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!!

Ready to Cook

Home Preparation:

Step 1: This step is optional: 1-2 days before you are planning to cook this recipe, Brine and prep 4 thick-cut pork loin, bone-in rib chops or 4-6 thick, boneless pork loin chops.

Step 2: Remove the pork chops / loin chops from the brine and pat dry. Pour the remaining brine out. Add a few paper towels to the bag. Return the meat to the bag. This is how we’re going to pack it to camp. 

Step 3: Gather your 3-4 medium russet potatoes, 2 cans of cream of mushroom soup, can of beer, butter, breadcrumbs, and the salt and pepper.

Step 4: Prepare two Green Bell Peppers. We chop them and store them in a zipper bag with a couple of paper towels. You could also just pack them whole and prepare them in camp (this is how the video presents this recipe).

At Camp:

We need a very hot cast iron Dutch oven to sear our pork. Before we go any farther, let me stop and give you a bit of a chef tip. We need to take in consideration that the meat itself will cool that pot down considerably as soon as the meat hits that pot’s surface. If the pot cools too fast, the meat will not sear. We really can only tell if the meat is properly seared by look; how does the meat look? If we flip the pork and it’s still that cream-white color and not that golden or deep red, toasted color, we’ll let it sit there on the heat longer. The longer it sits there the more time for the meat’s “juices” to “flow” from the meat and pool up. If the juices do not evaporate quickly enough, the meat will start to simmer in its own juices and essentially boil. We will need to sear the meat in a pot at about 450°F / 235°C (later, we’ll bake at about 350°F / 175°C).

I’m going to present this recipe in a 12-inch cast iron Dutch oven and prepare it with four boneless pork loin chops. The pork can be seared in any number of ways. 

1. You can heat your cast Iron Dutch oven to a wicked hot temperature of 450°F−500°F / 235°C-260°C and add all the meat at one time. My suggestion is to consider the size of the cuts of meat. If they are too large and touching each other, the cool meat will “win” over the hot pot and the sear is likely not going to happen.
2. Another option is to sear the meat in batches. You can sear 2-3 pieces at a time and keep a warming pot nearby (a 2nd Dutch oven near the fire) to keep the first batch of meat in and warm while you sear the second batch.
3. You can sear the meat over an open fire. This is perfectly A-OK. You can go straight from searing the meat over the fire to in-the-pot baking with the potatoes and other ingredients. 

One more tip: When you are ready to sear the pork, just make sure it’s pat-dry.

The following steps will reference searing right in the cast iron Dutch oven. 

Step 5: Set 30-35 (or more) charcoal briquettes to fire in a pile or in the charcoal chimney. Set your cast iron Dutch oven near that burning pile of briquettes and start to warm it up.

Step 6: Heat the Dutch oven for frying. Place the 12-inch cast iron Dutch oven over those 30-35 (or more) briquettes and really heat it up well. Don’t add your butter yet. Once the pot starts to show wisps of smoke, add the 2 tablespoons of butter, and let it heat up and “toast.” You’ll see the butter melt with some of the butter solids starting to separate and brown. Don’t burn the butter. If you do, wipe it out (a paper towel works well) and start over.

Note: You can use whatever oil you’d like.

Step 7: When the butter and the pot are wicked hot (don’t burn that butter), add your pork and a sprig or three of rosemary. Leave the rosemary to the side and not under the pork. The pork should be in direct contact with that hot pot. Sear the first side very well. Then, turn the pieces of meat and sear the other side. Keep the cast iron Dutch oven’s lid nearby and inside up (upside down) to receive the meat after both sides are seared to that golden color. You can use a warming pot as mentioned above.

While you are searing the meat, take the time to prepare the rest of the ingredients. Keep an eye on that meat though.

1. Wash and cube the potatoes. Skin on or skin off: that’s up to you.
2. Chop your bell peppers (unless already chopped)
3. Open and have ready the cans of cream of mushroom soup.
4. Have the breadcrumbs ready for pouring and your cooking beer opened.

OPTIONAL: We are first searing (frying) and later we will bake this recipe. If you feel you need a fresh set of briquettes, then set 25-30 briquettes to fire (a 12-inch camp Dutch oven needs about 24 briquettes to bake at the goal of 350°F / 175°C).

Things are going to speed up from here and then we’ll have the baking time to enjoy visiting, drinking beer, and just enjoying the day or the evening. You can leave the pot over the hot coals for the next steps or, remove the pot from the heat. It’s up to you. Use your good judgment and don’t burn anything. 

Me? I remove the pot from the fire and that way I can go quick but not too quick. No stress; no worries.

Step 8: After you have seared your pork, place the hot meat nearby on the upside-down lid or in another Dutch oven to keep warm. Remove the stem of rosemary but just leave the bits of rosemary that broke free from the stem. And no, I don’t break off or add anymore. Whatever rosemary is in the pot is all I use.

Step 9: Pour in about 1 cup of seasoned breadcrumbs over whatever bits and pieces are left from searing the pork and butter is left in that pot. You can measure this out or eyeball-it. Pour in about ½ cup of beer at a time (there are three half cups in a 12-ounce bottle or can of beer). Mix the beer in with the breadcrumbs and create a batter-like mixture about the consistency of thick pancake batter. If you need to add more beer, then do so (Expect to use about 12-16 ounces…to be safe).

Step 10: Return the seared pork to the pot. You can turn the pork in the batter or just lay the pork right on top of the breadcrumb batter and call it good.

Step 11: Top the pork with the potatoes. WATCH THE HEAD ROOM. Leave enough room to add the bell peppers and later some more breadcrumbs. 

Step 12: Pour over the cans of cream of mushroom soup and roughly spread about the top of the potatoes. KEEP THE CANS…

Step 13: Add about ½ cup of beer to one of the empty cans of cream of mushroom soup. Mix it about and try to get the rest of the soup out. Now, pour the can over and into the other can. Mix it about. We are trying to wash out some of the remaining cream of mushroom soup.

Pour all that into the pot.

Step 13: Add the chopped green bell peppers to the top of the entire recipe/mixture.

Step 14: Cover the pot and set the Dutch oven to bake. Place 8 hot briquettes around the circumference of the bottom and place 16 hot briquettes on the top. Set your windshield and let the dish bake for about 45 minutes. Turn the pot and lid about every 10-15 minutes.

Pork is considered done at 145°F / 65°C. And your pork may well be done to 145°F / 65°C before the potatoes are done. After about 30-45 minutes, check the potatoes first by “sneaking in” under the lid and getting a bit of potato. If it’s not done, keep cooking. If the potatoes are done, then check the pork for temperature. This is where that meat thermometer comes in handy!!

CONSIDERATION: This recipe may take an hour or more to fully cook. I ask that you check on the meal after 30-45 minutes to see the progress with the idea that you can continue cooking underdone food, but you can’t unburn food. Be prepared for about an hour or more (give or take) for this recipe to fully cook. Think “baked potato.”

Step 15: Once the dish is done, remove the lid and pour a thin layer of breadcrumbs over the mixture. Remove all of the heat from the bottom of the Dutch oven and place any remaining briquettes over the top of the Dutch oven (including any that you did not use. Just get the top hot!

Once the breadcrumbs on the top are toasted, remove the pot from the heat and ENJOY!! 

I just stick a fork in there and pull out a chop. Then, I spoon over some potatoes. Sour Cream goes a long way with this one (and an optional ingredient when cooking this meal).