Dutch Oven Potato Soup
Bacon, onion, and potatoes in a cast iron pot, thickened with powdered milk instead of a fridge run.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 18 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 55 min
- water
- 700 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
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Potatoes | 2 lb | peeled, cubed, and parcooked at home |
|---|---|---|
| Bacon | 6 slices | chopped; cook it the first night out |
| White onion | 1 medium | diced at home in a bag |
| Canned corn | 1 can (15 oz) | drained |
| Cream of chicken soup | 1 can (10.5 oz) | |
| Chicken stock | 3 cups | boxed or from bouillon and water |
| Powdered whole milk | 1/3 cup | reconstituted in 1 cup water |
| Sour cream powder | 3 tbsp | or 1/2 cup real sour cream from the cooler |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build a bed of coals or set the Dutch oven on a grate over a low fire. You want a steady simmer, not a roar.
- Cook the chopped bacon and onion together until the bacon crisps and the onion goes clear. Ten minutes or so.
- Pour in the stock and scrape the bottom of the pot hard. Everything stuck down there is flavor.
- Stir in the parcooked potatoes, drained corn, and the can of soup.
- Whisk the milk powder into a cup of water, add it with the sour cream powder, and stir until no lumps float.
- Simmer 30 minutes, stirring every few minutes so the bottom does not scorch. Salt and pepper at the end.
Potatoes take forever over a fire and burn on the bottom while the middle stays raw. Parcooking them at home fixes that, and it turns a 90-minute pot into a 30-minute simmer. Cube, boil or microwave until a fork goes through, cool, bag.
The fresh milk and sour cream from the original are the parts a cooler can’t be trusted with on day three, so both go powdered. Milk powder rehydrated at one-third cup to a cup of water carries the same body, and sour cream powder brings the sourness back without a tub sloshing around. The bacon fat left in the pot is doing most of the work either way.
Packing
Parcook and cube the potatoes at home, then bag them and keep them in the cooler. Dice the onion at home too. Cans, milk powder, and sour cream powder ride in the food bin.
Variations
- Skip the bacon and use vegetable stock and cream of celery for a meatless pot.
- A bay leaf and a shake of garlic powder in the simmer are worth the weight.
- Mash a few potato chunks against the side of the pot if you want it thicker.
https://campfirefoodie.com/dutch-oven-potato-soup