Dutch Oven Chicken and Root Vegetables
Flour-dredged chicken browned in a pot, then buried under potatoes and carrots and left alone for an hour.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 16 oz
- cal / oz
- 39
- protein
- 52 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 70 min
- total time
- 90 min
- water
- 250 ml cold
- 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
| Boneless chicken breasts | 8 | kept cold until they hit the pot |
|---|---|---|
| All-purpose flour | 1 cup | |
| Poultry seasoning | 1 tbsp | |
| Potatoes | 4 | skin on, no refrigeration needed |
| Carrots | 4 | |
| Cooking oil | enough for 1/2 inch in the pot | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals, or light a chimney of charcoal. You want steady heat, not flames.
- Cut the potatoes and carrots into half-inch chunks. Uniform size matters more than shape here.
- Shake the flour and poultry seasoning together in a gallon freezer bag. Drop in one breast at a time and shake until coated. Do the potato chunks last, in the same bag.
- Pour half an inch of oil into a 12-inch dutch oven and set it over coals. When a pinch of flour sizzles, the oil is ready.
- Brown the chicken on both sides. Work in batches so the pieces are not touching. Crowding steams them.
- Pull the pot off the heat and pour off the oil. Leave the browned bits.
- Add about a quarter inch of water, then pile the potatoes and carrots on top of the chicken.
- Lid on. Bake at 350 with coals above and below for an hour. Lift the lid every twenty minutes and add a splash of water if the bottom has gone dry.
This is a car-camping recipe and it stays one. Eight chicken breasts and half an inch of frying oil do not belong in a pack, and there is no shelf-stable version of raw chicken. If you are walking to camp, use the canned-chicken variation and treat the rest as a braise.
The flour dredge does two jobs. It browns into a crust in the hot oil, and what falls off thickens the small amount of water in the bottom into a gravy over the hour. That water level is the whole recipe. Too much and the chicken poaches; dry and the flour scorches onto the cast iron. A quarter inch, checked every twenty minutes, is the target.
Packing
Mix the flour and seasoning at home and carry it in the bag you will dredge in. Chicken rides in the cooler on the bottom, under everything else, sealed twice.
Variations
- Swap half the potatoes for parsnips or turnips. Same cook time.
- A quartered onion under the chicken gives the pan liquid something to work with.
- No cooler? Two 12.5 oz cans of chicken, drained, added after the vegetables. Skip the frying step and bake for 40 minutes.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/dutch_oven_chicken_breast_dinner-585.asp