? Log in to hide these messages.