Dutch Oven Chicken Enchilada Pie
Canned chicken, enchilada sauce, and tortillas layered into a pot. Feeds eight off a fire ring.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 55
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 55 min
- water
- 240 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
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Canned white chicken | 3 cans, 12 oz each | do not drain, the liquid goes in |
|---|---|---|
| Condensed tomato soup | 1 can, 10 oz | |
| Enchilada sauce | 2 cans, 10 oz each | |
| Canned corn | 1 lb | drained |
| Sliced black olives | 1 small can | drained |
| Onion | 1 medium | chopped at home |
| Water | 1 cup | |
| Seasoned salt | 2 tsp | |
| Shredded cheddar or mozzarella | 1 lb | rides in the cooler |
| Flour tortillas | 8, 11-inch |
Method
- Build a coal bed and let the flames die down. You want embers, not fire.
- Dump the chicken and its canning liquid into a 12-inch dutch oven. Break it apart with a fork.
- Add the soup, both cans of enchilada sauce, corn, olives, onion, water, and seasoned salt. Stir it into one sauce.
- Set the oven over a light ring of coals and hold a simmer for 15 minutes, stirring now and then so the bottom does not scorch.
- Scoop about three quarters of the sauce into a spare pot. Leave a shallow layer behind.
- Cheese over that layer, then two tortillas. Sauce, cheese, two more tortillas. Keep going until the tortillas run out. Finish with sauce and cheese.
- Lid on. Bake 30 minutes at roughly 350F: about 17 coals on the lid, 8 underneath.
- Let it sit five minutes before serving. It stays loose, like a pot pie, not sliceable like lasagna.
This is a group dinner that scales to a patrol and cooks itself once the coals are set. Everything in the sauce comes out of a can, so the only cooler items are the cheese and the onion. The condensed tomato soup is not filler: it thickens the enchilada sauce enough to hold the layers together and takes some of the sharp edge off the chile.
Build the layers from the bottom up with sauce first, or the tortillas weld to the cast iron. The finished pie is deliberately loose. If you want it firmer, hold back half the water and check it at twenty minutes.
Packing
Cans and tortillas are shelf-stable and travel in the food bin. Cheese and the chopped onion go in the cooler in sealed bags. Chop the onion at home so you are not doing knife work on a tailgate.
Variations
- Swap one can of chicken for a can of black beans to stretch it further.
- Corn tortillas instead of flour hold their shape better and make it gluten-free.
- Top bowls with sour cream, green onion, or diced tomato from the cooler.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/chicken_enchilada_pie-2263.asp