How to Convert a 13×9 Recipe for an 8×8 Pan

Updated: Mar. 21, 2022

Shutterstock / Gayvoronskaya_Yana

If you find yourself with buckets of leftovers after making your favorite casserole, just cut the recipe in half! We'll teach you how to convert that 9x13 recipe to an 8x8 pan.

For the longest time, the 13×9 pan reigned supreme. It was the perfect vessel for a bubbly, cheesy, warming casserole, and using a large pan meant you could feed a small army. (Try these contest-winning recipes!) Today, it’s all about the 8×8: a baking dish designed for those of us cooking for one or two. Unfortunately, you have all those great casserole recipes in your collection! Never fear: we can scale back. It’s surprisingly simple to learn how to convert a recipe from 9×13 to 8×8 – even if you’re mathematically challenged!

Cut Your Recipe in Half

You’re really in luck when it comes to using an 8×8 pan: it’s almost exactly half the size of your larger casserole dish! A 13×9 pan measures 117 square inches of surface area, which will hold about 14 cups of food. The 8×8 pan’s 64 inches of surface area can contain up to 8 cups. And, because there won’t be a major difference in surface area or batter depth when you pack your halved recipe into the smaller baking dish, you won’t even need to adjust the oven temperature or the cooking time. Just cut all of the ingredients in your recipe in half. It’s almost too perfect!

What About Ingredients That You Can’t Halve?

There are some ingredients that are pretty difficult to cut in half (like a whole egg, for example). In this case, you can just use the entire egg. When you consider that there are about 8 cups of other ingredients in a savory casserole, the extra tablespoon or two of liquid from the egg won’t make that much of a difference. If you’re halving a baking recipe, on the other hand, you’d want to weigh your ingredients like the pros and use exactly half of everything.

Using Your Leftovers

If you can’t fathom the thought of doing all that math, never fear: casseroles are notoriously easy to store! You can split the original recipe between two 8×8 dishes and freeze an entire pan for later. Or, bake your recipe in the original 13×9 and cut out individual portions. Freeze them in airtight containers or freezer bags and they’ll be ready to thaw and pop in the microwave for a perfectly pre-portioned lunch.

Now that you know how to convert a recipe from 13×9 to 8×8, try it out on some of our favorite casserole recipes! Or, skip the conversions altogether and just follow the instructions for these 45 casserole recipes made in an 8×8 dish.

Recipes Made for an 8x8 Pan

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Salsa Verde Chicken Casserole

This is a rich and surprisingly tasty rendition of all the Tex-Mex dishes molded into one packed, beautiful casserole. Best of all, it’s ready in no time! —Janet McCormick, Proctorville, Ohio

Get Recipe Need a new dish? Try the 8x8 nonstick pan from Taste of Home’s new line of cookware and bakeware!

Taco Salad CasseroleThis taco casserole recipe tastes like a taco salad and is a breeze to assemble. I crush tortilla chips to form a bottom layer, then spread on refried beans, a spicy meat mixture and cheese. —Rhonda McKee, Greensburg, Kansas