Kelan and I love to use our dutch oven when we go camping. The experience is similar to a crockpot recipe where we can place all the ingredients in one unit and let it cook. If you are not into camping, no problem! You can still make easy dutch oven recipes at home. All you need is a home dutch oven or a cast-iron skillet.
These 25 easy dutch oven recipes range from breakfast, lunch, dinner, and dessert. Heat up those dutch ovens or cast iron skillets and get cooking!
Table of Contents
1. Sausage & Chicken Cajun Jambalaya Dutch Oven Recipe
Found on Evolving Table
Southern cooking at its finest! Nothing like good comfort food all in one dish. I am going, to be honest with you, when I first saw jambalaya I got a little turned off. My background knowledge of jambalaya calls for shrimp. I am glad this one does not. However, if that is something you are interested in you could easily add it with the chicken and Italian sausage or substitute one of them for shrimp.
2. Beer Braised Short Ribs
Found on Fox Valley Foodie
Definitely head over to Fox Valley Foodie and read how he describes how Dutch ovens work. He goes in-depth comparing a crockpot to a dutch oven. With both forms of cooking adding all ingredients into a one-pot meal, there is actually a big difference between cooking in a crockpot and cooking in Dutch ovens. Very informative! Plus check out this recipe your husbands will LOVE it!
3. Dutch Oven Garlic Chicken
Found on Kleinworth & Co
Roast chicken is a staple in our house. Buying the whole chicken instead of chicken breasts or chicken thighs individually packaged will allow you to have leftovers! Having leftovers is a great way to reduce your food waste and save money. This roast chicken is so flavorful you can use the leftovers for chicken salad, soup, or a tailgate recipe.
4. Sheepherder’s Breakfast
Found on Taste of Home
This hearty dish looks HEAVENLY! Not only do we love breakfast because it is downright DELICIOUS, but we also love it because it is a cheap meal. A bag of hash browns, eggs, onion, salt, pepper, cheese, and breakfast meat is all under $5.00. Look at how much that makes too! You can feed a camping crowd with this recipe.
5. Spicy Ancho Turkey Chili
Found on Pinch of Yum
I love to make chili on Sundays in the fall when football is on or make it while camping on those rainy nights. When I make chili, I almost always substitute ground beef for ground turkey. Not only is it healthier, but it is also cheaper. This chili recipe already calls for ground turkey so you know it is going to be a value meal and healthy for your family.
6. One Pot White Chicken Lasagna Soup
Can you imagine two of your favorite things being combined into one meal? Lasagna and soup together? Um, YUM! Lasagna can be a pain to make and takes much prep work. This recipe calls for 15 minutes of preparation work and then let it cook for about 45 minutes which is shorter than some lasagna times.
7. Dutch Oven Lasagna
Found on The Cookie Rookie
Not into lasagna as soup? That is perfectly okay with this dutch oven recipe for just lasagna. One of the coolest things I love about The Cookie Rookie website is that she has a demonstration video for you to watch that walks you through the making of this recipe. I always pull these types of recipes up on my phone or TV and pause them as I go through each step with them.
8. Chicken Pot Pie Camping Recipe
Found on Just Plum Crazy
Warm, comfortable food to your table in about 20 minutes. The best part of this chicken pot pie is that it calls for 4 ingredients. You read that right, FOUR INGREDIENTS. This recipe is super savvy and uses a rotisserie chicken already cooked from the store. This cuts prep time down and makes for a cheap meal.
9. Creamy Chicken Tortellini Soup
Found on A Spicy Perspective
Sometimes we feel guilty going back for seconds. I know I do at times. However, with this soup, you can be guilt-free going back for a second or third. For one and a half cups of this delicious soup, it will only cost you 172 calories. For under 350 calories you can enjoy 3 cups of this soup! Wow!
10. American Goulash
Found on Pip and Ebby
Goulash was a weekly meal in my house growing up. A great budget-friendly meal that pleases everyone in the family. Megan over at Pip and Ebby makes a great point. If you are headed out with your husband and leaving dinner for the kids, what a better home-cooked comforting meal than American goulash. A much healthier and cheaper option than leaving the kids with pizza or take-out.
11. Dutch Oven Pot Roast
Found on Tablespoon
Similar to a crockpot, our favorite dutch oven recipes provide for easy cleanup. All of your ingredients make a delicious one-pot meal. No need for each side of vegetable and meat to have its own soup pot or pan. Dump everything into one pot, cook, and clean. Another reason I love cooking with dutch ovens is that they can also be used as a storage container. Place the lid on the dutch oven and when it cools just put it in the refrigerator instead of transferring the leftovers into a Tupperware container.
12. Lemon Butter Chicken
Found on Eazy Peazy Mealz
Chicken is such a versatile meat to cook with. From Mexican to Italian food, you can’t go wrong with using chicken. This dutch oven recipe is made using chicken as a light and a fresh main dish with a creamy lemon spinach sauce. This recipe will have you feeling like you have been served at a fancy restaurant.
13. One Pot Wonder Southwest Pasta
Found on The Wholesome Dish
I love looking at a dish and seeing so many different colors. The more colors you see, you know the better these vegetarian recipes are for you. When I make one-pot casserole dishes, many of the times it is a tan or brown color which tells me it is not very nutritious. However, when I look at this healthy one-pot southwest side dish, I know you are getting a good serving of vegetables topped off with some olive oil.
14. German Oven Pancake
Found on The Recipe Critic
What I love most about this recipe is the fact that you will always have all the ingredients on hand. This recipe would up our savvy game by making pancakes with ingredients that we already have rather than buying a pancake mix as we do. The looks of this picture make me want to go make some now because I know I always have the staple ingredients this recipe calls for.
15. Peanut Butter Cup Cookie Skillet
Found on The Pinning Mama
Kelan won’t stop asking me to make this. Can you blame him though? My mouth is watering! This seems like the perfect end to a great week of camping! If you didn’t catch the title and you were so distracted by this incredible sweet dessert, it is a peanut butter cookie! We have a small skillet that we use when we go camping because space is limited. It is the perfect size for this type of dessert.
16. Baked Macaroni and Cheese with Breadcrumbs
Found on Mighty Mrs
Good ole comfort food! This macaroni and cheese look out of this world! Of course, you need to boil and cook the macaroni before being able to add all the ingredients into the dutch oven for it to cook. Head over to Mighty Mrs, to find out what the secret ingredient is for this mac & cheese!
17. Dutch Oven Stuffed Peppers
Found on Dirty Gourmet
Kelan and I have always wanted to try to make stuffed peppers and never got around to adding them to one of our weekly meal plans. Next time we go camping, this one is coming and we are finally going to give stuffed peppers a try. One reason I really enjoy this recipe for camping is that they tell you all the tools needed to make this recipe on top of all the ingredients.
18. Dutch Oven Campfire Berry Cobbler
Found on Family Spice
If you are looking for a healthier dessert option for your family other than s’mores then this is the dutch oven recipe for you! This recipe calls for three different kinds of berries; strawberries, blueberries, and blackberries. Mix them together with a few other simple ingredients and you have yourself a berry cobbler. For us personally, we would love to serve this recipe up with a side of cold vanilla bean ice cream!
19. Mountian Man Breakfast
Found on Lodge
The key to making this meal so flavorful is the steps that you are going to take when cooking this dutch oven recipe. The first thing you are going to do is brown the sausage in the bottom of the dutch oven. The second step after removing the sausage is cooking the potatoes in the sausage grease! Then you add everything back together and let the dutch oven do the rest!
20. Easy Dutch Oven Potatoes
Found on Camp Chef
These potatoes would make a great side dish for breakfast or for dinner. Heat them up with a side of eggs and sausage or cook them with ham for dinner. Hey or use them for both? Whatever you do not finish in the morning with breakfast, use the rest for dinner? What is another breakfast side could you use leftovers for dinner?
21. Dutch Oven S’Mores Cake
Found on Polka Dot Chair
S’mores are a necessity for any camping trip. It can sometimes become time-consuming with pulling out all the ingredients and making the sandwiches one at a time. With this 10 MINUTE recipe, you can serve up everyone’s plate with a scrumptious s’mores dessert.
22. Dutch Oven Cheesy Garlic Bites
Found on The Creative Mom
Five ingredients to make these delicious garlic bites! I love being able to learn from other moms who make life easier and share out there hacks. These garlic bites are made by using frozen dinner rolls! Those are perfect to grab in the frozen section and be able to throw this amazing recipe together with a few other simple ingredients you already have on hand.
23. Camper’s Outdoor Apple Cobbler
Found on Instructables
Every year when we go camping we make a cobbler with our dutch oven. Kelan grabs the shovel and digs the hole in the ground. In the hole, we add hot coals from the fire pit. Next, you want to place the dutch oven inside and place some more hot coals on the top. When making a dutch oven camping, you need to keep in mind your timeframes because you need to have consistency with the heat to cook evenly. SO worth it when it is cooked right!
24. Dutch Oven Ham and Cheese Potatoes
Found on U Create
I love multi-purpose recipes. These ham and creamy cheese mashed potatoes are another example of a recipe that can be made for breakfast, lunch, or dinner. Quick, simple and allow the Dutch oven to do all the cooking! Try using sweet potatoes for an even healthier dish.
25. Dutch Oven Popcorn
Found on Food52
Popcorn! Did you forget to pick up your Jiffypop for the campfire? No problem. Grab your bag of popcorn kernels, olive oil or butter, and salt, and try making popcorn as a family. It is a great cooking/science lesson for your kids to view and make real-life connections to.
BONUS: Dutch Oven Temperature
Found on BuzzFeed
Whether you are trying out these easy dutch oven recipes at your house or on your next camping trip, make sure you have that dutch oven or skillet ready to go!
Wrapping Up
As you get ready for your next camping trip, don’t forget to pack your Dutch oven! With these 25 recipes, you’ll be able to cook up a delicious meal no matter what the occasion. From breakfast to dinner and everything in between, we’ve got you covered.
So fire up those Dutch ovens and start cooking!
