I just bought a dutch oven. What should I make in it?

September 24, 2011 12:50 PM

I just bought a dutch oven. What should I make in it?

I just bought my first dutch oven. I love my cast iron skillets, but I've never had a dutch oven before. I'm already planning on making the no-knead bread and am making chili in it tomorrow. Besides that, I'm not really sure what I want to use it for.

What are your favorite recipes that involve the dutch oven?

posted by Tu13es to food & drink (33 answers total)

Fish pie. Pulled pork.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 12:53 PM on September 24, 2011

Disclaimer: I am a very unskilled and lazy cook.

I roast chicken in mine. I buy a chicken that fits in sort of snugly so that I don't have to truss it. Then I rinse the chicken inside and out and dry it off a little with paper towels. I put the chicken in the pot and salt it. I stuff the inside with onions (and sometimes a couple of lemons) and stick a few pieces of onion underneath it. I also leave some garlic cloves around it (unpeeled). Then I bake it, cover off or on, at around 400º until the meat thermometer says it's safe to eat! I use the drippings and some chicken stock from a previous chicken roasting to make a little gravy and sometimes just throw the chicken right into it before serving. After dinner, I boil the hell out of the carcass to make more stock for the freezer.

I am seriously uninterested in recipes that need a lot of ingredients or time, so this is a good way to make a quick chicken and fool your family into thinking you can cook. There are many more involved—and frankly, probably better tasting—chicken roasting recipes online (Google "dutch oven roast chicken"), but this works.
posted by theredpen at 12:56 PM on September 24, 2011 [6 favorites]

Baked beans. Or any beans, where low and slow is great. Braises. Casseroles. Cassoulet.
posted by holgate at 12:56 PM on September 24, 2011

Warning: I did the no-knead bread thing in my Le Creuset, and it sort of took the sheen off of the enamel (maybe from the parchment paper "cooking"?). Still works, but it seems harder to get clean now than before. I went to Ikea and bought a cheapo dutch oven for bread-baking, so that I wouldn't do any more damage to my nice one.
posted by misterbrandt at 1:00 PM on September 24, 2011

Pineapple upside down cake.

Take crushed pineapple, and layer the bottom of your oven with it and handfuls of brown sugar. Pour the batter from a standard yellow cake mix over that layering and bake for 12 minutes or so. :)
posted by These Birds of a Feather at 1:01 PM on September 24, 2011 [5 favorites]

2nding Cassoulet. It's a time consuming process, but beyond worth it. I've converted vegans with cassoulet. It is a major contender for my death-row meal.

I would wait however, for the weather to get colder...a cup of this stuff will warm you with the force of a thousand suns.
posted by furnace.heart at 1:16 PM on September 24, 2011

Pot Roast.... A nice 3 lb rolled roast, sear it in some oil on all sides, put in about 1.5 - 2 cups water, three cloves garlic sliced, herbs of choice, two small onions cut in half, some pepper. In the oven at 350 degrees for about three hours. for the last hour or so throw in quartered potatoes and carrots. Let it sit for 15 minutes after you take it out of the oven.

Use the liquid left at at the end to make gravy (add another cup or so of water, a couple tablespoons of flour (mixed in the juice first, then put into the pot), whisk until reduced to gravy.

Cooking time is three hours, prep time is about fifteen minutes, then go play while it cooks.

Don't wash it in soapy water... find the thread here about how to season and clean cast iron (although, you probably already know about that).
posted by HuronBob at 1:21 PM on September 24, 2011

Short ribs! Brown the ribs. Saute garlic, onion, carrots, celery. Add ribs back to pot, add crushed tomatoes and red wine to cover, with bay leaves and thyme and salt and pepper. Cook at 350 for 3 hours or so. Take ribs out, bubble the sauce down on top of stove until it's reduced by about half, put the ribs back in and serve over pasta or polenta.
posted by Cocodrillo at 1:25 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

On the stovetop, brown a whole cut-up chicken in olive oil, with a diced onion and plenty of garlic.

Set the browned chicken aside, deglaze the pan with 4 cups chicken stock, add 2 cups uncooked white rice, 1 jar of marinated artichoke hearts, 1 can of sliced black olives. Set chicken pieces back on top of rice, cover and bake in oven for 1 hour at ~400º F, or until rice is done & chicken is cooked through.

Camping cobbler: If you take your dutch oven camping, you can do this:

Dump 2 or 3 cans of your favorite canned fruit in the dutch oven (I like peaches the best). Layer Pillsbury biscuits (the kind that come in the tube) over top of fruit, sprinkle sugar over biscuits, cover, nestle dutch oven in hot coals, distributing some over the top of the lid to bake it from both sides, cook for ~1/2 hr. Best thing in the world after a good day's fishing/hiking.
posted by Devils Rancher at 1:26 PM on September 24, 2011 [2 favorites]

Peach or Apple Cobbler.
posted by Exchequer at 1:27 PM on September 24, 2011

You can make anything you would make in a crockpot. It just cooks longer.
posted by getmetoSF at 1:27 PM on September 24, 2011

I roast chicken in mine.

Cooks illustrated has a great recipe for French roast chicken that is done in a dutch oven. The skin isn't nice and crispy but the meat is fall-off-the-bone tender with a wonderful flavor and you end up with a good bit of stock. They are also great for braising things in and the fact they go from stovetop to oven means you brown and braise in one pot for less cleanup. I have a cast iron model like yours as well a a large enameled one ans used them both a good bit.
posted by TedW at 1:28 PM on September 24, 2011

I suggest Carbonnade à la Flamande, a.k.a. beef and onion stew with Belgian beer. It's a perfect slow-cooking stovetop-to-oven winter meal.
posted by vorfeed at 1:29 PM on September 24, 2011 [4 favorites]

african chicken peanut stew. it's stupid tasty. a batch lasts for a good two or three weeks.
posted by patricking at 1:31 PM on September 24, 2011 [5 favorites]

Oh my: Dutch babies!
posted by iiniisfree at 1:56 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

I am a Smitten Kitchen fan and her Southwestern Pulled Brisket and Braised Beef Short Ribs are both really, really good. The brisket is simple and the short ribs are fussy, but well worth it.

If you're somewhere ever remotely fall feeling right now a braise is your best friend.
posted by Saminal at 2:07 PM on September 24, 2011

add crushed tomatoes and red wine to cover

I was under the impression that you should not cook acidic ingredients in raw-iron cookware.
posted by rhizome at 2:09 PM on September 24, 2011

I make a French Lentil and Sausage dish sometimes. It's all stove top, but I appreciate the dutch oven's weight -- it controls the heat really well.

It's pretty easy to swap out the pork sausage for vegan sausage, if you incline that way (leave out the bacon, too, obviously). In that case, just poach the sausages in a cup of wine. You can also use a bottle of cider to good effect, but be careful of the sugar burning toward the end.

I have also just made the lentils, served it over greens with some feta added, which makes a nice summery salad, since it's good hot and cold. It's pretty easy to make a double batch of the lentils and eat them a couple of different ways during the week. They reheat OK.
posted by GenjiandProust at 2:17 PM on September 24, 2011 [1 favorite]

Alternative to no-knead bread - Irish soda bread. I have some in the oven right now, and if I had a dutch oven, the crust would be so much better.
posted by a robot made out of meat at 2:21 PM on September 24, 2011

Make tempura. Alton Brown on the subject.
posted by JackarypQQ at 2:31 PM on September 24, 2011

add crushed tomatoes and red wine to cover

I was under the impression that you should not cook acidic ingredients in raw-iron cookware.

Oh shoot I thought it was enameled inside! If not, yes probably skip this recipe.
posted by Cocodrillo at 2:56 PM on September 24, 2011

I was under the impression that you should not cook acidic ingredients in raw-iron cookware.

Oh shoot I thought it was enameled inside! If not, yes probably skip this recipe.

Once it gets really well-seasoned you can get away with it, but as this one's brand new you're right, best to hold off.

OP: Fried chicken. Fried anything, really.
posted by Diablevert at 3:08 PM on September 24, 2011

Feel free to go nuts expanding the no-knead bread idea. Add seeds, herbs, etc. I really like making it with part sourdough starter, but this complicates using the original recipe alot; you basically need to know the hydration of your starter and the hydration called for by the original, and scale and replace accordingly, probably using a bread recipe calculator. Flavor is much improved that way, though. Also, make the biggest loaf your oven can comfortably accomodate, results seem better for me that way.
posted by slow graffiti at 3:09 PM on September 24, 2011

Jambalaya.
posted by fraac at 3:14 PM on September 24, 2011

I bought that same dutch oven! After watching all this guy's videos.
posted by fraac at 3:28 PM on September 24, 2011

I'm making sauteeing kale with trumpet mushrooms, broccoli, sundried tomatoes and tofu in my lodge dutch oven right as I type this. I make similar sauteed vegie meals almost every day. I never really use it for anything else.
posted by rainy at 3:57 PM on September 24, 2011

Braised short ribs. They're not really that hard at all, they just take forever to actually cook. Make sure you trim the fat off them first or they'll be gross. Also spoon the fat off the top of the sauce after you reduce it b
posted by nathancaswell at 4:04 PM on September 24, 2011

You can make anything you would make in a crockpot. It just cooks longer.

And makes your house hotter.

But yeah, crockpot recipes and deep fryer recipes. A dutch oven is these minus heat source and thermostat.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 9:09 PM on September 24, 2011

Beef daube provencal is amazing....this is my go-to recipe.
posted by netsirk at 9:15 PM on September 24, 2011

Cider Braised Pork Shoulder with Caramelized Onions. 5 ingredients plus salt and pepper.
Also, pretty much everything is delicious in the cookbook Braising with Molly.
posted by tangaroo at 6:47 AM on September 25, 2011

Chicken with 40 cloves of garlic. After you've eaten the chicken, save the garlic, purée it in a blender and you have the most delicious garlic spread that you can spread on toast, or stir into soups, stews and stir-fries.
posted by essexjan at 9:33 AM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]

My favorite recipes:

Short Ribs Provencale: I make smashed potatoes to go with it and they're fantastic with that gravy.

Slow-Cooked Carnitas Tacos

A lazier thing to do with a pork shoulder/Boston Butt: set the oven to 250 degrees, put pork in dutch oven, let cook for 6-8 hours. You can even do that overnight. When it comes out you will have the most perfectly tender pork in the universe. Use for barbecue sandwiches, homemade ramen, tacos, or anything else your heart desires.

And yeah, pot roast.

I'm hungry.
posted by heatvision at 3:07 PM on September 25, 2011

Super easy peach cobbler. Pour some canned peaches in the pot with the syrup. Sprinkle yellow cake mix over the top. Put about a stick of butter sliced up all around the top of the cake mix. Put the lid on and stand the oven over some charcoals or in your campfire. Put more charcoal or burning wood on top. Cook until brown and crispy on top. Yum. Hey, I didn't say it was diet food!
posted by tamitang at 9:03 PM on September 25, 2011 [1 favorite]