Camp Burgoo
Kentucky's clean-out-the-freezer stew, rebuilt from cans and cured meat for a dutch oven.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 12 oz
- cal / oz
- 45
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 90 min
- total time
- 105 min
- water
- 900 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Canned chicken | 2 cans (10 oz each) | drained, liquid saved |
|---|---|---|
| Summer sausage or hard salami | 8 oz | cut into half-inch cubes |
| Beef jerky | 3 oz | scissored small, stands in for the third meat |
| Canned whole kernel corn | 1 can (15 oz) | do not drain |
| Canned diced potatoes | 1 can (15 oz) | drained |
| Canned lima or navy beans | 1 can (15 oz) | drained |
| Canned diced tomatoes | 1 can (28 oz) | |
| Tomato paste | 2 tbsp | tube, not can |
| Dried onion flakes | 1/4 cup | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Cayenne | 1/4 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1 tsp | |
| Vinegar | 1 tbsp | cider vinegar, carried in a small bottle |
| Cooking oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Water | 3 to 4 cups | |
| Salt | to taste | the cured meat brings most of it |
Method
- Build the fire early. You want a bed of coals, not flames, before the pot goes on.
- Set the dutch oven on a grate or in the coal bed. Heat the oil and brown the sausage cubes until the edges darken. Five minutes.
- Add the onion flakes, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne, and pepper. Stir for a minute so the spices hit the hot oil.
- Dump in the tomatoes, tomato paste, jerky, and 3 cups of water. Bring it to a boil, then rake coals away until it barely bubbles.
- Lid on. Let it go 45 minutes. Stir every 15 and add water if it tightens up too fast.
- Add the corn with its liquid, the drained potatoes, beans, and chicken. Simmer uncovered another 30 to 45 minutes until it pulls together and the jerky has gone soft.
- Stir in the vinegar off the heat. Taste, then salt.
Burgoo is a stew defined by its method, not its list. The traditional pot takes whatever game is left over at the end of a season, three or four kinds of meat, and cooks them down for hours in a tomato broth until nothing is identifiable anymore. That last part is the point. The long simmer is what turns a pile of odds and ends into one thing.
The trail version keeps the structure and swaps the freezer for the pantry. Canned chicken, cured sausage, and jerky give you the three-meat character without a cooler, and each contributes something different: the chicken shreds into the broth, the sausage holds its shape and leaks fat, the jerky rehydrates into chewy strands and carries smoke. Cans of vegetables are heavy, which is why this is a car-camping recipe. The vinegar at the end is not optional. Four cans of vegetables and a lot of cured meat go flat and sweet without acid to cut it.
Cook time is 90 minutes at a bare simmer. Shorter and the jerky stays leathery.
Packing
Cans travel in a milk crate so they do not roll around the truck bed. Premix the spices in one jar at home. Vinegar and oil ride in leakproof bottles inside a bag.
Variations
- Swap the chicken for two pouches of pulled pork if you can find it shelf-stable.
- A can of okra thickens it the way the traditional versions do.
- Cook it on a two-burner stove over the lowest flame if there is a fire ban.
https://realtree.com/timber-2-table-wild-game-recipes/kentucky-burgoo