Ready to Cook

There are a couple of ways to do this. You can pre-prepare your ingredients at home or prepare the whole meal in camp. It’s totally up to you. If you are pre-preparing at home, don’t cut your potatoes until you get to camp.

You could set your charcoal briquettes or wood to fire and get your coals ready for the Dutch oven. Or, you could get everything chopped up and ready before setting the fire. It’s up to you.

We’ll be frying our bacon and sautéing our chicken, onions, and garlic first. Set your Dutch oven up for frying. For our 12-inch Dutch oven, we’ll need 24 briquettes or the equivalent in wood embers. 

Later, we’ll be baking the dish. Considering the 12-inch Dutch oven and the baking method, when the time comes, we’ll place 16 briquettes on the top and 8 briquettes on the bottom. 

Learn how to heat a camp cast iron Dutch oven here: https://beerandiron.com/how-to-heat-camp-cast-iron-dutch-oven/ 

This recipe will cook in two parts. You will need a second batch of briquettes when it comes time to cook the top biscuits.

Step 1:  Tenderize 3-4 Large Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts. Brine them in a beer/salt brine for about 1 hour then pat dry. You could pre-prepare the chicken at home and carry it to camp in a doubled zipper bag or other container. 

Here’s the link on how to make a beer brine: https://beerandiron.com/2023/02/simple-roasted-chicken (This recipe shows how to brine a whole chicken but the brine recipe is the very same). 

Step 2: Pull out the frozen veggies and let them start warming up to “room” temperature. Or, rather, “the great outdoor’s” temperature.

Step 3: Cut the chicken breast meat into larger bite-sized pieces. Pat dry the chicken breast meat. Place the cut, pat-dried chicken meat into the 1/2 cup of flour and coat the pieces. They will eventually stick together and the flour will be a bit sticky; that’s A-OK. Set the floured chicken aside. 

Step 3: Cut up the onion and the garlic. Set aside.

Step 4: With the cast iron camp Dutch oven over 30-briquettes (or more), render the fat from some of the fatty bacon (cut or not cut). 

Step 5: While the bacon fat is rendering, wash and cut the potatoes into bite-sized chunks. Skin on or skin off; it’s up to you. I just leave it on.  You could place the cut potatoes in a bowl of water (optional).

Step 6: Brown the chicken pieces up until they are no longer pink…and just before they are safe to eat. Chicken is considered “done” at 165°F / 74°C. I will cook a bit more when we put this all together. NOTE: Don’t overwhelm your pot with the chicken. Sear/brown in batches. Add more bacon if you need more fat.

Step 7: Once the chicken is browned remove the chicken from the pot and then sauté the onions and garlic until the onions are clear…not so clear as to be able to read newsprint through them, but you get the point. NOTE: If you need more cooking fat, you can add more bacon before adding the onions and garlic.

Step 8: Here’s the easy step: After you’ve sautéed the onions and garlic, return the chicken to the pot. Then, mix in the veggies, evaporated milk, cans of soup, potatoes, poultry seasoning, and Worcestershire Sauce. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Step 9: Mix all the ingredients in the pot all about and smooth out the top. The mixture should not be too runny nor should it “set” like pudding either. If the mixture is too thick (more than likely), add some of the reserved beer.

NOTE: We’re not creating soup. And, the ingredients in the pot all have moisture to some degree. We want it thick but not too thick.

Step 10: Bring the mixture to a bubbling boil. Don’t let it stick to the bottom. If it’s sticking, add some beer to thin it out. Once the mixture is bubbling, set the camp Dutch oven to bake.

If your briquettes have burned down too much, you will need to use a fresh batch.

Place 16 briquettes on the top of the oven and 8 under the oven and let the mixture cook until the potatoes are soft and taste done (careful on sampling those potatoes…they are HOT!). 

Step 11: While the mixture is heating up to a “bubble,” prepare the dry ingredients for the biscuits. Mix together in a bowl: 

• 2 Cups of All Purpose White Flour
• 1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
• 1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
• 1 Teaspoon Salt

Blend all these ingredients together. Then, cut in the butter with the pastry cutter. You want a cornmeal consistency. 

Don’t add the buttermilk (or other liquids) yet. Store the dry biscuit ingredients in a cold place (like the ice chest) for now. 

Step 12: Once the potatoes are cooked (and the chicken is at least 165°F / 74°C), prepare the biscuits.

Note: How do your briquettes look? Do you need to start another set?

Biscuit Steps

A word on the biscuits. Homemade biscuits are my preference. However, a can of biscuits will work perfectly in this recipe. It’s up to you.

Biscuit Step 1: Add the buttermilk (or other liquid) to the dry biscuit ingredients. 

Biscuit Step 2: Using the rubber / silicone spatula, mix the biscuit ingredients until you have a sticky dough mixture. 

Biscuit Step 3: Remove the dough and set on a floured surface. Don’t knead the dough. Just flatten the dough and then fold over a few times. Dust with flour if it’s too sticky. Coat with a bit of flour so the dough does not stick to the surface nor your hands. 

You’ll want to flatten the dough a bit thinner than you would if you were making morning biscuits. We want these biscuits to be a bit thinner than normal. 

Biscuit Step 4: Cut the biscuits with a biscuit cutter. You could form them with your hands or cut them with a knife. No worries. Cutting with a biscuit cutter gives the best results. And, they all don’t have to be round either. Cut them “any which way but loose.” They may have half-moon shapes and that’s okay. We’ll piece these together in a bit.

Biscuit Step 5: Place the cut biscuits on the top of the cooked pot pie mixture. Just puzzle them in. If you run out of room, just shove the last one or two in sideways.

Biscuit Step 6: Scramble the raw egg. Using the basting brush, “paint” the top of the biscuits with the raw egg.

Return the lid to the pot.

Step 13: The hot pot pie mixture is our biscuit’s “bottom heat.” We need to heat the top of the Dutch oven. Place any of the remaining briquettes from the bottom of the Dutch oven to the top of the Dutch oven. Add the equivalent of about 20 briquettes to the top and let the biscuits bake. 

Step 14: After about 10 minutes, check on the biscuits. How do they look? Turn the lid 1/3rd turn. Let the biscuits cook until they are nice and golden brown. 

NOTE: If they look like they are done but are not browning up, add more briquettes to the top of the oven. 

Once the biscuits have brown up nicely, your meal is ready to eat!!