Camp Dutch Oven Pot Roast
Three hours of coals and one pot. The car-camping meal you start early and forget about.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 44
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 210 min
- total time
- 230 min
- water
- 350 ml cold
- 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Beef chuck roast | 2.5 lb | one piece, trimmed at home |
|---|---|---|
| Yellow onion | 1 large | quartered |
| Carrots | 4 | cut into thick chunks so they survive the full cook |
| Waxy potatoes | 1.5 lb | halved, skin on |
| Garlic | 4 cloves | smashed |
| Tomato paste | 2 tbsp | tube, not can |
| Beef bouillon | 2 cubes | check the label if you need it gluten-free |
| Neutral oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried thyme, bay leaf, salt, pepper | 1 tsp thyme, 1 leaf, salt and pepper to taste |
Method
- Build a fire early and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame, and enough of them to keep going three hours.
- Set the dutch oven directly on coals. Heat the oil and brown the roast hard on both sides, about five minutes a side. Do not skip this.
- Pull the meat out. Drop in the onion and garlic, stir until they pick up the browned bits, then stir in the tomato paste for a minute.
- Return the roast. Add 350 ml of water, the crumbled bouillon, thyme, and bay. Lid on.
- Move the oven off the direct heat to a bed of about eight coals underneath and fifteen on the lid. Cook two hours, refreshing coals as they die.
- Add the carrots and potatoes around the meat. Lid back on, another hour, until a fork twists in the beef without resistance.
- Pull the pot, rest it ten minutes, then shred the roast in the liquid and serve from the oven.
Pot roast is a camp meal disguised as a Sunday dinner. A dutch oven buried in coals holds a low, steady temperature better than most home ovens, and chuck is the cut that wants exactly that: three hours of moist heat to break down the connective tissue into something you can pull apart with a spoon.
The two rules are browning and coal management. Searing the meat first is where the color and most of the flavor in the liquid comes from, and skipping it leaves you with grey beef in salty water. Coals on the lid matter as much as coals underneath — heat from above keeps the top of the roast cooking instead of steaming. Add the vegetables late or they turn to mush an hour before the beef is done.
Packing
Cube-free prep at home: trim the roast, cut the vegetables, and bag them separately. Mix thyme, salt, pepper, and crumbled bouillon into one small jar. The roast and vegetables live in the cooler; everything else rides in the food bin.
Variations
- A splash of red wine in place of half the water deepens the liquid.
- Swap the chuck for lamb shanks and add an hour.
- Cornstarch slurry stirred in at the end turns the braising liquid into gravy.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/pages/slow-cooked-recipes-for-winter