Dutch Oven Hashbrown Chicken Bake
Canned chicken, dried potatoes, and a cornflake lid. A camp casserole that needs no cooler.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 103
- protein
- 26 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 60 min
- water
- 900 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
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Dehydrated hashbrown potatoes | 7 oz box | the shelf-stable shredded kind, not frozen |
|---|---|---|
| Canned chicken | 10 oz | drained |
| Butter | 3/4 cup | or ghee, which does not care about heat |
| Cornflakes | 2 cups | |
| Cream of chicken soup mix | 1 packet | powdered condensed, about 2.5 oz |
| Sour cream powder | 3/4 cup | |
| Dried minced onion | 1/4 cup | |
| Shredded cheddar | 2 cups | vacuum-sealed keeps a few days unrefrigerated |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp |
Method
- Start 25 coals. You want about 17 on the lid and 8 underneath for 350 degrees in a 12-inch oven.
- Rehydrate the hashbrowns in a pot or bag with roughly 900 ml of boiling water. Give them ten minutes, then drain off anything that did not soak in.
- Melt half the butter in the dutch oven over the bottom coals. Toss the cornflakes in it until they darken, then pull them out and set them aside.
- Add the rest of the butter, the potatoes, chicken, soup mix, sour cream powder, dried onion, cheese, salt, and pepper. Stir until the powders are gone and no dry pockets remain.
- Scatter the cornflakes over the top. Lid on, coals on the lid, bake 40 minutes.
- Check the center. It should be hot through and set, not soupy. Ten more minutes if it is not.
The original is a church-basement casserole built on frozen potatoes, canned soup, and a pint of sour cream. None of that survives a weekend without a cooler, so all three get swapped for their dried versions: boxed hashbrowns, powdered condensed soup, and sour cream powder. The powders rehydrate off the same water the potatoes did not absorb, which is why draining matters. Drain too well and it goes dry; skip the drain and it stays soup.
The cornflakes are fried in butter first and added last for a reason. Stirred in early they turn to paste. Sitting on top under a lidful of coals, they brown and stay crisp, which is the only textural contrast in an otherwise soft pan. Cheese and butter carry the calories here, and there is no shame in the amount of either.
Packing
Combine soup mix, sour cream powder, dried onion, salt, and pepper in one bag at home. Cornflakes go in their own bag or you carry cornflake dust. Butter and cheese travel in the food bin, not the cooler.
Variations
- Swap the canned chicken for two foil pouches of chicken or a can of ham.
- No cornflakes: crushed crackers or french-fried onions do the same job.
- Half a cup of freeze-dried peas or corn stirred in at the mixing step adds something green.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/hashbrown_chicken_casserole-2240.asp