West Bend Lectro Maid - electric skillet Review

I never thought about getting a large electric skillet, but the neighbors had a yard sale. I cook a lot, so "something" for the kitchen seemed like a good bet.

Mr. Love said that he got the skillet, so he could fry a whole chicken (cut up) at once. He made his chicken once, but his wife told him that two people really do not need to cook whole chickens. She had a point for sure. We have three people here (and guests often) and two of the people are teen boys. A large electric skillet made more sense here.

It was five or six years ago that I picked up the West Bend for $5, and it has been used over and over. I'd say we use this pan weekly - at least.

Lektro Maid is my favorite pan for frying - though I do prefer my cast iron skillet for some items. LM comes out on top, because it will hold more food at once and also doesn't stick. For some reason, crab cakes like to stick to the cast iron - but not to the West Bend. When I'm doing seafood, I always go with the West Bend.

The West Bend skillet is also great for pancakes. It takes forever to cook them in a standard sized pan on top of the stove. We can quickly fry up bacon or sausage, wipe the pan and then make pancakes (or eggs). I always use this pan for our annual Christmas brunch when we do breakfast foods for the whole family. It's kind of like a griddle, but it has sides which is nice. That opens up the door to cook a lot more items.

An electric skillet does not heat up the kitchen like using the stove, so the pan gets a real work out during the summer. We even take it on trips in the summer. We took it to the mountains last week for breakfast and for a crab cake meal.

We also take the West Bend outside. We set up our camp table and use a drop cord. This is especially nice when frying fish. That is kind of messy and smelly. It works out better to make it an outdoor project.

One thing I miss with this electric skillet is a lid. I don't guess it's essential, but I'm used to a lid with electric appliances. I don't know if they ever sold lids for this pan. I'd like to have one though.

I can only find Lektro Maid at Ebay now. West Bend does make some other models though and ones with lids. I'd be real likely to go with West Bend if I ever need to replace the Lektro Maid. It's been a fabulous pan and has made many a yummy meal at our house. The boys always perk up when I pull out the pan, because they know so many of our favorite dishes are made in the WB Lectro Maid.