You can make just about anything in an outdoor Dutch oven that you can make in an oven in the house. Yesterday I roasted a whole chicken from Falling Sky Farm with rosemary, garlic, and lemons in a 12-quart Dutch oven in the back yard. The process is so simple that I hesitate to post it, but I know some readers would like to do more Dutch oven cooking, so here goes.
Make a brine of 1 cup salt, 1 cup vinegar, and 1 cup sugar, heated and dissolved in water, with enough additional water and/or ice to completely cover your chicken. Drop in several crushed juniper berries and twigs of rosemary. Be sure to use a non-reactive pot–no cast iron, aluminum, or plastic for this stage. Brine the bird at least 24 hours.
Remove the bird from the brine and discard the brine mixture, rosemary, etc. Stuff the bird with more fresh rosemary, 2-4 cloves of sliced garlic, and about half a lemon. Season the bird’s skin with a little more salt and pepper. Now you’re ready to roast!
Start charcoal, preferably using a chimney with the bottom loaded with newspaper to avoid having to use lighter fluid. (Ick!) Get the coals hot. Put the chicken in a lightly greased outdoor Dutch oven, either by itself or with potatoes as we did. Add the lid. Put the Dutch oven on top of about 8-12 coals. Add more coals to the top. Rotate the whole oven *and* the lid every 15 minutes or so. Your chicken will roast in an hour to an hour and a half, depending on size. You may need to add coals as you go, so do keep an eye on whether you’ll need to fire up some more.
Be sure not to let ashes in the Dutch oven when you rotate the lid!
Our 5-pound chicken roasted for an hour and a half, and it was definitely over the minimum safe temperature of 165-170 degrees F. It was also incredible juicy, with super rosemary and garlic flavor, all thanks to roasting in the Dutch oven. And our house stayed sooooo nice and cool! I wish I had a food stylist on staff to make it clear how gorgeous this bird was, but I’ll trust that you’ll give the recipe a try and decide for yourself.
Oh–do you see that juice in the bottom? It’s the incredibly flavorful base for gravy. Let everything cool a few minutes; then remove the bird and veggies to rest. Whisk a little potato flour or whole-wheat pastry flour into the juices. Heat to boiling with a little sherry and let thicken. Serve on the side. Do be careful–this mixture includes the brine and may already be a little salty for some folks.
Copyright 2010 Ozarkhomesteader. All rights reserved.
Nekkid chicken!!!!!
I am glad you posted this. Guess what we had for supper last night-a roasted chicken with garden veggies and gravy.
If I had read this a few hours earlier, I would have attempted it in my camping dutch oven, instead I made the kitchen hot.
I have a chimney. I will try this next time.
Polly, I still wonder if we’re not related. I almost titled the “raw, uncooked chicken” “nekkid chicken.” Tee hee hee.
It’s sooooo easy. I forgot to add that I dusted in a little potato flour (not potato starch) to start the gravy process when the chicken was about half way done.
I haven’t cooked a campfire dutch oven meal in ages. That looks so good. Thanks for the post.
Thanks, Leigh! If you haven’t used a camping DO for years because you don’t have one, you may want to keep your eyes open here. Sometime within the next month, I’ll be doing my first blog giveaway, for a 2-quart Lodge camping Dutch oven. I picked it up a week ago when I was in north Alabama to see family. 🙂
Mmmm. So good sounding/looking, it even makes a vegetarian consider eating chicken. Instead, I’ll let my culinary imagination move on to dreaming about dutch oven roasted veggies…
I almost felt guilty posting it, knowing I’d have vegetarians who might see that chicken and run.
Dutch oven roasted veggies are amazing, by the way! Watch for the giveaway . . . . 🙂
Looks good! I’ve never seen one of those outdoor oven set-ups. They must be great in the summer. Thanks for visiting the domestic fringe and leaving a comment!
-FringeGirl
Like you, FringeGirl, I love to bake, and it gets way hotter here than in upstate New York. The Dutch oven is a great solution, but so is a good toaster oven. You can easily bake your beloved bread in the summer either way. 🙂
Stumbled here looking for a solution to our problem – We had a “hen” that has been crowing (we live in town), we have a new dutch over we planned on using for a camping trip[ this weekend, and we have some rosemary in the garden that was needing a serious trimming. You offer a perfect solution!
As of this moment, the offending “hen” is in the fridge soaking in a luxurious brine bath. Tomorrow night, we will be building a campfire, on an island, using your recipe, with the only modification being the substitution of a lime for a lemon. This is Florida, limes are the “in” thing 🙂
Thanks!
db
You are most welcome. We had crowing hens too. As a matter of fact, that’s the title I’ve drafted for my chicken update. I hope your “hen” is tasty!
[…] recipe I followed was from https://ozarkhomesteader.wordpress.com/2010/08/11/too-hot-to-roast-a-chicken-dutch-oven-it/ and stated it should take between “an hour to an hour and a half, depending on size”, […]
Just to let you know, I made up for the initial failure on roasting a chicken. You can see it here:
http://floridahillbilly.com/roasted-dutch-oven-chicken-extra-crispy-part-2/
Thanks again for the inspiration and direction!
Hooray! I’m so happy it worked out this time. In the future, you may want to try the hand-over-coals method for checking temperature for firewood instead of briquets. Put your hand about 3 inches above the coals. Count slowly until you have to pull your hand away. About seven equals a slow oven (around 300 degrees). Four or five is moderate–think 350 degrees. Two or three and you’re pushing 400-500 degrees. Of course, the depth of your Dutch oven can make a huge difference. The deeper the oven (and the top of the food you’re cooking), the more heat you need on top.