Beer Braised Chicken with Potatoes and Carrots
Bacon, chicken, and root vegetables braised in a can of beer. Car camping food, cooked in one cast iron pot.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 13 oz
- cal / oz
- 47
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 45 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Campfire coals
- Dutch oven
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Boneless skinless chicken thighs | 4 | |
|---|---|---|
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Bacon | 1/4 lb | cut into cubes at home |
| Baby potatoes | 1/2 lb | quartered |
| Carrots | 2 large | half-inch pieces |
| Garlic | 2 cloves | crushed |
| Amber ale or lager | 1 can | |
| Grainy mustard | 1 tbsp | |
| Honey | 1 tbsp | |
| Parsley | 1 tbsp | chopped, or a pinch of dried |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady medium heat, not flames.
- Salt and pepper the thighs. Set the dutch oven over the coals with the oil and give it five minutes to come up to temperature.
- Sear the chicken four minutes a side, then pull it onto a plate. It is not cooked through yet.
- Drop the bacon into the same pot. Stir now and then until the fat renders out and the edges crisp, about eight minutes.
- Add potatoes, carrots, and garlic. Stir them through the bacon fat for a few minutes.
- Pour in the beer and scrape the bottom of the pot. Stir in the mustard and honey.
- Lay the chicken back on top, cover, and hold a low simmer for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes give to a knife and the chicken is done.
- Scatter the parsley over it and serve out of the pot.
This is a cooler recipe, not a pack recipe, and it stays that way. Chicken thighs and bacon need cold, and the whole point is the braise — vegetables cooking in liquid that already has fat and fond in it. Freeze-dried versions of this exist and none of them are worth the trade.
The beer is doing two jobs: liquid, and enough bitterness to cut the bacon fat. Mustard and honey go in at the same time on purpose, one sharp and one sweet, so the sauce lands somewhere in the middle instead of tasting like beer that got hot. Thighs are the right cut here because they tolerate the long simmer; breasts turn to rope.
Packing
Chicken and bacon stay in the cooler on ice, bagged separately from everything else. Cut the potatoes and carrots at home and carry them in one bag. Mustard and honey travel in small squeeze bottles.
Variations
- No beer, or somebody is not drinking: use a cup of broth and a splash of cider vinegar.
- A handful of dried mushrooms tossed in with the beer thickens the sauce.
- Swap the potatoes for a can of drained white beans and cut the simmer to ten minutes.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/beer-braised-chicken-with-potatoes-and-carrots