Dutch Oven Burrito Filling
Beef, sausage, beans, and rice cooked down in one dutch oven, then spooned into tortillas warmed under the lid.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 65
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 10, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 50 min
- water
- 420 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
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Cooking oil | 2 tbsp | |
|---|---|---|
| Onion | 1 large, diced | |
| Lean ground beef | 1 lb | |
| Bulk pork sausage | 1 lb | |
| Bell pepper | 1, diced | |
| Canned black beans | 2 cans | drained |
| Canned corn | 1 can | drained |
| Chicken broth | 1 14 oz can | |
| Taco seasoning | 1 packet | |
| Instant rice | enough for 3 cups cooked | |
| Flour tortillas | 18 to 24 | |
| Shredded Mexican-blend cheese | 2 cups | |
| Salsa and hot sauce | to taste | shelf-stable, no cooler needed |
Method
- Build coals and set a 12-inch dutch oven over them at roughly 350F, arranged for frying.
- Add the oil, then the onion. Cook until it goes soft and translucent.
- Add the beef and sausage. Break the meat apart as it browns and cook it through.
- Stir in the pepper, beans, corn, broth, and taco seasoning. Bring it up to a boil, then hold a simmer for five minutes.
- Stir in the instant rice, put the lid on, and move the oven onto three or four coals. Wait five minutes.
- Check it. If the rice is still firm and the pot is dry, add a splash of water and give it another five minutes.
- Once the rice is soft and the liquid is gone, lay the tortilla stack flat on top of the filling and put the lid back. Five minutes over two or three coals softens them.
- Spoon filling into a tortilla, add cheese, and pass the hot sauce.
This is a large-group dutch oven dinner and it stays that way here, because the design only works at volume: two pounds of meat and three cups of rice is what fills twenty tortillas. The rice goes in last and finishes off the broth already in the pot, so there is no draining step and no second vessel. Get that ratio wrong and you either have soup or crunchy rice, which is why the recipe tells you to check at five minutes and add water rather than guessing up front.
The tortilla trick at the end is the part worth keeping. Steam coming off the filling warms the whole stack under the lid, which means no griddle, no foil, and no cold tortillas cracking as people roll them. Everything but the meat and cheese is shelf-stable, so the cooler only has to hold two items.
Packing
Onion and pepper get diced at home and bagged. Meat rides frozen at the bottom of the cooler and thaws on the drive. Cans, seasoning, rice, and tortillas live in the dry box.
Variations
- Swap both meats for two cans of drained lentils or a bag of soy crumbles and use vegetable broth.
- Cut the meat to one pound and add a third can of beans if the group is small on appetite.
- Leftover filling reheats in the same oven the next morning with eggs cracked over the top.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/burritos-2093.asp