If you have never tried cooking in a clay pot before, you may want to think about giving it a try. There are a lot of advantages including juicier meats and poultry, low fat cooking, and my favorite, one-pot-meals that make clean up easy.

I initially learned about them when I received a clay pot as a gift as well as a great cookbook, The One-Pot and Clay-Pot Cookbook from my sister-in-law Judy. Although it sat on my bookshelf for a while before getting around to try any of the recipes, I changed my mind in a hurry once I tried one of them.

If you want to learn more about Clay Pots, please read my article on my web site called “What’s So Great About Cooking In a Clay Pot?” on my web site. It will teach you how they work, advantages, what type to buy for home cooking, how to use them and a good source for buying one.

This recipe came from Romertopf Clay Bakers, one of the leading manufacturers of Clay Pots. It was given to me by Bill Marbach from Romertopf as well as lots of interesting information about cooking with clay pots. If you enjoy this one, I will post a few more.

Ingredients

1 pound skinless, boneless chicken thighs
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon white pepper
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh ginger
1 tablespoon cornstarch
6 small new red potatoes, cut into 1/2-inch slices
1 small carrot, peeled and cut into 1/4-inch slices
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 medium tomato, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
1 green onion, with top, cut into 1-inch pieces

Directions

Start by soaking your clay baker in water for at least 15 minutes before you start. You want to preheat the clay pot in the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit but now you are working with a HOT clay pot so you need to be extra careful.

Alternatively, you could get all the ingredients together, add to the clay pot and then slowly heat up the pot and the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. This would me additional cooking time of 15 to 20 minutes.

Trim the fat from the chicken and cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. In a bowl, combine the salt, pepper, ginger, and cornstarch. Toss the chicken with the cornstarch mixture and set aside.

Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a saucepan over high heat. Add the potatoes and carrot, cover, and cook two minutes. Drain and set aside.

Heat a nonstick skillet or wok over high heat until hot. Add the vegetable oil and the chicken; stir and cook until lightly browned, about 1 minute. Add the garlic, onion, curry powder, and tomato and stir-fry 1 minute. Add the potatoes, carrot, soy sauce, and sugar and continue to stir until well mixed. Turn off the heat and transfer the mixture to the preheated clay pot. Cover the clay pot and return to the preheated oven for 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot.

To hold the finished dish, turn the oven off and keep warm until ready to serve. Stir in the green onion just before serving.