Dutch Oven Peach Cobbler

I remember when my parents bought their first dutch ovens. I think we must have had some dutch oven food when we were camping with some family friends and my parents thought it was a great idea. Once we had our own, camping dinners were never the same. Cooking with a dutch oven makes camping food so much better. We started cooking with these on every camping trip and sometimes even when we were at home. My family used to eat this peach cobbler nearly every time we went camping (which was pretty frequently). 

1 yellow cake mix

1/2 cup butter

30-60 oz canned peaches

Drain peaches and place them at the bottom of the dutch oven. Top with dry cake mix and cut butter over top. If you would prefer, you can melt the butter and mix it with the cake mix and crumble it over the top of the peaches. Cook with coals for approximately 40-60 minutes, checking occasionally. It is ready when the peaches are bubbly and the topping is golden brown.

Dutch Oven Chicken and Potatoes

We went camping with some friends a couple of weeks ago and I was in charge of making our dinner one of the nights. After completely charring tin foil dinners the first night - and being forced to eat pizza at a restaurant down the road so that we wouldn't starve - everyone was pretty nervous that this dinner wouldn't taste good. Thankfully it turned out amazing. It was almost as good as when my aunt made it a few months ago. Because we were using the other pan to make dessert, we made the chicken and potatoes in a single dutch oven, even though they should really be made in two separate ovens in order to maintain separate flavors. 

Chicken:

2-3 lb chicken, cut into large chunks

1 cup flour

1 Tbsp poultry seasoning

2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

1 tsp Cajun seasoning

1 tsp salt

Olive Oil

additional salt and pepper to taste

Mix flour and spices in a gallon ziplock bag. This can be done before you leave to go camping. Place chicken in ziplock bag and shake until it is evenly coated and prepared for cooking.

Prepare dutch oven by heating with coals (or it can be done over a fire or grill for less mess). Pour olive oil in 12" dutch oven so it is approximately 1/4" high. Once it is hot, add chicken and cook until it begins to brown. Cover oven so it will cook faster, turning chicken every 5-10 minutes. Should cook in 40 -50 min. maximum.

Potatoes:

2-3 lb potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks 

1 cup flour

2 tsp garlic

1 tsp onion powder

1 onion

1/2 green pepper

1 package real bacon bits

Salt (lots) and pepper to taste

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Mix flour, garlic, and onion powder in a gallon ziplock bag. Place potatoes in bag and shake until they are completely coated.

Prepare dutch oven to approximately the same temperature and with the same amount of oil as the chicken. Begin to cook the potatoes, onion, and green pepper, adding considerable salt and pepper as they cook. Cover with lid, but continue to turn them every 5-10 minutes. When they are completely cooked, pour in a can of cream of chicken soup and bacon bits. Stir together and sprinkle grated cheese over the top. Cover with lid for 5 minutes or less to allow the cheese to melt.

Tin Foil Dinners

This is only my third time making tin foil dinners. Apparently they are a very common dinner among many avid campers or hikers. I have also heard these dinners called "Hobos" although I find the term to be somewhat politically incorrect and would support changing the name to "Vagabonds." Although my family camped a lot when I was younger, somehow this tradition never made its way into our campsite. I was excited to find something so easy to cook over a fire (or embers). It definitely beats charred hot dogs. 

The best part about tin foil dinners is that you can use whatever combination of meat and vegetables that you have around your house. This time, our ingredient list was the following:

Potatoes, thinly sliced
Red peppers, chopped
Onions, chopped
Ground beef
Green onions, chopped
Mushrooms, sliced
Cream of mushroom soup
Seasoning salt
Black pepper

We piled the ingredients onto squares of tin foil, folded them up, taking care to add a second layer to avoid charring or spilling, and labeled them with our names (and titles...).

This is my husbands dinner. He chose to add barbecue sauce, which he prefers over pretty much any condiment or sauce, rather than cream of mushroom soup.

When we got to the place where we planned to have dinner, we built a fire and cooked them, hoping that using a grill would keep them from burning too much. That was somewhat of a "tin foil dinner fail" so we subsequently removed them from the heat and waited for the flames to die down. They cook much better over embers or coals.