Dutch Oven Roast Chicken and Foil Baked Veggies

It's true that necessity is the mother of invention.  I cooked my first full roast chicken in a Dutch Oven a few years back when a friend and organic food enthusiast brought an 8+ pound grass fed roaster on her first ever RV camping trip next door to our seasonal campsite.  Lo and behold, the chicken wouldn't fit in her travel trailer's tiny oven, and it was up to me to get the bird cooked.

Fortunately, my maiden effort was successful, and I've added a few improvements in the years since.  The recipe and photos below are for the dinner I helped Troop 817 scouts prepare when we were cabin camping at Camp Bomazeen last December.  We were feeding a big group and did two birds, but I've reduced the quantities here for more of a family meal.

A pair of Dutch Oven roast chickens on our recent trip to Camp Bomazeen.

Although Dutch Ovens are known for one-pot meals, we cooked the veggies in foil on top of the oven. This approach shortens the time it takes to cook the bird, much like an un-stuffed turkey cooks faster than a stuffed bird.  It also reduces the liquid you need in the pot, so you bake rather than steam, giving you a browner skin.

Ingredients:

Chicken

• 7-8 lb roasting chicken
• 1     tsp garlic powder
• 1/2  tsp salt
• 1/2  tsp ground sage
• 1/2  tsp ground thyme
• 1/4  tsp pepper
• 2     large onions

Veggies

• 6 medium potatoes
• 2 cups carrots, peeled and cut
• 1 medium onion
• cooking spray
• EVOO, or butter or margarine
• salt and pepper

Cooking Equipment: 

• #12 or #14 deep dish Dutch Oven
• lid lifter
• shovel
• aluminum foil
• knives, peelers, mits
• (optional) Dutch Oven liner paper
• paper towels

Starting Your Dutch Oven Roast Chicken

Combine the dry seasonings.  For camping trips, I do this beforehand in a snack-size ziploc bag. Remove neck, etc from an 7-8 Lb roasting chicken.  Rinse and pat dry with paper towels, then sprinkle the bird inside and out with the seasoning mixture.

Line the Dutch Oven with liner paper for faster clean-up if desired. Cut 2 large onions into thick slices (rings) and use these to line the bottom of the Dutch Oven.  They'll add some flavor and moisture and help prevent the bird from sticking to your oven.

Ideally, you want the temp inside the oven to be between 375 and 400. On the windy winter day that we cooked our chickens, that took a lot of charcoal. In the summer, start with the lid diameter plus 2 on bottom and the lid diameter plus 6 on top and see how it goes.  Add more if necessary.  Bake for 60-90 minutes, until the bird is fully cooked and juices run clear.

We had to get really creative when cooking in the strong winter winds at
Camp Bomazeen, using discarded tent platforms for a windbreak, and
borrowing a few blocks from a fireplace to make a cooking platform.

Cooking Your Veggies

There is ample time after the bird is on to prep your veggies.  Spray a generous sheet of aluminum foil with cooking spray, then peel and cut your potatoes and carrots into bite-sized portions (the smaller they are, the faster they cook).  Rinse and arrange on the foil.  Chop your onion and add to the foil.  Drizzle a little EVOO or add a few pats of butter on the veggies, and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  

Spray a second sheet of aluminum foil and use it to cover the veggies, rolling the edges to form a pouch.  It's usually a good idea to add a second later of foil outside the first to prevent you from losing half your meal because of a tear.

When your chicken has been going about 45 minutes or so, set your foil pouch on top of the the coals on your Dutch Oven lid.  Cook 30-45 minutes, turning frequently.  Wisps of steam escaping the corners of your foil pouch and the smell of cooking onions are a good sign that your veggies are nearly done.

Here, the foil pouches containing our veggies are shown
atop the two Dutch Ovens we used to roast chickens.

Finished Meal

Troop 817 gobbled this meal up after a long day of winter camping, so it was definitely a hit. Boys were even seen picking the bones clean after dinner.  We also cooked a Dutch Oven apple crisp for dessert, but that's a story for another day's post.

A fellow camper carves the chicken before we served up our meal,
which was a big hit with the boys.