Make no mistake-cooking in a dutch oven is an art. Since charcoal has no temperature reading, you run the risk of either burning your dish or undercooking it into a sloopy goo. Only a well trained eye can reach and maintain 350 degrees, or whatever temperature you’d like to cook at. I received lots of positive feedback from my pineapple upside down cake dutch oven cooking post, and so here’s a follow up describing how to cook chicken enchilada pie. This recipe is for a 14-inch dutch oven, feeding about 8 people. Good luck my fellow camping cookers!
Ingredients
2 pounds chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 medium white onions
Cumin and red cayenne pepper
2 green peppers
2 yellow squash
1 can yellow corn
1 can black beans
1 package corn tortillas
1 large can red or green enchilada sauce
2 small packages of jiffy cornbread mix, with 1 egg and milk specified on the box.
16 oz shredded cheese-Colby or Mexican
Roughly 35-40 charcoal coals
1. Cook chicken and onions.
I never put raw chicken in my dutch oven. Cook your chicken (cut into bite size pieces) with onions, a tablespoon of oil, 2 tsp. cumin, 1/2 tsp. red cayenne pepper, and salt and pepper. Cook until chicken is almost done.
2. Add peppers and squash and light your coals.
Cook squash and peppers for around 5-10 minutes, depending on how crunchy you like your vegetables. You now want to light your coals for the dutch oven. A common mistake is to light the coals before this, but then they lose too much heat and won’t be hot enough for your dutch oven baking needs.
3. Add corn and black beans to peppers and chicken mix.
This is mostly done to heat the corn and black beans. Cook until beans and corn are warm.
After this comes the layering process…..
4. Assemble your dutch oven layers.
You want to make sure the bottom of your dutch oven is liquidy, so pour roughly 1 cup of enchilada sauce in the bottom of the dutch oven. Put a layer of chicken/vegetable mix atop the sauce, then put a single layer of corn tortillas on top. Pour sauce on top and repeat layers until all chicken mix and sauce is used.
5. Add cornbread and cheese.
Pour the liquid mixture of cornbread on top of the chicken/cornbread layers, and spread cheese on top of cornbread.
Presto! You’re now ready to bake your enchilada pie in the dutch oven!
6. Prep your dutch oven baking area.
Find a flat surface. Put a round lid on the ground, with three flat, similarly sized rocks in a triangle formation. The rocks should be roughly 1-inch thick. Put five coals evenly spaced between the rocks. It should look like this:
7. Set coals and let the baking begin!
Place the dutch oven on the lid, balanced on the rocks. Line the top with coals, and put two coals in the center. Wait around 25-30 minutes. You can add a few coals in the center after 15 minutes to keep the heat high. Here’s what your dutch oven should look like:
And the final result… <iframe src=”http://player.vimeo.com/video/45928463″ width=”500″ height=”281″ frameborder=”0″ webkitAllowFullScreen mozallowfullscreen allowFullScreen></iframe> <p><a href=”http://vimeo.com/45928463″>Dutch Oven Baking Results</a> from <a href=”http://vimeo.com/user12577775″>Joslin Fritz</a> on <a href=”http://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p> <p>The end result of baking a dutch oven chicken enchilada pie.</p>