A good cutting board is a workhorse in any kitchen. Above all, it should be large, providing ample space for carving or chopping, and relatively easy to care for.
We recommend the OXO Good Grips Carving and Cutting Board for those who want a plastic board, and the Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board with Juice Canal (15″ by 20″) for those who want a wooden one. Both boards feel good under a knife, and they stood up to many sharp cuts, dark stains, and strong odors better than the competition. Plus, after years of long-term testing, neither board has split or egregiously warped from misuse.
We’ve spent more than 150 hours of research interviewing chefs and materials experts, chopping copious pounds of produce, and using and abusing over 30 cutting boards to reach our conclusion.
Our pick
This plastic board resists warping, staining, and odors better than the other plastic boards we tested. The rubber feet keep it stationary, and the juice groove does an excellent job collecting liquids.
The OXO Good Grips Carving and Cutting Board is large enough for most chopping and carving tasks, easy to clean, and designed with rubber feet on its sides to prevent slippage. We were also impressed with how effective the juice groove was at holding liquid.
Our pick
This beautiful, eco-conscious teak board requires more careful cleaning than a plastic board, but it feels better under a knife and is easier to maintain than the other wood boards we tested.
If you’re more interested in a cutting board made of wood, get the Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board with Juice Canal (15″ by 20″). The teak is hard enough to allow for smooth cuts but not so hard that it dulls your knife’s edge. Teak also resists moisture buildup better than other types of wood.
Also great
This OXO cutting board is a smaller version of our main plastic pick. Like the large OXO board, it has rubber feet to keep it stable while chopping.
If you have limited counter space in your kitchen or prefer using a smaller board, we recommend getting the smaller version of our plastic pick, the 10.39-inch-by-14.78-inch OXO Good Grips Utility Cutting Board. It’s great for simple tasks like slicing an apple or chopping a single large carrot. The OXO Utility Board has the same rubber feet as the larger OXO carving board; they keep the board securely in place while chopping. Unlike our main pick, its juice groove doesn’t have the capacity to hold the drippings from a whole roast chicken, but it’s still useful when chopping a couple of juicy tomatoes. Like the larger OXO carving board we recommend, the Utility Cutting Board resists warping, staining, and strong odors better than the competition.
Also great
This teak cutting board is a smaller version of our main wood pick. Like the larger Teakhaus board, this one has a deep juice canal on one side and hand grooves for lifting.
If our main wood cutting board is too large for your space or you’re looking for a less expensive option, we also recommend the smaller 12-inch-by-16-inch Teakhaus Edge Grain Professional Carving Board. We think the larger board is best if you cook regularly, but we still found the smaller Teakhaus board suitable (albeit a bit more cramped) for most chopping tasks and a nice size for serving cheese or charcuterie. Like the larger board, it has a wide ¾-inch juice canal on one side for catching the drippings. The canal held 6 ounces of liquid in our tests, so it can’t hold the drippings from a whole turkey. But it’s sufficient for slicing a steak or carving a whole chicken. This smaller Teakhaus board weighs 2 pounds less than our main pick, so it may be more manageable for some people to lift and move. The board is also 1.5-inches thick—a rarity for most wood boards of this size—so it will resist warping better than thinner wood boards.
