If you can only have one piece of cast iron in your kitchen, this would be the one. It can do duty as a skillet, soup pot, dutch oven, baking pan and flipped over works as a griddle. I have made soups, stews, spagetti sauce, roast's, bacon & eggs, omelete's, cherry & peach cobbler, hotcakes, pineapple upside down cake and of course fried chicken in this fryer. Brown your chicken in batch's then pile it all in, slap on the lid and put it in the oven (or fire) to finish. The lid has just enough lip to hold coals when baking and seals tight enough to keep debris out of the pot. I have a small round wire rack that fits in the bottom of the pan and use it to steam large crustaceans (mostly dungeness crab) with corn and potatoes. It's just the right size for a New England crab feed for two. I have a lot of cast iron cookware, but this one is the most versitile and probably the most used. Highly recommend.

This type of pan can be used inside or out, I really love cast iron..

I bought this skillet because it is deeper. I have other Lodge skillets but to fry chicken, a deeper skillet works better. I love my cast iron. I find it easy to clean, which surprised me as I used to buy the enameled cast iron thinking it to be much easier to clean. However, the enameled cast iron started to chip over time so I went with the basic cast iron and have been quite pleased with the ease of cleaning.

I have not had a chance to use this product yet, but if it is like the other cast iron pans I have it will be a great addition to the cooking experience.

So far, I am satified with the purchase. I have been looking for a cast iron deep pan for such a long time. Having a cast iron pan with a lid made my decision to purchase a great incentive.It's quite heavy . It can be difficult to navigate while ccoking. Despite the heaviness, I still like it.