Cooking for One in Terracotta

Terracotta bakers soaking in water before baking.

I love browsing at thrift stores. There are so many treasures waiting to be found! My latest find were two individual sized terracotta bakers. One is shaped like a bowl and the other is shaped like an apple. Hm...are they trying to tell me to bake an apple?

I didn't know what to expect with terracotta. I have heard they steam the contents and make the most tender dishes. All I've ever read said to soak them well before baking. I had no other clues before experimenting. Hm... What to try?  I decided to try chicken breast with vegetables. At the worst I'd have a stew.

In each baker, I put 1 1/2 cut up chicken tenderloins, 1 sliced carrot, about 1/2 cubed potato, a few sugar snap peas because I didn't have any green beans, and 1/2 cup stewed tomatoes with a bit of onion and the liquid from the tomatoes and then popped them into a 350 degree F. oven. I checked progress every 30 minutes. It took 2 hours for the potatoes to become tender.

I was glad I put a baking sheet under the terracotta bakers because the liquid boiled over and made a mess on the baking sheet (not the oven!). (Note: line the baking sheet with aluminum foil for easier cleaning).  I am not certain if I should have used less (or no liquid) or if I should have added some water after everything went dry. The bowl-shaped baker retained a bit of fluid but the apple-shaped one cooked completely dry.

And what did I get after 2 hours? It was much like chicken and veggies cooked in a crockpot. The root vegetables cooked well. The sugar snap peas were mush. Think of the bakers as a manual medium-slow cooker.  The meat and veggies were all tender, but the carrots had not lost their shape.

I will definitely try this again, but I may research more what others cook in terracotta.