Dutch Oven Layered Enchiladas

:P
We usually use Dutch Ovens at least once each campout. Last week I made a great layered enchilada dinner in my Dutch Oven. The recipe was modified from a Lodge DO Cookbook, but you could use your own favorite variation. Basically you put a small amount of enchilada sauce on the bottom of the DO, dip a tortilla in the remaining sauce and place in the DO. Add a layer of meat (I used hamburger but chicken would be better) mixed with a little of the sauce, add some shredded cheese, and repeat the layering until you have enough. Cook with 2 times the number of charcoal on the top as on the bottom for about 30 minutes. Slice it like a pie for serving. Ummm.

Layered enchiladas are traditional in New Mexico and are easier to make than the rolled versions. You can buy enchilada sauce in a jar or use a package mix with tomato sauce. I cooked some onion with the meat, and I should have added some green chilis, but I forgot! Serve with a packaged Spanish Rice mix or a salad.

For a family of 4 we used 4 tortillas, 1 pound of hamburger, about 8 ounces of cheese, and a 10-inch DO. Scale up as needed. You could also make this in the TM oven, but we usually do our cooking outside.

Anybody else have some good DO recipes?

Pam S (who loves her Dutch Ovens)

I don't have a lot of experience cooking with dutch ovens, but LOVE the idea of them. I recently got a cast iron one not too long ago, but have yet to really use it that much. When camping, I am guessing you're digging a hole, putting in the charcoal in the bottom, then the oven, then the charcoal around and on top of it?

[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails.......[/glow]

I've got both aluminum (10 and 12 inch) and cast iron (14 inch) dutch ovens, with the aluminum being the ones I take on the road the most. I have some minor arthritis in my hands, and the cast iron one is heavy (though I can cook for 15 or more people in it)!

As to use, I don't use a hole. I generally put it in the fire pit (if there is one) or in a large round metal pan (the last one I bought was advertised as a chicken feeder). I use charcoal, not coals, due to the more even nature of the heat. The total number of charcoal briquettes needed for a 350 degree heat is about double the size of the oven (24 briquettes for a 12 inch oven). Put about 1/3 under the oven and the rest on the lid.

We use the DO for lots of our cooking, both when camping and at home. My husband's DO Baked Beans are legendary at family reunions and picnics! The Dutch Ovens really do work like a regular oven, and I make biscuits, quick breads, casseroles, etc in them. It keeps the trailer from getting hot, and it is just more fun to cook outside.

Try one; you'll probably like it. Just make sure the cast iron is appropriately seasoned.

Pam S

Charcoal, yep, that's what I meant, and yup, mine's seasoned properly. And thanks for the amount of charcoal to use, I never knew that! So what do you do, get the charcoal on the bottom going or all of it going and dig ya a hole in the charcoal and cover the top once it gets lit good? Sorry, I've only cooked with it in a regular oven a couple of times, but do like the idea a lot, and want to use it more..........especially try it outside........

[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails.......[/glow]

Start all the charcoal at once, away from the DO, just like you do for a charcoal grill. You can use a charcoal chimney (I do), or you can use lighter fluid, whatever you're used to. I usually start the charcoal in one of the "chicken feeders" (they used to be called oil change pans before all the oil change pans went to plastic!). You can also start the charcoal in the fire pit.

Once the charcoal is going nicely (mostly gray and very hot!) you move the briquettes using tongs. Put the charcoal for the bottom of the pan in a circle a bit smaller than the DO you're using. Then put the DO on top of the circle, placing the remaining briquettes on the top of the DO, spreading them evenly on the lid.

Note that REAL camping DOs have legs (to sit above the charcoal) and flat lids with a flange to hold the charcoal on the top. If yours doesn't have legs, you can improvise some. My little aluminum oven doesn't have legs and my husband made some "feet" for it using plumbing pipe. If the lid isn't flat, you just have to be more careful in placing the briquettes on top so they don't fall off. You can also make a collar out of aluminum foil to help hold the charcoal on the top.

Be careful about taking the lid off; it is very easy to dump a bunch of ash into the food! :-[ I recommend taking the time to move the charcoal off the top first if you don't have the flat lid. The amount of time to cook is pretty similar to an oven, and you can usually smell when it is ready ;D

There are lots of great DO recipes out there: do a web search on "Dutch Oven Recipes" and you'll get hundreds of hits. One of my favorite sites is http://www.macscouter.com. It's cooking section has lots of good ideas and links to a number of on-line outdoor cookbooks.

Anybody else have some good Dutch Oven recipes to share?

Pam S

I recently spent two weekends in Wood Badge training for adult volunteers in scouting, and I can tell you that Dutch oven dishes we made were excellent. One of our patrol members had recipes for cherry cobbler and lasagna that was out of this world. We're likely to purchase one for next season, especially since we have a seasonal site and don't have to worry about traveling weight for much of the summer.

Thanks K and P! For a while I was wondering what you were talking about with the "Chicken Feeders", but when ya said about the oil pan, I knew exactly what you were talking about..........Thanks also on the tips about the legs and lid, I'll probably have to buy a new one as mine doesn't have either, and saw one at harbor frieght for a decent price the other day..............thanks again!

[glow=red,2,300]Happytrails..............[/glow]

No fair, FJ and Ellen! You said you'd had some great Cherry Cobbler and Lasagna at your Woodbadge training and you didn't give us the recipe! I've got some good cobbler recipes (I'm particularly fond of peach ;D) but I haven't tried the Lasagna. The Lodge cookbook I bought recently (the one with the enchiladas) has a recipe where you don't have to pre-cook the noodles, but I haven't used it yet. Care to share?

I really do love to cook outside, and we hardly ever used the stove in our pop-ups. I use either a Coleman stove or the Dutch Oven most of the time. I use a fire only occasionally because it seems anymore I can't depend upon getting either good wood or a fire ring in a lot of campgrounds. I can fix the wood problem by bringing some from home, but most campgrounds frown on adding fire rings! The lack of a fire ring is what brought me to using the "chicken feeders" mentioned earlier. I can put them on the parking pad, get the charcoal going, and still cook.

Pam S

Pam,

As soon as I can find the recipes again, I'll post them here, no problem!

Pam,

The simplest cobbler (and very tasty) for a Dutch oven is two small packages of white cake mix and two large cans of peaches (or other fruit). Set the oven on the coals, dump in the fruit and the cake mix -- stir a bit, put on the lid and put coals on the lid. After about 45 minutes (at least ion Colorado mountains) it's ready to eat.

After you've tried it, you may wish to vary the recipe, but this gives you a good starting point.