A Dutch Oven is a must-have for a prepper because providing it’s a plain cast iron one versus the enameled version, you can cook over campfires, on gas stoves, and even in electric ovens.
The range of meals you can make, ranging from sweet to savory, is endless. This is what preppers, hunters, and campers place over the campfire to have soup or stew steaming hot, ready when people get back from their hunting/fishing/foraging trips.
Dutch ovens are often handed down through the generations if taken care of. Even if they have been abused, it is possible to ‘revive’ them to see many more years of service.
We have chosen recipes to use everyday meat like chicken and beef but also recipes to enable you to use what you have hunted – ranging from squirrel to moose. We haven’t forgotten the fishermen and have some real treats.
Then we have a variety of bread recipes to accompany soups and stews or simply to enjoy on their own with homemade jams.
Items like apple tart, Dutch oven cinnamon rolls, and peach cobbler provide a sweet ending to a meal.
1. Navajo Lamb Stew with Cornmeal Dumplings
If you need something hearty and warm for a family dinner, then this is it. The recipe calls for celery, carrots, onions, garlic, and potatoes, most of which you should have in your survival garden. Here’s the recipe.
2. Venison Stew – Dutch oven recipe
This recipe uses deer meat, or you can substitute beef. Green peppers and potatoes add to the flavor. Here’s the recipe.
3. Cheesy Venison Steak and Potatoes
Venison and bacon go together, but when you add cheese and potatoes to the mix then you’re taking it to the next level. Here’s the recipe.
4. Dutch Oven Moose Roast
Red wine, bacon, celery, and garlic join the usual ingredients in this moose roast suited to a large family. Here’s the recipe.
5. Venison Stew
When the hunt has been successful and there’s venison on the menu try this recipe suitable for deer, elk, or moose.
The addition of juniper berries, maple syrup, and sage, all foraged, make this a great prepper meal that will feed between 8 and 10 people. You will need some red wine – hope you have some stockpiled! Here’s the recipe.
6. Beef Stew
This classic beef stew using chuck benefits from the addition of red wine to bring out the flavor of the meat. Here’s the recipe.
7. Cowboy Stew
Ground beef, canned or fresh tomatoes, canned beans and potatoes, and onion with the addition of some chili make for a great Western favorite. Here’s the recipe.
8. Pioneer Woman’s Perfect Pot Roast
With onions, carrots, and capsicums this pot roast includes produce from your vegetable garden with beef chuck. Here’s the recipe.
9. Ptarmigan and Spruce Grouse Stew
When the hunters return proudly clutching the birds they have shot for the pot it’s time to get cooking.
This recipe calls for quite a range of ingredients but you can substitute some items with what you have in the garden and store cupboard. Here’s the recipe.
10. Roast Chicken Dinner
The fact that you maybe don’t have an electric or gas oven shouldn’t deter the owner of a Dutch oven – this recipe shows how a whole roast diner is prepared in the cast-iron Dutch oven. Here’s the recipe.
11. Salmon Bake
A profitable fishing trip means salmon for the evening meal. This recipe uses mustard and crushed crackers for a crisp coating to the succulent fish, the was President Eisenhower liked it. Here’s the recipe.
12. Texas Fried Catfish
If fishing has been good down in Texas, now’s the time to use the catch in this recipe that uses cornmeal to get that crispy finish to the batter. Here’s the recipe.
13. Pulled Pork
Use your Dutch oven to create this delicious pulled pork that can be used in all sorts of ways on sandwiches, tacos, spiced carnitas…
Just be aware this is going to take some time so enjoy making it while spending time with friends and family. Check you have all the spice ingredients needed in your stockpile. Here’s the recipe.
14. Chicken Stew in a Dutch Oven
Braised chicken with bacon makes this hearty and super tasty. Onion, celery, carrots, tomatoes, red-skin potatoes, and mushrooms complete the meal. Here’s the recipe.
15. Creamy Chipotle Butter Chicken Meatballs
This is one recipe you have to try in your Dutch oven – it’s spicy and tasty and creamy and just so darn good you are going to want to make it a staple on the home menu. Serve with quinoa, rice, couscous, or naan bread. Here’s the recipe.
16. Korean Fried Chicken
Bring international flavor to prepper meals with this simple recipe that needs only three ingredients – chicken, vegetable oil, and soy sauce – ok, and some salt and pepper. Here’s the recipe.
17. Creamy Leek and Potato Soup
Although the recipe doesn’t say you have to use a Dutch oven this soup can be made in one – buttery leaks, and soft potatoes all combined into an easy 30 minutes-and-its-ready type of prepper meal that can come straight from the garden and into the Dutch oven. Here’s the recipe.
18. Chicken Noodle Soup
Break out the noodles you’ve been hoarding, combine them with some chicken, fresh onion, and carrot and you’re on the way to a comforting, warming soup. Here’s the recipe.
19. Prepper’s Fish Soup
This one is so easy – fresh or frozen fish white fish fillets from your fishing expeditions, fresh or frozen peas and carrots, ramen noodles, a little salt and you have a meal done and ready to enjoy. Here’s the recipe.
20. Beef and Bacon Stew
Loaded with rich goodness this hearty stew is great for cold days. The recipe does call for white miso paste but some soy sauce would be a reasonable substitute, however it is more liquid so you may have to add a little more flour to get the right consistency for the sauce.
Other than that the stew has the usual carrots, onions, and herbs. Don’t forget this rich stew calls for the addition of red wine. Here’s the recipe.
21. Dutch oven Bread
Flour, yeast, a little olive oil and salt, and the trusty Dutch oven mean a delicious loaf of bread ready to accompany a meal or simply to enjoy on its own with some jam from foraged berries. Here’s the recipe.
22. No-knead Dutch Oven Bread
No time to spend kneading dough? Then try this simple recipe with just four ingredients – flour, yeast, salt, and water and five minutes of preparation time before it is popped into the Dutch oven to bake. Here’s the recipe.
23. Chia and Flaxseed Bread
The highly nutritious addition of flax seed and chia seed makes for a healthy tasty loaf. Here’s the recipe.
24. Crusty French Loaf
Just a couple of hours for the dough to rise and prove and then you’ll have crusty French bread if you follow the advice given in the recipe. Here’s the recipe.
25. Peach Cobbler
One of America’s iconic desserts made with fresh peaches picked from your trees – or ones you canned from the peach season this dessert is simple yet a crowd pleaser. Here’s the recipe.
26. Apple Pie
The aroma of apples and cinnamon is associated with all things home and good.
Use your freshly picked apples, make sure you have cinnamon in your prepping supplies and corn starch is a good basic to have to make your pastry extra good. Here’s the recipe.
27. Cinnamon Rolls
When the prepping lifestyle calls for a sweet treat to celebrate an occasion then these cinnamon rolls might just be the answer.
Yeast and flour, butter, and sugar, plus cinnamon and raisins, with the option of walnuts or pecans if you have them, make these a please-can-I-have-some-more recipe. Here’s the recipe.
28. Mark’s World Famous Dutch Oven Beef Stew
What makes this recipe different is that the buttermilk biscuits are cooked on top of the stew.
The particular recipe calls for pre-packaged buttermilk biscuit dough but you can make your own dough – see the next entry for how to make the dough.
This recipe also calls for a can of beef broth and brown gravy mix. It provides a hearty all-in-one meal. Here’s the recipe.
29. Dutch oven Biscuits
More like a scone, these are very simple to make with flour, baking powder, lard or butter, and buttermilk (or milk).
They are delicious with some homemade jam or placed over a stew as in the above recipe. Here’s the recipe.
30. Pork Belly Stew
This stew cooks itself tender without too much effort, which is perfect for a prepper as there is always so much to do.
The recipe calls for the Dutch oven to be placed in a convection oven but you can do it on a campfire too. Here’s the recipe.
31. Salmon Chowder
When the salmon are running and you have managed to catch a few this is a good way to enjoy them. The recipe will also work for cod or other firm white fish.
Bacon, chicken or seafood stock, cream, and potatoes make this a chowder to remember. Here’s the recipe.
32. Succulent Braised Pork
The rich sauce for this includes celery and red wine. Serve with a Dutch oven bread – we have a few recipes here for rice. It would even be good over whole boiled potatoes, smashed for serving. Here’s the recipe.
33. Chocolate chip cookies
No recipe round-up is complete if you don’t have a choc chip cookie recipe.
What is important when baking the cookies in a Dutch oven over a fire instead of in an electric oven is the fact that you need more coals to give heat on the top than on the bottom of the oven otherwise the bases of the cookies will be burnt. Here’s the recipe.
34. Campfire Smothered Squirrel
First, the squirrel pieces are covered in flour and spices, then fried, and after this, the sauce is made using onions and buttermilk, then the pieces are returned to cook until tender. Here’s the recipe.
35. Braised Groundhog in Herb Mustard Reduction
Very important for those who have killed a groundhog for food is to remove the musk gland under the armpit of these animals – read the recipe thoroughly before preparing your groundhog. Here’s the recipe.
36. Moose Pot Roast
A moose provides plenty of meat and if you are running out of ideas of what to do with it all – here’s a pot roast you can do in the Dutch oven that will have everyone’s mouths watering. Here’s the recipe.
Jeanie is an avid camper and a cook. She likes to do pioneer recipe sin particular, and any other type of survival food that our great-grandfathers loved.