I Tried Allrecipes’ “World’s Best” Lasagna, and Now I Understand the Hype (2024)

Sheela Prakash

Claiming anything is the “world’s best” is some pretty high praise. So when I came across John Chandler’s self-titled “World’s Best Lasagna” recipe on Allrecipes, I was intrigued. If the name of the recipe alone didn’t sell me, the astounding number of reviews did. With over 13,000 reviews and a solid 5-star rating, I was beginning to think this really was the best lasagna. It features a hearty meat sauce and plenty of layers of ricotta and mozzarella cheese. So yes, I headed into the kitchen with nothing but good feelings about this one. How did it actually perform, though? Read on to find out.

Get the recipe: Allrecipes’ World’s Best Lasagna

You’ll start by cooking sausage, ground beef, onion, and garlic in a Dutch oven to make the sauce. You’ll then add three kinds of canned tomatoes — crushed tomatoes, tomato paste, and tomato sauce — along with a mix of spices, salt, and a touch of sugar, and let it simmer for 1 1/2 hours.

Next, you’ll cook lasagna noodles in a pot of boiling water and mix together ricotta, an egg, chopped parsley, and salt. To assemble, you’ll spread some of the meat sauce into a 9×13-inch baking dish then arrange half the cooked lasagna noodles on top, followed by half the ricotta mixture and some thinly sliced mozzarella cheese. You’ll repeat these layers, ending with the last of the meat sauce, mozzarella, and some grated Parmesan cheese. The lasagna is covered with foil and baked for 25 minutes, then uncovered and baked until the top is golden-brown, 25 minutes more.

All in all, John Chandler’s recipes was a very solid, perfectly cheesy and saucy lasagna. If it’s any indication, gifting some to a neighbor resulted in a handwritten thank you note and a phone call to express just how delicious it was. The homemade sauce was rich and meaty, thanks to the combination of sausage and ground beef, and while I don’t normally like sugar in my sauce, it gave it a round, approachable flavor that ended up making the whole thing taste even more cozy and homey.

Where this recipe lost a point is in the fact that it’s quite time-consuming. You’ll need to spend almost two hours making the sauce before you can even start assembling the lasagna. Plus, it calls for pre-cooking the noodles. I know this step is common in many recipes, but I’ve always hated having to take out another pot to boil the pasta when lasagna usually involves multiple pots and pans as it is. I learned this fussy step could be avoided after testing the other recipes in this showdown, which is why this lasagna doesn’t get a perfect score.