Applebee's Sizzlin' Skillets in 2026: What Each One Is Actually Like, and Which to Order

The Lineup at a Glance

Applebee's brought the skillets back in fall 2026 with two brand-new dishes and three returning ones, announced October 12, 2026. All five arrive on a sizzling cast-iron skillet. The three new-era dishes come with garlic mashed potatoes and seasoned broccoli; the two Bourbon Street dishes come over sautéed mushrooms and onions with garlic mashed potatoes. Applebee's publishes no per-item national price for the three new dishes — only that the lineup starts at $12.99 — so the price at your restaurant is the final word, and this guide does not dress up one location's menu as a national price.

The two priced figures above are our skillets menu reference figures for the Bourbon Street dishes. Everything else in the new trio is labelled "Varies" for a reason: Applebee's own copy only anchors the lineup at $12.99, and franchise menus differ. If a roundup online quotes you one exact price for the Cheesy Chicken, treat it as that writer's location, not a promise.

1. Cheesy Chicken Skillet: The Comfort Order, and the Heaviest Plate

What you get: grilled chicken breast smothered in a Parmesan and White Cheddar cream sauce, topped with Applewood-smoked bacon and crispy onions, served sizzling with garlic mashed potatoes and seasoned broccoli, at 1,330 calories.

How it eats: this is the skillet for someone who wants dinner to feel like a reward. The cream sauce is the dish — rich, salty, coating everything it touches — the bacon adds smoke and salt, and the crispy onions are the only crunch on the plate. The mashed potatoes underneath soak up the sauce, which is half the pleasure and most of the calories. It is also, by a wide margin, the heaviest skillet in the lineup: 490 calories more than the Scampi and 590 more than the 6 oz. Garlic Sirloin. There is no light way to eat this one, and ordering it as a "chicken, so it must be lighter" choice is the one mistake to avoid.

Order it smarter: treat the broccoli as more than garnish — it is the one part of the plate that cuts the richness, so eat it between bites, not last. And if you are ordering for two people who both want a skillet, this is the one to share with a lighter starter, not the one to pair with a fried appetizer.

Skip it if: you are watching calories or dairy — the sauce is cheese and cream by definition — or you want something that still feels like a meal an hour later rather than a food coma.

2. Chicken & Shrimp Scampi Skillet: The Lightest New Skillet, and the Best All-Rounder

What you get: grilled chicken breast paired with sautéed shrimp in a garlicky lemon butter sauce, served sizzling with garlic mashed potatoes and seasoned broccoli, at 840 calories.

How it eats: brighter than every other skillet here. Lemon and garlic do the work instead of cream or Cajun heat, so the dish tastes fresh even though it arrives bubbling on cast iron. You get two proteins — chicken for substance, shrimp for sweetness — and the sauce is light enough that the mashed potatoes taste like a side rather than a sponge for fat. At 840 calories it is the lightest of the new three by nearly 500 calories, and it is the skillet we would hand to a first-timer: nothing about it is extreme, nothing needs explaining, and it still feels like an occasion because it arrives sizzling.

Order it smarter: this is the skillet that pairs best with a starter, because it leaves room. If the table is ordering appetizers, the Scampi is the entree that does not turn the meal into two dinners.

Skip it if: you have a shellfish allergy — the shrimp is the dish, not a garnish — or you want heat. There is no Cajun kick here; that is what the Bourbon Street dishes are for.

3. Garlic Sirloin Skillet: Steak, Hold the Heaviness

What you get: seasoned top sirloin grilled and smothered in buttery garlic and parsley sauce, served sizzling with garlic mashed potatoes and seasoned broccoli, at 740 calories for 6 oz. and 810 for 8 oz.

How it eats: the most straightforward plate in the lineup. No cream sauce, no Cajun seasoning, no second protein — just steak, garlic butter and parsley, with the same mashed potatoes and broccoli as the other new skillets. That restraint is why it is the lightest skillet of all five: 740 calories for the 6 oz. cut, only 70 more for the 8 oz., which makes the upgrade the cheapest calorie decision on this menu. The garlic butter keeps it from tasting austere, and the cast iron keeps the steak hot to the last slice in a way a regular plate never does.

Order it smarter: if you are choosing between the two sirloin sizes, the 8 oz. is the better value in calorie terms — 70 extra calories for a third more steak. If you want the steak flavour with more drama, the Bourbon Street Steak below is the same cut with Cajun seasoning and mushrooms and onions, at nearly double the calories.

Skip it if: you want a sauce-forward dish. This one is about the steak; the sauce is a complement, not the event.

4. Bourbon Street Chicken & Shrimp: The Classic, and the Protein Pick

What you get: Cajun-seasoned chicken breast and blackened shrimp over sautéed mushrooms and onions with garlic butter and garlic mashed potatoes, on a sizzling cast-iron skillet, at $17.99 and 1,010 calories with 57g of protein.

How it eats: this is the skillet regulars already know, and the Cajun seasoning is the difference from everything above: warmth and spice rather than cream or lemon. The mushrooms and onions underneath soak up the garlic butter, so the vegetables here are part of the dish in a way the broccoli on the new skillets is not. At 57g of protein it is the strongest protein figure we have for any skillet, and at 49g of carbohydrate it is a genuinely protein-forward plate — the one to order if the meal is also your post-gym dinner or you simply want the most food value per calorie. It is also on the 2 for $25, which makes it the only skillet here that can anchor a value deal for two.

The honest caveat: the sodium is 2,910mg for the plate — more than a full day's recommended 2,300mg. Ask for the garlic butter on the side and you control the richest, saltiest part of the dish. And the allergen picture is milk, soy and shellfish, with the shared-kitchen warning that applies across Applebee's: the restaurant cannot guarantee any item free of a given ingredient.

Skip it if: you dislike Cajun heat or shellfish, or you are the table's sodium-watcher and nobody is sharing.

5. Bourbon Street Steak: The Biggest Plate, for the Biggest Appetite

What you get: grilled 8 oz. top sirloin jazzed up with Cajun spices in buttery garlic and parsley, served sizzling with sautéed mushrooms and onions and garlic mashed potatoes, at $19.99 and 1,430 calories with 71g of protein.

How it eats: like the Bourbon Street Chicken & Shrimp with the volume turned up. Same Cajun seasoning, same garlic butter, same mushroom-and-onion base — but a full steak instead of chicken and shrimp, and the heaviest plate in the lineup at 1,430 calories, 420 more than its chicken-and-shrimp sibling. The 71g of protein is the highest figure on this page, so if the goal is maximum protein on one plate, this wins. For most people, though, the Garlic Sirloin Skillet above is the smarter steak order: it is the same cut, 690 calories lighter at 6 oz., and it leaves room for dessert.

Skip it if: anyone else at the table is ordering light — this is a commitment, not a taster — or if the Cajun heat plus 3,430mg of sodium is more than you want in one sitting.

Skillets by the Numbers

Calories are for the dish as served, with the sides listed above. Only the Bourbon Street dishes have published full nutrition on our nutrition chart; for the three new skillets, Applebee's publishes calories, and this guide does not invent protein, sodium or fat figures it has not published.

The spread across the lineup is 690 calories, from the 6 oz. Garlic Sirloin to the Bourbon Street Steak — wider than the gap between a salad and a burger on some menus. That is why "which skillet" is a real decision here, not a coin flip: the lightest and heaviest plates share a format and a side pairing, and differ by almost a whole second meal.

How a Skillet Actually Eats (and Why Dine-In Wins)

Cast iron holds heat far longer than a plate, so the food keeps cooking on the walk to your table. Butter and juices hit the hot iron and brown, the mushrooms and onions underneath soak all of it up, and the last bite is as hot as the first. That is the whole point of the format, and it is also why the ordering channel matters: Applebee's sells these dine-in, To Go and for delivery, but a skillet in a box is a hot plate going cold in cardboard. The sizzle — the sound, the steam, the theatre — is gone by the time a delivery bag reaches you. If the skillet is the reason you are going, go in person. If you are ordering delivery anyway, the Scampi travels best, because a lemon butter sauce does not congeal the way a cream sauce does; the Cheesy Chicken travels worst, for exactly the opposite reason.

Two practical warnings. First, do not touch the pan — the handle is as hot as the cooking surface, and servers will say so, but every table learns it once. Second, the skillet keeps cooking after it arrives: the chicken and shrimp will firm up if you linger over them, so eat the proteins first and leave the potatoes for last. They only get better as they absorb the sauce.

The Price Question, Answered Honestly

Applebee's says the lineup starts at $12.99, and that "starts at" is doing real work. The three new skillets carry no national per-item price on Applebee's own pages, and franchise menus set their own figures — the same dish can cost noticeably more in a big-city location than in a small-town one, as our own menu pages warn throughout. The two Bourbon Street prices in this guide ($17.99 and $19.99) are our menu page's reference figures, not a promise from Applebee's national office. Before you budget a group dinner around a skillet, check your restaurant's menu in the app or on the ordering page — it takes thirty seconds and it is the only price that applies to you. Tax and gratuity are extra, and participation and selection vary by restaurant, as Applebee's own announcement states.

Allergens and Dietary Notes

Three things to know before ordering. First, the Scampi skillet contains shrimp, so it is out for a shellfish allergy — no substitution saves it, because shrimp is the dish. Second, the Cheesy Chicken contains cheese and cream by definition, so it is out for dairy-free diners. Third, for everything else, Applebee's own position applies: shared cooking and prep areas, including common fryer oil, mean the restaurant cannot guarantee any item free of a given ingredient. The full dish-by-dish picture for the Bourbon Street dishes is on our allergen menu guide; for the three new skillets, ask the restaurant for its allergen information before ordering if you have an allergy, because this guide will not guess at allergen lists Applebee's has not published for them. Vegetarians should note that none of the five skillets is meatless — the skillet lineup is a meat and seafood format, full stop.

Skillets and the Rest of the Menu

Skillets do not live alone on the menu. The same cast-iron theatre shows up in the O-M-Cheese-adilla Burger, which arrives sizzling in a skillet of molten queso and Cheddar with tortilla chips and is on the 2 for $25, and in the Sizzling Caramel Apple Blondie dessert, which gets caramel poured over at the table. If the skillet format is what you liked, those two are the natural bookends: a burger that borrows the format for lunch, a dessert that borrows it for the finish. And if the skillet prices gave you pause, the specials and deals page is where the current value offers live — including the 2 for $25, which the Bourbon Street Chicken & Shrimp can anchor. For the full menu, start at our skillets page and our steaks and ribs page, and check locations for the restaurant nearest you before you go.