Cooking in a Dutch Oven

When temperatures drop in the Fall, we always start using the firepit in our backyard more often. I love cooking dinner and eating outside! One of our favorite ways is to use a cast iron Dutch oven.

I use briquettes when cooking with a Dutch oven since it is easier to control the temperature. I pile the required amount in the center of the firepit and use my Electro-Torch to start them.

In less than a minute, you’ll have the briquettes going and you can start to prepare your food in the Dutch oven. I love that I don’t need to use lighter fluid or matches.

For this dinner I went with a whole chicken and rainbow veggies from my garden. There are a number of ways you can prepare the chicken, including adding herb butter under the skin or coating it in olive oil and seasonings. I am trying to be a bit healthier so I opted for just salt, pepper, and herbs from my garden. I added a layer of carrot before laying the chicken in to prevent the chicken from sticking to the bottom.

Once the briquettes have cooked down to glowing coals, it is time to place your Dutch oven in the firepit. I placed 10 coals under and placed 10 on the top. I let it cook for about 2 hours. You may need to add more coals if they cool off before the food is done cooking. It will depend on the temperature outside, the brand of briquettes and how hot they were when you first put them on.

I wish you could smell the yumminess when I first lifted off the lid!

I also decided to make some apple pie. I used my favorite pie crust recipe, which I have on my blog.

When baking in a Dutch oven, you will put less coals on the bottom and more on the top. I like to put 5 or 6 on the bottom and 8-10 on the top. After 30 minutes, keep checking and when the crust is golden brown, the pie is ready to eat.

Cooking in a Dutch oven outside is easy to do and the perfect way to enjoy dinner in the Fall!

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