Agree! My parents' electric skillet came out nearly every Saturday when I was a kid. My dad made bacon and pancakes on it regularly. Also good for a yummy, evenly toasted grilled cheese.

Pancakes, French toast, bacon and eggs, sausages...It's a breakfast machine! And as mentioned, it's great because it doesn't heat up the whole house. It's also good as extra cooking space on a day like Thanksgiving when you're cooking a million things and space on the stove is at a premium.

It's also awesome for pot roast. My mom always did her pot roast in her electric skillet.

Swedish Meatballs from Alton Brown: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/swedish-meatballs-recipe/index.html

You can also cook smelly things in it outside if you don't have a good vent in your kitchen! Just use a long extension cord. We regularly cook bacon in ours on our fire escape. Also good when we don't want to turn on the stove, our little window AC can only handle so much.

I love the electric skillet for precise temperature control when frying things, especially chicken-fried steak, pork chops, or chicken. It's also good if you want to caramelize sugar! And you can bake potatoes in your electric skillet---no heating up the whole kitchen.

My parents are renovating their kitchen right now, and they borrowed an electric skillet to use in their makeshift interim kitchen. It's been a lifesaver, along with my mum's vintage countertop convection oven!

Shabu shabu! Some marketed as "shabu shabu" hot pots are like these deeper pots, but I think the skillet version is easier depth to grab things with.

To clarify, shabu shabu is meant to cook at the dining table. You fill it with broth, then put in veggies, meats, noodles in. Everyone watches it cook, then grabs what they want with chopsticks or a large spoon, puts it in a rice bowl, then eats!

My parents had one when I was a kid and they used it for everything: fried rice, curries, pancakes, scrambled eggs, etc. We had 5 kids + 2 parents so it was partly a size thing.

That said, I'm just cooking for two these days, but I've been thinking about getting one for stir fries and tofu. I've finally figured out how to cook the PERFECT tofu and now do so about twice a week, thanks to Herbivoracious and Andrea Nguyen, but despite the awesome qualities of cast iron skillets and enameled dutch ovens, it tends to stick badly in those vessels. And my crappy stove doesn't get hot enough to make a wok worth it. Hence my desire for an electric skillet. I also think if I got one I'd cook pancakes and French toast, which I love but don't make often for some reason, more frequently.

I've used mine for fried chicken, chili, stew, stir fry, fried rice, as well as the classics - pancakes, grilled cheese, bacon. It has come in handy for pot lucks too.

I use mine for everything!!! I make stir-fries, pancakes, cook chicken, pasta dishes, etc. It's handy, because you do not have to turn on the oven, it's fairly easy to clean, and like many mentioned, it cooks evenly.

I've had mine for six years and sadly, I think this one needs to be retired, as it's no longer cooking evenly and has lost some of it's non-stick quality. But I will definitely be investing in a new one when I get the opportunity.

Yep, anything you want - our favorite is chili-powder potatoes, which are just seasoned, then thrown in the skillet and covered. They steam much better than they do on the stove (can't explain why, and we're going on 12 years of experimentation), and then take the lid off to let them crisp at the end. Delish!

Also, I didn't know you could brown ground meat on the stove until I went off to college. Every. Time. This is what my mom reached for, and it always worked like a charm.

Anyone have a favorite brand of electric skillet? And how do you cook baked potatoes in one?

I use my electric frying pan (bought at a thrift store for $5) to make risotto. I put it on the island facing my kitchen table and can watch TV or talk with friends while I'm stirring rather than stare at the stove away from the action. It also is a great alternative for any kind of simmering on a hot day since it doesn't warm up the room the way a gas stovetop would. Of course, it's also good for keeping something warm at a serve-yourself meal and that's why I also have a large one for such occasions. (That one cost me $7.)

Wow, I always thought electric skillets were rather useless, but now that I'm reading all of these comments...

Lisa---most electric skills have covers and will heat up to 400 degrees. I wash and pierce the potatoes. A broken skin lets the moisture out so you can get a fluffy inside. I lightly oil the potatoes, too, so the skin gets a little texture to it. Make "boats" out of foil---just enough to set the potatoes in. Don't wrap them up completely since that defeats the purpose of breaking the skins. I place the potatoes in boats on a cake cooling rack in the skillet, put on the lid, and bake at 400 degrees for about an hour. You can start testing at 45 minutes or so, with a fork, cka skewer, chop stick. Depends on the size of the potatoes. Cut open the potatoes and use the foil to push the ends to the middle to make it mound up. Cover with your choice of toppings.

Whoa. I totally forgot I had an electric skillet, I just never knew what to do with it! I'm digging mine out of the basement after reading these comments!

good to cook a host of things like others have said I grew up with on dad cooked everything in it very good to cook Roast in and no heating up the kitchen hmm makes me think I just may go buy one oh the memories this has brought back..