I've had mine for about 2 months and have only ever used it for my go-to no-knead bread recipe. It comes out with the most perfect crust!

My mother has the same one and makes a white chicken "chili" that is to die for. Her recipe is from a tattered 1970's copy of the Romertopf cookbook.

When I was in High School, I had a friend who's mom was from Ghana. She made a chicken in a romertopf that blew my mind. It was chicken, tomato, bacon and .. I can't remember what else. It was so savory and wonderful. I would love to find that recipe. Such a magic meal.

My family has a large collection of clay bakers that get used for so many things. The one major use though is for garlic roast chicken. Easy enough, it is 3 heads of garlic, a couple of onions and 2 smaller chickens that have the garlic cloves shoved literally everywhere and then slow roasted. The garlic is creamy and the chicken is super moist. I only use my clay baker for roasts of all kinds and even my turkeys.

Here is a link to a chicken in red wine I made that was delicious. My favorite is beans and sausage with a crusty loaf of bread.

I taught a class in clay pot cooking and we did baked apples, coq au vin, Italian vegetables, jambalya and chicken thighs wrapped in prosciutto that was out of this world. I found several cookbooks on clay pot cooking and mine came with a great cookbook.

And as a follow up to this question -- a friend recently brought me my own clay baker, but before she got it to me (and three passes through TSA) the lid cracked into two pieces. Is there any way to fix this with something that can withstand high heat and still be food-safe?

@peariso. The garlic roasted chicken sounds so good. I'm anxious to try this.
@chi-carey. To die for? White chicken chili? I'll check out the recipe on the internet. I hadn't even thought about chili. Thanks.
@jackyh. That chicken in red wine recipe looks great.

Just another comment here. I gave a romertopf clay pot to an intern of mine. She just graduated from high school and just moved into her first apartment. She's very into cooking so I gave her a romertopf for her B'day. A few years later she confessed that she's never used it because she's afraid to touch it because of it's texture. (She also has a problem with touching cotton balls). I so wish that she would give it to someone else that would appreciate it, but that's not my call. *tears*

Malibooradley: The West African chicken dish I have come across also has ginger and peanut butter in it, is that the one you mean?

Wow, I never knew what those were! I've seen them at thrift stores for a steal. Will definitely pick it up next time I see one.

There are some fantastic sounding no-knead bread recipes in Jim Lahey's book that call for clay baking dishes.

@CHICKHABIT as a potter I can tell ya, nope :( Any glue that would hold up to the heat, you wouldn't want to eat off of..