Chili Chicken and Dumplings
Canned chili and chicken under a cornmeal biscuit lid, baked in a dutch oven over coals.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 37
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 55 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Canned chicken breast | 2 cans (10 oz each) | do not drain |
|---|---|---|
| Tomato sauce | 1 can (15 oz) | |
| Chili beans | 2 cans (15 oz each) | liquid included, it is the sauce |
| Canned corn | 1 can (8 oz) | undrained |
| Bisquick | 1 1/2 cups | |
| Cornmeal | 1/2 cup | |
| Powdered milk plus water | 2/3 cup reconstituted | 3 tbsp powder to 2/3 cup water |
| Shredded cheddar | 1/2 cup | a hard block grated in camp keeps longer |
Method
- Build a coal bed and get a 12-inch dutch oven up to a stewing heat, roughly 350F. Coals mostly underneath for now.
- Dump in the chicken with its liquid and the tomato sauce. Bring it to a boil, then pull coals until it drops to a low simmer. Ten minutes, stirring now and then.
- Add the beans and corn, liquid and all. Bring it back to a boil.
- While that heats, stir the Bisquick, cornmeal, and reconstituted milk together in a bag or bowl until it holds as a soft dough. Do not work it past that point.
- Drop the dough in spoonfuls across the surface of the chili. Leave the lid off and stew ten minutes.
- Lid on, ten more minutes. The dumplings should be dry to the touch on top.
- Scatter the cheese over the dumplings. Move coals to the lid and bake ten minutes, until the cheese is melted.
This is a car-camping recipe and it stays one. Nearly all the weight is water sealed inside cans, so it is heavy to carry and cheap to cook. The payoff is that no rehydration step exists to get wrong: the bean and corn liquid is the sauce, and undrained chicken keeps the base loose enough that the dumplings poach instead of scorching.
The dumplings need the two-stage lid. Uncovered first so the surface liquid boils off and the dough sets from below, then covered so trapped steam finishes the middle. Cover them from the start and you get a raw seam through the center. Coals go on the lid only for the cheese at the end, since heat from above before that will brown the tops long before the dough cooks through. Milk powder replaces fresh milk; it hydrates fine in the dough and needs no cooler.
Packing
Cans travel as-is. Premix the Bisquick, cornmeal, and milk powder in one bag at home so camp mixing is one bag plus water. Cheese in the cooler if you have one, otherwise carry a hard block and grate it at the fire.
Variations
- No dutch oven: skip the dumplings, heat the chili in a pot, and eat it over instant potato flakes.
- Swap the canned chicken for two foil pouches to cut a pound of packed weight.
- A can of diced green chiles in with the beans if the crowd wants heat.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/chili_chicken_and_dumplings-1242.asp