How to Cook Beef Stroganoff in a Dutch Oven

Get back to your roots, head out to your favorite camping spot, and break out that old dutch oven. Make an age old traditional Russian dish and add your own personal touch. This dish is perfect for making on your first attempt at a dutch oven dinner. It's easy and fairly quick to make. Cooking with a dutch oven is another way to get your buddies off the couch and outside around the camp fire. It's also a great way to get the kids and whole family involved in cooking dinner. Once you make your first camping dinner in a dutch oven, you won't want to cook dinner any other way. 

Step One

Buy all your ingredients and prep your fire. If you are working with others to make dinner, you can get your fire and coals started while your friends run to the store. The sooner you start your fire and get plenty of hot coals to cook with, the sooner everyone can eat. You can follow my recipe, or change it up and make a recipe that is more your style. You can add more beef, take out potatoes, add mushrooms, hot sauce etc. Obviously if you change one thing, you made need to add or change other ingredients. As an example, If you take out potatoes, then you will only need about one cup of water. This is the recipe I have made my own, however feel free to try out your own variations. The entire process should only take about 2-3 hours. Cooking time should only take about 45 minutes. If you are hiking in, or just want to cut down on time, you can precook your ground beef, chop all your ingredients and transport them in Tupperware. 

Ingredients and Gear:

- 12 pack of beer on ice (not to cook with)

- 12 quart dutch oven

- Serving Spoon

- Knife

- Gloves

- Cutting Board

- 1 pound ground beef 

- 1 chopped onion

- 1 chopped garlic clove

- 2 cups of noodles 

- 1 cup sour cream 

- 1 can of beef broth

- 2 cups of water

- 1/2 tsp of pepper

- 1/2 tsp of Tony Chachere's Cajun Seasoning 

- Louisiana Crystal hot sauce 

- 2 tblsp flour

- 2 chopped potato (the smaller you chop the potato, the quicker it will cook)

- hand full of chopped parsley

- 2 hand fulls of sliced mushrooms

Step Two

Prep all your ingredients. Once you have a good bed of coals, you will be ready to cook. Lightly oil your dutch oven, and add you ground beef, 1/2 the onions, hot sauce, garlic, pepper, and tony chachere's. 

Step Three

Place the dutch oven on the bed off coals and wait until the beef starts sizzling. Slowly stir and cook the ground beef until lightly browned, then drain off the excess grease. 

Step Four

Stir in water, beef broth, potatoes, noodles, second 1/2 of fresh onions, fresh mushrooms, parsley, and beef stroganoff mix. Cover the dutch oven with the lid and add coals to the top of the lid. You want the liquid in the dutch oven to be at a steady simmer. 

Step Five

Check the dish every 5 minutes for about 20 minutes. Make sure you have a glove to lift the lid. Stir the dish, add or remove coals to keep the liquid at a steady simmer. You can also add water as needed for the noodles and potatoes. Cook until potatoes and noodles are tender.

Step Six

Add sour cream and flour, and mix well. Cover and cook for 5-10 more minutes. Add the fresh parsley, hot sauce, pepper, etc to you liking. Serve, sit back with that cold beer, and enjoy. It makes about 8-10 servings.