Camp Pot Roast in a Dutch Oven
Chuck roast, onion soup mix, and root vegetables buried in coals for the afternoon.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 12 oz
- cal / oz
- 52
- protein
- 45 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 240 min
- total time
- 255 min
- water
- 600 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Beef chuck roast | 3 lb | rides in the cooler, bottom, under ice |
|---|---|---|
| Salt and black pepper | 1 tsp each | |
| Oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Dry onion soup mix | 1 envelope | |
| Cream of chicken or celery soup | 1 can (10.5 oz) | condensed, or 1 packet dry cream soup base plus 1 cup water |
| Carrots | 4, cut in thirds | |
| Small potatoes | 1.5 lb | red or yukon gold, halved if large |
| Pearl onions or a quartered yellow onion | 1 cup | |
| Beef broth or water | 1 cup |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals well before you want to eat. You need a bed, not flames.
- Salt and pepper the roast on every side. Heat the oil in the dutch oven over the coals and brown the meat hard on all faces, about ten minutes total. Do not skip this.
- Stir the onion soup mix and the cream soup together with the cup of broth and pour it over the roast.
- Lid on. Set the oven on a thin layer of coals and shovel more coals on the lid, roughly twice as many on top as below. Aim for a lazy simmer, not a boil.
- Cook three hours. Refresh the coals about every 45 minutes and rotate the oven and the lid a quarter turn each time so nothing scorches on one side.
- Add the potatoes, carrots, and onions. Lid back on, another hour, until a fork goes into the meat with no resistance.
- Pull the oven off the heat, shred the beef into the gravy, and serve out of the pot.
This is a home slow cooker recipe moved onto coals. The slow cooker was doing one thing — holding meat just under a simmer for eight hours — and a dutch oven buried in coals does the same job in about four, because the heat comes from all sides instead of the bottom. Chuck is the cut that rewards it: the connective tissue needs hours of low wet heat before it turns to gelatin, and there is no shortcut around that.
The searing step matters more than the sauce does. Browned meat is where the depth comes from; the soup mixes are mostly salt and thickener. Vegetables go in for the last hour only, otherwise they disintegrate into the gravy. This one needs a cooler, so it is a first-night car camping meal, not something to carry.
Packing
Roast pre-seasoned in a zip bag in the bottom of the cooler. Soup mix, canned soup, and vegetables in one crate. Bring the lid lifter and a small shovel or you will be moving coals with a stick.
Variations
- No cream soup: 3 tbsp flour whisked into the broth thickens it about as well.
- Parsnips, mushrooms, or celery all go in with the potatoes.
- Same recipe works on a two-burner stove at the lowest setting, lid on, four hours.
https://tastesbetterfromscratch.com/slow-cooker-pot-roast