Dutch Oven Franks and Beans
Hot dogs, bacon, and two cans of beans, cooked over coals until the sauce goes thick.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 49
- protein
- 19 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 45 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
- Basic
Ingredients
| Hot dogs | 8 | cut into 1-inch pieces |
|---|---|---|
| Bacon | 3 slices | chopped small |
| Onion | 1 small | about 1/4 cup chopped |
| Canned baked beans | 2 15-oz cans | |
| Ketchup | 1/2 cup | |
| Brown sugar | 3 tbsp | |
| Worcestershire sauce | 2 tbsp | |
| Chili powder | 2 tsp | |
| Lemon juice | 1 tbsp | bottled is fine |
| Garlic salt | 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Build a bed of coals. Set the 12-inch dutch oven over about 25 coals to get it hot for frying, roughly 375F.
- Fry the chopped bacon until crisp. Lift it out with a spoon and set it aside. Leave the fat in the pot.
- Cook the onion in the bacon fat until it browns at the edges.
- Add the hot dog pieces and let them fry five minutes. You want color on them, not just heat.
- Dump in both cans of beans with their sauce, then the ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire, chili powder, lemon juice, and garlic salt. Stir once.
- Put the lid on and pull coals until you are at a simmer, around 225F. Roughly 8 coals under and 8 on the lid.
- Simmer 25 minutes. Stir a couple of times so the bottom does not scorch.
- Scatter the bacon over the top right before you serve.
This is a cooler meal, not a pack meal. Two cans of beans weigh close to two pounds, so it belongs in a car or a basecamp and nowhere near a backpack. In exchange you get six real dinners out of one pot and one heat source.
The order of operations is doing the work. Bacon fat is the cooking medium for the onion, and frying the hot dog pieces before the beans go in gives them browned edges the sauce cannot supply later. The 25 minutes under the lid is not about cooking anything through, since the beans arrive cooked. It is about driving off enough liquid that the ketchup and brown sugar tighten into a glaze. The bacon goes on at the end so it stays crisp.
Packing
Measure the ketchup, brown sugar, Worcestershire, chili powder, lemon juice, and garlic salt into one screw-top jar at home. It is one pour at camp instead of six containers. Hot dogs, bacon, and the onion ride in the cooler; the cans do not.
Variations
- No dutch oven: a deep skillet with a lid over a grill grate does the same job, but watch the bottom more closely.
- Swap the hot dogs for a can of Vienna sausages or summer sausage and the whole meal goes shelf-stable.
- Smoked paprika in place of half the chili powder if you are cooking over gas instead of coals.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/fancy_franks_and_beans-1311.asp