Dutch Oven BBQ Beef and Potato Hash
Ground beef, bacon, and cubed potatoes browned down in a dutch oven with a spoonful of barbecue sauce.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 52 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 50 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
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Ground beef | 3 lb | 80/20; keep it cold until it hits the pot |
|---|---|---|
| Bacon | 5 slices | chopped |
| Eggs | 2 | |
| Baking potatoes | 2 medium | cubed small, about half an inch |
| White onion | 1 small | chopped |
| Green bell pepper | 1 | cubed |
| Garlic | 1 clove | crushed |
| BBQ sauce | 2 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build a bed of coals or set the dutch oven over a grate on a medium fire. You want steady heat, not flames.
- Mix the eggs into the raw beef in a bowl or bag until you stop seeing streaks of yolk.
- Film the pot with the oil, add the bacon, and render it until the fat runs.
- Add the beef in loose handfuls. Break it apart and brown it, pouring off fat if it starts to pool deep.
- Stir in the BBQ sauce, then the potatoes, onion, pepper, and garlic.
- Cover and cook 20 to 25 minutes, stirring every five so the bottom does not scorch. Done when a potato cube crushes against the spoon and no beef is pink.
- Salt and pepper at the end, after the sauce has had its say.
This is camp cooking that trades weight for simplicity. Three pounds of beef, a couple of potatoes, and one pot going over coals for half an hour. It is not backpacking food and it does not pretend to be — the meat and eggs need a cooler, so this is a car-camping or basecamp dinner cooked the day you drive in.
The eggs mixed into the raw beef are the part that looks odd and matters most. They bind the meat so it browns in clumps rather than dissolving into gravel, which gives the hash texture once the potatoes go in. Cut the potatoes small; anything bigger than half an inch will still be raw when the beef is done. The BBQ sauce is a seasoning here, not a sauce — two teaspoons across three pounds is background, so taste before you salt.
Packing
Cube the potatoes and chop the onion, pepper, and bacon at home and bag them separately. Beef and eggs ride in the cooler bottom, on ice, until you cook.
Variations
- Swap the potatoes for a bag of frozen diced hash browns; they thaw on the drive and cook faster.
- Two tablespoons of BBQ sauce instead of two teaspoons if you want to actually taste it.
- Leftovers go into tortillas the next morning, cold or reheated.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/doggie-dinner