Dutch Oven Pineapple Chicken
Canned chicken, canned pineapple, and molasses baked over coals with sweet potatoes.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 60 min
- total time
- 70 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
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Chicken breast, canned or foil pouch | 6 servings, about 30 oz total | fresh works from a cooler if you have one |
|---|---|---|
| Flour | 1/4 cup | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Light molasses | 2/3 cup | |
| Prepared mustard | 1 tbsp | a squeeze packet stack works |
| Cider vinegar | 1 tbsp | |
| Sliced pineapple | 1 can, 8 oz | keep the juice, it is half the sauce |
| Sweet potatoes | 1 can, 16 oz | drained |
| Instant rice or quick noodles | 3 cups dry |
Method
- Build a bed of coals and set the 12-inch dutch oven over about 25 of them to get it to frying heat, roughly 350 degrees.
- Shake the flour, salt, and pepper together in a bag. Cut the chicken into strips and toss it in the bag until coated.
- Heat the oil in the oven and brown the chicken in batches. Pull it out onto a plate.
- Drain the pineapple into a cup or bowl. Stir the juice together with the molasses, mustard, and vinegar.
- Return the chicken to the oven and add the drained sweet potatoes. Brush half the sauce over everything.
- Lid on, coals moved to baking placement: about 8 under and 17 on top. Bake 30 minutes.
- Lay the pineapple rings across the top, brush on the rest of the sauce, and bake another 30 minutes.
- Boil water on a second stove or the fire ring during that last half hour and hydrate the rice or noodles. Serve the chicken over them.
Molasses is doing the structural work. It is thick enough to glaze without reducing, so the sauce clings to chicken instead of pooling under it, and the vinegar and mustard cut it back from candy. Half the sauce goes on early so it soaks in during the first bake, half goes on late so it stays glossy.
The pineapple waits until the second half. An hour under coals turns rings to mush, and the acid in the juice is already in the sauce. Canned chicken and canned sweet potatoes replace the fresh version, which drops the cooler requirement entirely and shortens the browning step, since the chicken is already cooked and only needs color.
Packing
Flour, salt, and pepper premixed in a bag at home. Cans and molasses in a bin, oil in a leakproof bottle. Bring the lid lifter and a glove; the second coal shuffle happens with the oven full and hot.
Variations
- Swap the sweet potatoes for canned yams or a can of drained carrots.
- Brown sugar and a splash of soy sauce stand in for the molasses if you cannot find it.
- Dried pineapple rings soaked in water work when you want less can weight, but you lose the juice and need to thin the sauce.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/dutch_oven_pineapple_chicken-586.asp