I got given a Romertopf for my birthday last year. I was so happy to have received it but I was totally overwhelmed by having absolutely no idea as to how to use the bloody thing.
J dove in to our first attempt at cooking in it and well, it wasn’t great. It was a soggy mess really. Then I jumped on to Celia’s site where she has an amazing collection of recipes that she has cooked in her romertopf, and we chose a rice and chicken dish for our next go.
Things started to improve, I could see the bright side of cooking in the romertopf. But the next dish, this amazing braised pork dish was when I really fell in love with cooking with this unusual clay pot.
This week I decided to try my hand at cooking a roast chicken in it. And I was not disappointed! Seriously so easy, so delicious and surprisingly crispy skinned chicken.
Can I say again, it was SO EASY. I chopped up some onions, carrots and pumpkin placed them all in the bottom of the soaked romertopf, I chucked in some freshly picked herbs. I made a quick herb butter and stuffed it under the skin.
The chicken was nestled atop the veggies, and the lid placed gently on to seal the deliciousness inside. And then I placed the romertopf into a cold oven, turned the heat up to 200℃, and just walked away.
2 hours later, I took the lid off but left the romertopf in the oven so the chicken could brown a little more. 15 minutes later I pulled the romertopf out, I placed it upon a tea towel on a chopping board, so that the temperature didn’t change too dramatically.
It was delicious and from this experience, and the couple that lead up to it, I think that everyone should think about getting a Romertopf*. I’m going to be adding a romertopf meal to our fortnightly meal planning. And I’m looking forward to experimenting more.
*denotes affiliate link, thank you in advance for supporting The Life of Clare
- 1/2 a small butternut pumpkin
- 2 carrots
- 1 onion
- 1 whole chicken
- fresh herbs
- 60 grams of softened butter
- Place romertopf in sink full of water and the romertopf is submerged. Soak for 30 minutes.
- While romertopf is soaking chop onion, carrot and pumpkin into roast sized pieces.
- Set aside 3 springs of different herbs for the roast veggies and chop the remaining herbs finely.
- Stir the finely chopped herbs into the softened butter.
- Gently separate the skin from the breast, and spread the herb butter underneath the skin.
- Once the romertopf has been soaked for long enough, place the veggies in the bottom, and the chicken on top. The put the lid on and place into a cold oven.
- Turn the oven to 220℃.
- Cook for 2 hours, remove the lid and put back into the oven for 15 minutes.
- Remove from the oven, allow to cool for 15 minutes before serving.
- Serve with pork fat roast potatoes and the veggies from the romertopf.
