Dutch Oven Beef Stew
Beef, canned tomatoes, and root vegetables braised low in the coals until the meat gives up.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 37
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 210 min
- total time
- 230 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
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Beef stew meat, cut in chunks | 2 1/2 lb | cut and salted at home, kept cold in the cooler |
|---|---|---|
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Carrots | 6 | peeled, 1-inch pieces |
| Onions | 3 | quartered |
| Garlic | 6 cloves | smashed |
| Tomato paste | 1 tbsp | tube, not a can, so leftovers keep |
| Worcestershire sauce | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried thyme | 1 tsp | stands in for 2 fresh sprigs |
| Bay leaves | 2 | |
| Red wine or beef broth | 1 cup | |
| Whole tomatoes, canned | 28 oz | |
| Crushed tomatoes, canned | 28 oz | |
| Beef broth or water | 1 cup | only if the pot runs dry |
| Cornstarch | 1 tbsp | whisked into 2 tbsp cold water, optional |
| Freeze-dried peas | 1 cup | replaces the frozen bag |
| Vinegar | 1 tsp | |
| Dried parsley | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals well before you want to eat. You need a steady bed, not flames.
- Pat the beef dry and season it hard with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in the dutch oven over the coals.
- Sear the beef in batches, two minutes a side, until every piece is browned. Crowding it steams the meat instead. Pull the batches onto a plate.
- Add the onions, carrots, and garlic to the fat. Stir until the onions go translucent, then work in the tomato paste and let it darken for a minute.
- Pour in the wine or broth and scrape the bottom of the pot clean. Return the beef and any juices.
- Add both cans of tomatoes, the Worcestershire, thyme, and bay leaves. Break the whole tomatoes apart with your spoon.
- Lid on. Bank coals underneath and a heavier layer on the lid, aiming for a low oven, roughly 300F. Rotate the pot and the lid a quarter turn every twenty minutes so it does not scorch on one side.
- Cook 3 to 3 1/2 hours, checking hourly. Refresh the coals as they die. Add the extra cup of broth or water if the stew tightens up.
- When the beef pulls apart under a spoon, stir in the peas and let them rehydrate for five minutes. Thicken with the cornstarch slurry if you want it heavier.
- Pull the bay leaves. Add the vinegar and parsley off the heat and taste for salt.
This is a base camp dish, not a trail dish. The whole point is time: three-plus hours of low heat is what turns cheap stew meat into something that falls apart, and no shortcut over a canister stove gets you there. If you have a fire and an afternoon, you have the two things it needs.
Two changes from a kitchen version. Frozen peas do not survive a cooler, so freeze-dried peas go in at the end and rehydrate in the stew itself. Fresh thyme becomes dried, measured into the spice jar at home. Everything else already travels: canned tomatoes, a tube of paste, onions and carrots that need no refrigeration. The vinegar at the end is not optional cleanup work. Three hours of tomato and beef goes flat and heavy, and the acid pulls it back into focus.
Packing
Cut and season the beef at home and freeze it flat in a bag; it thaws over the first day and doubles as a cooler block. Measure the thyme, parsley, bay, and pepper into one small jar. Cans and the tomato paste tube ride in the dry box.
Variations
- Swap in 2 lb of quartered potatoes for the last hour and skip the cornstarch.
- No cooler: use two 12 oz cans of roast beef, added at the end instead of seared. Shorter cook, less depth.
- A spoonful of the leftovers on tortillas is a solid second-day lunch.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/oven-beef-stew