Hot-and-Spicy Shredded BBQ Beef
A chuck roast goes into the dutch oven with water and comes out three and a half hours later as sandwich filling for eight.
- calories
- 540
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 60
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 20 min
- cook
- 210 min
- total time
- 230 min
- water
- 1000 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
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Beef chuck roast | 2 lb | cooler item, keep it cold until it hits the pot |
|---|---|---|
| Celery | 1/2 cup chopped | |
| Onion | 1/2 cup chopped | |
| Green pepper | 1/2 cup chopped | |
| Water | about 1 quart | enough to just cover the meat |
| Ketchup | 1 1/2 cup | |
| Taco sauce | 3 tbsp | |
| Brown sugar | 2 tbsp | |
| Vinegar | 2 tbsp | |
| Minced garlic | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1 tsp | |
| Dry mustard | 1 tsp | |
| Chili powder | 1 tsp | |
| Bay leaf | 1 | |
| Hamburger buns | 8 |
Method
- Set the roast in a 12-inch dutch oven with the celery, onion, and pepper. Pour in water until the meat is just under the surface.
- Bury the oven in coals for a simmer, around 325 to 350 degrees. Give it two and a half hours. Check the water once an hour and top it up if the meat is going dry.
- Lift the meat out onto a plate or a clean lid. Leave every drop of liquid in the pot. Pull the roast apart into fist-sized chunks so it cools faster.
- Once you can handle it, shred the beef with two forks and put it back in the pot.
- Add the ketchup, taco sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, garlic, salt, dry mustard, chili powder, and bay leaf. Stir.
- Cook another hour, lid on, coals lighter than before. It should thicken enough to sit on bread. Pull the bay leaf out.
- Pile it on buns. Feeds eight.
The long first cook is not about flavor, it is about collagen. Chuck is a working muscle and it stays tough until the connective tissue breaks down into gelatin, which takes hours of wet heat and cannot be rushed with a hotter fire. Water, not sauce, does that work. Sugar and tomato in the pot for three hours would scorch against the cast iron long before the meat gave up.
So the sauce goes in second, after the shredding, and the hour that follows is just reduction. The cooking liquid is already loaded with beef and vegetables, and boiling it down with the ketchup concentrates both. Do the chopping and the sauce mixing at home. In camp this becomes two bags dumped into a pot, which matters when you are managing coals at the same time.
Packing
Chop the celery, onion, and pepper at home and bag them. Mix the ketchup through the chili powder in a second bag or jar so the sauce goes in as one pour. The roast rides in the cooler on the bottom, buns on top where nothing crushes them.
Variations
- Ten-inch dutch oven: cut everything to about two thirds and keep the same heat and timing.
- No taco sauce in the bin means a splash of hot sauce and a pinch of cumin gets close.
- Skip the buns and serve it over instant rice or potato flakes if you would rather not carry bread.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/hotnspicey_bbq_beef-1236.asp