Foil-Wrapped Dutch Oven Chicken
A whole bird, seasoned inside and out, wrapped in foil and buried in coals until it falls apart.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 12 oz
- cal / oz
- 43
- protein
- 48 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 150 min
- total time
- 160 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
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Whole frying chicken | 3 lb | kept cold in the cooler until it goes in the pot |
|---|---|---|
| Poultry seasoning | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried basil | 1/4 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Heavy-duty aluminum foil | 2 arm-lengths |
Method
- Build the fire early and let it burn down. You want coals, not flame, and you want plenty of them.
- Rinse the bird and dry it well with paper towels. A wet skin steams instead of browning.
- Mix the salt, pepper, and poultry seasoning, then rub it through the cavity.
- Lay the chicken on a doubled sheet of foil, scatter the basil over the outside, and fold the foil into a sealed packet with the seams on top.
- Set the packet in a 12-inch dutch oven, lid on. Ring 8 to 10 coals under the oven and 16 to 18 across the lid to hold roughly 350F.
- Cook 90 minutes, then refresh the coals and check. Thigh meat should pull off the bone with no resistance. A larger bird or a cool night can push this past two hours.
- Open the packet away from your face. There will be a lot of steam and a lot of juice at the bottom. Save it.
This is car-camp cooking and it does not pretend otherwise: a whole raw chicken means a cooler and a long fire. The foil is what makes it work over coals. Coal heat swings, and a bare bird in a hot dutch oven scorches on the bottom long before the thighs are done. Sealed in foil, the chicken cooks in its own steam and the foil takes the abuse instead of the skin.
The seasoning goes in the cavity rather than on the skin because wrapped chicken does not crisp, so anything rubbed outside mostly rinses off in the juices. Inside, it works through the meat as it cooks. Keep the foil seams facing up. Every bit of liquid that escapes is flavor going into the bottom of the pot, and the pot is what you have to scrub.
Packing
Premix the four seasonings into one small jar at home so you are not opening four containers at the fire. Chicken stays in the bottom of the cooler on ice, in a bag, below everything you eat raw.
Variations
- Drop quartered potatoes and carrots into the foil alongside the bird. They cook in the juices and you skip a second pot.
- Pull the leftover meat off the bones for tacos or wraps the next day. It keeps one more day on ice, no longer.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/dutch_oven_chicken-584.asp