What else can I cook in a Dutch oven?

March 20, 2025 3:42 PM

Someone got me a cook book recently and I just tried this recipe for chicken thighs cooked with rice and coconut milk in a Dutch oven. It was awesome! Super tasty, super easy. I've never really cooked with a Dutch oven before. What else can I make along the lines of protein + starch + veggies = low effort deliciousness using my Dutch oven. Particularly interested in vegetarian recipes.

Things I liked about this cooking method were:

- Super flavorful
- One pot
- Relatively healthy
- Easy to put together but looked kind of impressive

I eat meat on occasion but mostly stick to vegetarian. In my initial Google searching it seems like the vast majority of recipes are for meat-based dishes. However, if you can vouch that a meaty recipe is Just That Good please feel free to include it! I have never really tried cooking fish, so if you have a fish recipe that's super easy that might work too.

posted by forkisbetter to Food & Drink (22 answers total)

Tomato sauce slow cooked in the oven in a Dutch oven turns out really well. That wouldn't give you a single pot recipe, but if you feel experimental, combining that with a ragu recipe with a protein like chickpeas might be worth trying.

They're also great for making chili with.
posted by Candleman at 4:02 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]

This may not be what you're after, but a cool thing you can cook in a Dutch oven is no-knead bread. (Recipes are Googleable, I don't have a specific one to vouch for.)
posted by aws17576 at 4:03 PM on March 20 [7 favorites]

A stew very similar to this is good in the Dutch oven. You can use baby spinach like she does, and it is a fast meal, but I prefer using frozen spinach because it tastes of more, and then cook it longer and slower. I take care to NOT stir in the spinach, the little blobs look nice.

But you can make everything in a Dutch oven. At first I mostly made stews and those no-knead breads, but today I made stuffed zucchini in one, on the stovetop. I only use my steel pans for fast boiling, like potatoes or pasta, and my non-stick for eggs and fish.

Which brings me to your fish question: you can make fish stews, but they are not for beginners. Fish is easiest in the oven, poached or simply fried on a non-stick pan. Of course you can use your Dutch oven for poaching, they hold a good steady temperature.
posted by mumimor at 4:11 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]

vegetarian chili

chicken and dumplings (sorry but it's a defining childhood memory)

so many soups
posted by wenestvedt at 4:42 PM on March 20

Came to mention the breads and desserts you can make in a Dutch oven! Single most favorite kitchen thing I've ever been given.
posted by fennario at 4:42 PM on March 20

maybe a shitload of risotto
posted by wenestvedt at 4:42 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]

I used to make an enormous loaf of basque shepherd’s bread using a recipe from one of Jeff Smith’s cookbooks. Like most of my cookbooks it is long gone, but this recipe seems similar. You bake it in a Dutch oven and if it is sized correctly the lid will lift up and the loaf will be shaped like a giant muffin. Excellent for (very large) sandwiches, or smaller ones with a smaller batch and correspondingly-smaller Dutch oven.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 4:44 PM on March 20

chicken and dumplings (sorry but it's a defining childhood memory)

I cannot imagine being sorry for chicken and dumplings. Even not-so-great chicken and dumplings are wonderful. It took me *so long* to figure out how to make decent gluten-free dumplings after my wife was diagnosed with celiac disease, so I will inflict the recipe on everyone. You can make them in any stew in any container, a Dutch oven will work fine.

GLUTEN-FREE DUMPLINGS

Everything gluten-free is worse than the gluten-containing version.
You wouldn't expect that to include dumplings, since you don't really
develop the gluten in them, but they are certainly different. I
accidentally made some that were _perfect_ today and naturally I
didn't measure things... However, this is my best attempt to recover
the recipe. Note that it does not use any shortening.

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 C Bob's Deadpool all-purpose GF flour
1 t or so salt
1 T baking powder
4 large eggs
1 - 2 C milk (see recipe)
black pepper

Place dry ingredients in bowl and whisk or otherwise blend
thoroughly. You could sift them if you have a sifter. You can use
however much black pepper you like.

Mix eggs in small bowl until they're ... mixed. Add to dry
ingredients. Add some milk. You want to end up with a mixture that
is around the boundary between a batter and a dough. You should be
able to scoop up a generous amount in a big spoon above the level of
the spoon, but you should still be able to pour it out.

Wait until stew is bubbling and add generous spoonfuls on top. I got
seven big dumplings--you can do smaller ones if you want. Try to
space them evenly. If you like, you can drop some herbs on top. I
had some chopped fresh thyme, oregano, and sage. It looks pretty even
if it contribues little to the taste.

Cook uncovered for 8-10 minutes. You can *gently* stir the stew a
little at this point, being careful not to wreck the dumplings. Cover
and turn heat to low. Cook some more--a total of 20 minutes. Turn
off heat and serve.

The nice thing about these dumplings is they had a nice tooth and were
durable enough to cut with a spoon without dissolving.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 4:52 PM on March 20 [4 favorites]

Savory Turmeric Quinoa

2 T toasted sesame oil, plus more for finishing
1 large red onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
Pinch of kosher salt or sea salt
1½ cups sliced shitake mushrooms caps (~ 4 oz) – Can substitute cremini mushrooms, if desired
3 garlic cloves, minced
1-inch piece fresh ginger, grated or minced (can sub ginger powder)
1½ cups quinoa
1 (13.5 oz) can full-fat coconut milk (Can sub “lite” coconut milk or other non-dairy milk but it won’t have the same wonderful taste)
1½ tsp ground turmeric
½ tsp freshly cracked black pepper
1½ T white or yellow miso paste
3 T tahini
1½ T reduced-sodium tamari or soy sauce
1/2 c hot water
1 T white or black sesame seeds
Optional Garnishes: sesame oil, chopped scallions or chives, crushed red pepper flakes, or Sriracha
You can round out this dish by adding more vegetables – broccoli or bok choy or chickpeas

1. Sauté the the onion and bell pepper in the sesame oil. Season with the salt and cook
until the onion begins to soften, 3-4 minutes. Once the oil is hot,
2. Add the mushrooms, garlic, and ginger, and cook for 2 minutes, stirring frequently to prevent burning. If the mixture looks dry, you can add a little more oil or 1T of water to prevent burning.
3. Add the quinoa to the pot along with the coconut milk, hot water, turmeric, and black pepper. Stir all of the ingredients together until well combined.
4. Secure the lid and cook till quinoa is done (check at 15 minutes, it may need some water, more likely 20 minutes till done).
5. Meanwhile, in a small bowl, whisk together the miso, tahini, tamari (soy sauce), and hot water until you have a creamy pourable sauce.
6. Once the quinoa mix is done, pour in the miso tahini sauce and the sesame seeds, stirring to incorporate well.
posted by ldthomps at 4:53 PM on March 20 [4 favorites]

What do you know, I actually have the basque bread recipe on my NAS. So here is the one I used to use, transcribed from an old handwritten version:

Basque bread

This is from one of Jeff Smith's books but I don't remember which
one. This makes a nice mildly-sweet white bread. Great for
sandwiches.

6 C very hot tap water
1 C shortening
1 C sugar
5 t salt
2 packages quick-rising yeast
18 C bread flour

Note: I had a 10 qt. dutch oven. If you have a smaller one either
divide the recipe or make a smaller one. I *think* I doubled this at
once time but I don't have the book I stole it from anymore. I had to
make this by hand but a smaller recipe will probably fit in a Kitchen
Aid mixer.

Combine water, shortening, salt, sugar. Let cool to warm (110
degrees) and stir in yeast. Let stand until bubbly (this way you know
the yeast is working).

Add 10C flour and stir until smooth. Add 5C more and knead. Add more
flour as needed to make a stiff dough. Put in greased bowl (cover
with something non-stick like wax paper) and let rise till doubled.

Oil 10 qt. Dutch oven. Cut circle of foil for bottom (this keeps the
bread from sticking). Punch dough down and place in dutch oven. Put
on lid and let rise until lid begins raises 1/2 inch.

Bake at 375 for 16 minutes. Remove lid and bake 35 or more minutes
further. The bread should sound hollow when you tap it. Turn onto
rack to cool.
posted by Gilgamesh's Chauffeur at 4:54 PM on March 20 [8 favorites]

I make this vegetarian Smitten Kitchen potato leek soup recipe allll the time. Also, her version of the Marcella Hazen best-ever tomato sauce.

And this King Arthur sourdough bread recipe -- follow the recipe + scroll down to add the Dutch oven baking instructions.
posted by BlahLaLa at 5:03 PM on March 20 [5 favorites]

I recently made Ash Reshteh (vegetarian Persian soup, popular for Nowruz—Persian New Year—which is right now) in our Dutch oven and it was perfect for that.

Ash Reshteh recipe, with substitutions in case you don’t have access to a Persian grocery. But if you have a way to get hold of real reshteh noodles or kashk, I recommend it! I made it once with substitutions and once with the Persian ingredients and although it was good both times, there is a certain flavour the kashk provides that is not the same as Greek yogurt or sour cream. Still good either way though!
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 5:21 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]

Roast a butter nut squash in the skin. Wash it and make a few air vents for steam to escape. There will be some liquid from the squash that is heavenly. The interior will get super soft and you can just scoop it out and mash it. I like some cheddar cheese and sage as a topping, but the squash is delicious solamente. Some like a good basalmic vinegar as a topping. The squash flavor is so much more concentrated by roasting it than steaming or boiling.

Small tomatoes rubbed with a little olive oil, herbs de Provance, and just a little honey. Just let them bake and they will turn into this extraordinary densely flavored dish with another lovely sauce that is the moisture from the interior of the tomatoes. I like Trader Joe's tiny Marzano tomatoes or their sugar plum tomatoes; both varieties are wonderful for this dish.
posted by effluvia at 5:59 PM on March 20

Not a specific recipe, but a cookbook recommendation - Le French Oven by Hillary Davis. Despite the name, this is all recipes for a Dutch oven - she just got cute with the title because it's all French cuisine. Davis is an American who lived in Provence for several years so she hits that sweet spot between "decently authentic" and "accessible to USA markets and home cooks". She has a decent amount of vegetarian recipes in it: fancy-pants mac and cheese, a lasagna with goat cheese and vegetables, vegetable gratin, a casserole with red pepper and potato and tomato, a poached salmon, risotto, a one pot pasta inspired by salade nicoise, roasted vegetables, braised leeks with swiss chard, and a fish stew from Normandy with mussels, shrimp, scallops and white fish.

Your best bets for a Dutch oven are things that do well with lots of liquid and low-and-slow cooking, so lots of stews and braises.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:19 PM on March 20 [3 favorites]

One of my favourite soups, vegan, cook it in my Dutch oven all the time. nb: you might choose to leave out the kale stems. I like them though.

Superfood soup

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 carrots peeled and diced
2 celery stalks diced
1 yellow onion diced
2 teaspoons fine sea salt
2 tablespoons curry powder
1 sweet potato, unpeeled, cut 1/2-inch dice
1 can unsweetened coconut milk
1 14oz can diced tomatoes
1 14oz can cannelini beans
3 cups chopped kale
stems from kale
juice of 1 lime

Directions:

1. Heat the oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and salt and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened but not brown, about 5 minutes.

2. Add the curry powder and cook, stirring continuously, for 30 seconds, being careful not to let the spices brown.

3. Add 5 cups water, sweet potato, coconut milk, tomatoes, and kale stems, to the pot. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, and simmer covered, stirring occasionally, until the sweet potatoes are soft, about 20 minutes (be careful not to overcook).

4. Stir in the kale and simmer just until wilted. Add the cannelini beans and stir in. Turn off the heat and stir in 1 tablespoon of the lime juice. Taste and add more lime juice and salt, if needed.
posted by Cpt. The Mango at 7:24 PM on March 20 [1 favorite]

Pizza Beans work really well in a dutch oven, or any sort of bean bake.
posted by snowymorninblues at 9:28 PM on March 20

I make a similar chicken + rice + coconut milk recipe which includes a half bag of kale at the end, let it wilt down a minute of so before baking so the cover stays on. Kale is nigh on inedible to me raw in salads but baked in coconut milk? Food of the gods.
posted by TWinbrook8 at 4:27 AM on March 21

Dutch ovens were used by cowboy cooks so you can get some ideas from the like of Cowboy Kent Rollins.

Adam Ragusa's Dutch oven bread recipe is here.
posted by SemiSalt at 4:56 AM on March 21 [2 favorites]

Caramelize a whole lot of onions! Use as you want, or continue in the same pot to make this viral French onion soup pasta.
posted by itsatextfile at 5:43 AM on March 21

Pizza Beans work really well in a dutch oven, or any sort of bean bake.

FYI - the Pizza Beans are BY FAR the most popular recipe in the Rancho Gordo bean club community group on Facebook. Over the past 3 years or so, at LEAST once a week you get a post from someone saying something like "you guys I finally tried the pizza beans and I finally get why y'all are talking about it so much!" So that's an endorsement from a whole bunch of bean freaks.

And the Rancho Gordo site also has a bunch of recipes, including ones that involve baking beans in a Dutch Oven. (You do not need to use RG beans specifically, of course, but their beans are so worth it....)

Vegetarian baked beans

Spicy Baked Royal Corona Beans (Royal Coronas are a Rancho Gordo bean, you can probably substitute gigante beans)

Baked Cassoulet beans with summer squash and corn (this is meant to be in a casserole dish - you could use the Dutch oven without the lid)

Slow Baked Garbanzos

Here's a couple of on-the-fly bean recipes the Rancho Gordo CEO posted on his blog a few years back.

Lamb and flageolet beans

Black eyed peas and rice

Frijoles Pinquitos de la Olla

An Italian lentil and mushroom soup

Another Italian soup, with pasta and borlotti beans

Still another Italian soup - pasta e ceci, or pasta with chick peas

Bean, sausage, and root vegetable stew

And this is just one of the many chili recipes you would find on the RG site.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:44 AM on March 21 [3 favorites]

I make risotto in mine, about every 10 days. I more or less use the recipe off the back of the container of arborio rice but you can't really go wrong if you're prepared to stand there and stir for about 40 minutes. I usually make mushroom risotto, adding the mushrooms at the beginning, not the end. It's delicious, easy to tweak - this time of year, I add asparagus towards the end! - and everybody, even my picky 3 year old granddaughter, likes it. Also if something goes wrong you can just add more parmigiana cheese and voila! It is fixed.
posted by mygothlaundry at 12:34 PM on March 21

General advice:

Dutch ovens excel at holding and evenly distributing heat for a long period of time, either on the stove top or in the oven.

They're good for searing/browning as well as frying (deep or shallow).

You can adapt most "slow cooker" recipes by replacing the slow cooker with a Dutch oven in the oven at a low temp, say 250-300°F.

They're perfect for recipes involving braising, which is a method for slowly cooking tough cheap cuts of meat (that are actually very tasty) until they're tender - yankee pot roast, for example.

They're also great for slow-cooking soups, stews, and sauces.

If you're into baking, there are recipes available online for cooking bread in a Dutch oven.

They're even sturdy enough to take camping! I've used mine directly over the campfire many times. Plan to keep a towel or something handy to wrap it in (after it's cooled!) so soot doesn't get all over everything on the way home.
posted by Greg_Ace at 3:43 PM on March 21 [1 favorite]