Cantina Jack Chicken Recipe in a Cast Iron Camp Dutch Oven

Tenderized and Brined Chicken Breasts rolled and centered with Pepper Jack Cheese, buttered, and corn flake-battered on a bed of vegetables all cooked in a Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven. This is a crowd-pleaser for sure.

Grab your 12-Inch Deep Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven and ¡vamos a empezar esta fiesta! (let’s get this party started!).

Let me get this out up front. This is really a super easy recipe. Create this recipe once and then you’ll forever and ever create this recipe from memory. It’s just that easy.

This recipe article contains affiliate links.

For this recipe, I am using the deep 12-inch camp cast iron Dutch oven. We use a second 10-inch camp cast iron Dutch oven as a “warming pot” and to roll the chicken in the cornflakes. I am using a third 8-inch camp cast iron Dutch oven for melting my butter.

You will need your 12-inch camp cast iron Dutch oven for the recipe but the other two Dutch ovens are optional. Use what you have. No worries.

12-Inch Deep Cast Iron Dutch Oven with the Notch (Camp Chef’s Version: https://amzn.to/3F2ej15

Lodge’s Version: https://amzn.to/3ZJODzH

10-Inch Cast Iron Dutch Oven: https://amzn.to/3PJHQS1

8-Inch Cast Iron Dutch Oven: https://amzn.to/3rAxjkb

Or a Skillet like this: https://amzn.to/3rDKjp7

NOTE: You don’t have to use a Dutch Oven with a Temperature Probe Notch, any Deep 12-Inch Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven will Work. If you are using a regular Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven, cut the vegetable ingredient amounts in half. If you are using a 10-Inch Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven, cut both the vegetable ingredients and the number of chicken breasts in half.

Supplies You May Need

Tenderizing and Pre-Preparing the Chicken

Cutting Board
Needle Tenderizer (https://amzn.to/46E8zX6)
Tenderizing Mallet
Larger Zipper Bag (https://amzn.to/3Q8V3FC)
Paper Towels
Drying / Cooling Rack (Optional – https://amzn.to/3ZHiyZn)

Prepare the Vegetables

Colander or Strainer to let the Vegetables Drain
Bowl to Catch the Liquid from the Vegetables
Spoon or Rubber Spatula to Stir the Vegetables
Parchment Paper to Cover the Vegetables (I use Parchment Paper in Other Parts of the Recipe as Well).

Cut the Cheese

Cutting Board
Knife
Parchment Paper to Wrap the Cheese
Bowl or other Container to Store the Cheese

For the Cornflakes

Gallon-Sized Zipper Bag
Rolling Pin (Optional)
A Container that is Large Enough to Hold the Crushed Cornflakes and Room to Allow for Rolling the Chicken in the Crushed Cornflakes

Cooking the Chicken

The Temperature Probe – Meat Thermometer
Charcoal Briquette Chimney
Tongs to Manipulate the Briquettes
Wind Screen (Optional)
Cooking Surface (Optional) – I use an Upside Down Garbage Can Lid

Shredding the Cheese

Cutting Board (I am going to cook this cheese and am going to use the same cutting board)
Cheese Shredder
Parchment Paper to Wrap the Shredded Cheese
Bowl or Container to Store the Shredded Cheese (I just use the same one I used for the Pepper Jack Cheese Logs)

Pepper Rings / Rounds

Knife
Cutting Board

Also

Lid Stand
Lid Lifter
Leather Gloves
Serving spoons

To better understand the ingredients, let’s take a quick look at the way this recipe is “stacked.” First, we are going to tenderize and brine our chicken at home and pack it up for easy-does-it in camp.

In camp, we’re going to prepare everything and get it all set up.

Third, we’re going to pre cook our chicken a bit.

Fourth, we’ll add the vegetables (remember the reference to “base ingredients”) and the cheese.

Fifth, well…there ain’t no fifth. Fifth is: We gonna EAT!

For the Chicken:

6-8 Boneless and Skinless Chicken Breasts (Tenderized and Brined): https://beerandiron.com/how-to-tenderize-chicken-breasts/

1-2 oz Beer and Iron’s Taco Seasoning (Store-Bought Packets are about 1 oz): https://beerandiron.com/homemade-taco-seasoning/

16 oz. Pepper Jack Cheese (or Monterey Jack Cheese for a Mild Version)

½ Gallon Zipper Bag of Cornflakes (Crushed)

8 Tablespoons of Melted Butter

The Vegetables / The Base Ingredients:

32-34 oz Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes (Regular if you can not find Fire Roasted)

4-6 oz Sliced Black Olives (Drained)

14-15 oz Diced Green Chilies (Somewhat Drained)

22 oz. Mexican Style Corn (Drained)

30 oz Black Beans (Drained)

Garnish:

1/2 cup green onions; sliced or maybe even some rounds cut from a nice spicy pepper like a jalapeno. I used Jalapeno and Red Fresno Chili Peppers in the video.

Preparation and Steps to this Recipe

You can 100% create this recipe at camp. There’s nothing that says you can’t. Me? I am going to do some pre-prepping at home and then have everything ready for cooking at camp. The recipe will be presented in two parts:

Home Pre-Preparation Steps
At Camp Cooking Steps

Home Pre-Preparation

Step 1: Tenderize and Brine 6-8 Chicken Breast Halves. You’ll tenderize these a bit more than normal. They really need to be thinner than you’d normally prepare a chicken breast. Get it down to about ¼ inch. A bit thicker is okay.

How to Tenderize Chicken Breast: https://beerandiron.com/2022/12/how-to-tenderize-chicken-breasts

How to Brine Meat: https://beerandiron.com/2023/01/how-to-beer-brine-whole-chicken

NOTE: Only brine tenderized chicken breast meat for about one hour. Then, remove from the brine and pat dry.

Step 2: After pouring out the used brine from the zipper bag, place a few paper towels in the zipper bag and place the chicken back into the zipper bag with the paper towels. Refrigerate until you are ready to use.

Step 3: Gather together the cans of:

Diced Green Chilies
Sliced Black Olives
Mexican Style Corn
Black Beans
Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes

You’ll need to make sure you have your can opener and the strainer. A bowl to drain everything in is suggested.

Step 4: Add your cornflakes to a zipper bag and crunch up to a coarse “meal” like consistency. Don’t crush back to a cornmeal and don’t leave them in big flakes. Somewhere in between is perfect. You will store these in the same zipper bag.

Step 5: Gather your cheese, knife to cut the cheese, and the cheese shredder. You can use a bit of parchment or a paper plate to shred the cheese over.

My suggestion is to use the block cheese and prepare the cheese at camp. When we roll the cheese in the chicken, the packaged cheese sticks may make sense but you’ll be doing the V-8 Head Bonk if you do. And, use the block for shredding too. The anti-caking stuff they put on shredded cheese…well…you’ll see what I am talking about when you try the packaged shredded stuff (everyone I teach this recipe to tries the pre-shredded and swears off the stuff after that…at least for this recipe).

Step 6: Bring your butter. We’re going to use this to “moisten” the chicken before we roll the chicken breast in the crushed cornflakes.

I will often bring my 8-inch camp cast iron Dutch oven and put the butter in the pot with about 2-4 briquettes under the little Dutch until the butter is just perfect.

Step 7: Slice the green onions and or your peppers. We’ll use these to garnish our meal when it’s time to eat.

Okay. Check everything.

In an ice chest, we will have our chicken tenderized and brined and stored with the paper towels in the zipper bag and in the ice chest. We have our cheese and our butter in the ice chest too. A small container or zipper bag holds our green onions that have been “doubled bagged.”

In another container, we’ll have our canned Diced Green Chilies, Sliced Black Olives, Mexican Style Corn, Black Beans, and Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes. Your homemade taco seasoning or a packet or two of store-bought taco seasoning is there as well.

At Camp – Time to Cook

We’re presenting this recipe in a deep 12-inch cast iron Dutch oven. It’ll be baked in two parts. First, we’ll cook the chicken until it’s almost done. Then, we’ll add the base ingredients and finish the recipe to bring the chicken to 165°F / 75°C.

Here’s the article/video on how to Heat the Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven: https://beerandiron.com/2023/04/how-to-heat-camp-cast-iron-dutch-oven

Step 1: Set 26-30 charcoal briquettes to fire.

Step 2: Slowly melt 8 tablespoons of butter. We use the 8-inch cast iron camp Dutch oven for this. You can set the butter in a metal container and keep it near the charcoal that is being prepped. Don’t heat the butter to a cooking temperature; you just want it melted to a liquid.

Step 3: On a cutting board or a piece of parchment paper, Lay out one of the tenderized and flattened chicken breasts. Dust one side with some of the taco seasoning almost like a dry rub. Dust with discretion; a little goes a long way.

Step 4: Set the crushed cornflakes out and have them ready to roll the chicken breast in.

Step 5: Baton cut the cheese (in long, stick-like cuts). Add the cut cheese sticks to the chicken and roll the thinned chicken breast over the cheese where the cheese is wrapped in the rolled chicken.

Step 6: Keep your hand on the rolled chicken and then coat the chicken in the butter. Now, roll the chicken in the crushed cornflakes. Secure the chicken with two or three toothpicks (if you forget your toothpicks, consider using some fresh and thin twig pieces from a branch of a tree or bush [make sure that tree or bush ain’t poisonous…seems like a no-brainer but…]).

Chef Tip: Roll one chicken breast up at a time.

Chef Tip: Use the same number of toothpicks for each chicken breast. This way you will remember how many toothpicks to remove later. DON’T FORGET one of those toothpicks in the chicken breast when you serve (in a few steps we will remove them).

Chef Tip: There’ll be some cornflakes left. We save these for the time being to add a few more to the recipe a few steps from now.

Step 7: Place each prepared chicken breast roll in the bottom of the cast iron camp Dutch oven one-at-a-time and until all the pieces are prepared and set with the toothpicks pointing up.

Step 8: Cover the camp Dutch oven. Place 8 hot charcoal briquettes under the Dutch oven (as the Heating the Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven video shows) and place 16 hot charcoal briquettes on the top. If you have a windshield (see this article and video), then secure the windshield around the Dutch oven.

Heating the Camp Cast Iron Dutch Oven: https://beerandiron.com/how-to-heat-camp-cast-iron-dutch-oven/

Turn the pot and lid 1/3rd turn every 10 minutes.

If you are using a temperature probe, move the briquettes about every 10 minutes or so.

Let the chicken cook until the temperature of the chicken is about 125°F / 50°C to about 145°F / 63°C. Remember, we are going to add more ingredients and let the chicken continue cooking. We will eventually get it to the 165°F / 75°C point.

Chef Tip: How are your charcoal briquettes doing? Do you need to set more to fire to finish baking this dish? We still need to heat the base ingredients, melt the cheese, and finish cooking the chicken.

Step 9: While the chicken is cooking, prepare your base ingredients: Set a colander over a bowl or other receptacle to receive the liquids as we open each can and drain by pouring the contents into the colander:

Can Diced Green Chilies
Sliced Black Olives
Can Black Beans
Can Fire Roasted Diced Tomatoes
Can Mexican Style Corn (I save the corn for last because the liquid is “watery” and helps with the draining)

Just pour them all in the colander and, using the rubber / silicone spatula, move things about and mix well. Most of the liquid should drain away to the bowl below the colander. Set aside for later.

Step 10: Shred the rest of the cheese and keep the cheese in a separate container separate from the base ingredients. Set aside for later.

NOTE: These next steps go rather quickly.

Step 11: Once the chicken has reached about 125°F / 50°C to about 145°F / 63°C, remove the lid and place it on a lid stand (the briquettes can remain where they are). Using tongs, remove the chicken from the pot and set aside (take care that we don’t lose our cornflake crust).

REMOVE THE TOOTHPICKS – the chicken is now firm and will hold its form. Remove each toothpick and make sure you have them all out.

Chef Tip: Sometimes there’ll be an excessive amount of oil (cheese and butter) left in the pot after you remove the chicken. This can be (per your preference) completely or partially wiped out and discarded.

Step 12: Dump all of the base ingredients from the colander into the bottom of the Dutch oven. Then, using the tongs, replace the chicken to the top of the base ingredients (not submerged but resting on top).

Step 13: Here, you can add a few more cornflakes from earlier. Go easy…more is not better.

Step 14: Sprinkle the shredded cheese over the top of the chicken. Return the lid and cover the pot. Do you need a fresh set of hot charcoal briquettes? This is a good time to add a fresh set. You could even add a few extra on the top to toast the cheese.

Step 15: When the chicken has reached 165°F / 75°C, it’s time to eat! Garnish with the green onions. No resting time needed. Just serve and enjoy.

Summary

This recipe goes very well with some cornbread or even some Mexican rice (both cooked in separate Dutch ovens). I love to take the rolled-up chicken and use a white bread roll to make a sandwich. There’s some prep and some steps to accomplish this meal and the end result will be well worth it!

We usually cut these chicken rolls in half and use each chicken roll as 2 servings.

Y’all enjoy this one!

My name is Sulae and I love to share the magic that comes out of my black pots and pans. You all keep on cooking in those cast iron beauties and enjoying those frosted glasses of fermented barley pop. We’ll see you all next time on BeerAndIron.com.

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