Dutch Oven Biscuits Food

DUTCH OVEN BISCUITS

Steps:

• Lightly grease a 14" dutch oven or line with parchment paper.
• Preheat to 500 degrees. This is a hot oven so use lots of coals on the bottom and the top to preheat. Be sure to remove most of the bottom coals just before you begin to bake the biscuits or you'll burn the bottoms.
• In a mixing bowl, sift together the dry ingredients.
• Cut in the shortening with a pastry blender, or two knives. Your done when there are little balls of dough about the size of a pea.
• Pour in all of the milk at once. Stir with a fork until just mixed. Too much mixing will release the gluten and make a heavy biscuit. The dough will be quite wet but able to retain its shape.
• Use a soup spoon and drop the biscuits into the dutch oven. Give each biscuit a little room to grow.
• Place the lid on loaded heavy with hot coals. Place the oven back on a bed of just a very few coals. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until golden brown.
• Remove and serve immediately with lots of butter and sweet jam.

SOURDOUGH BISCUITS

Steps:

• Prepare the Sourdough Starter the night before. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
• Sprinkle yeast in the starter and stir. Add sugar and stir. Add salt and stir. Add baking powder and baking soda and stir. Add oil and then gradually add flour, stirring well after each addition. Place dough on a floured board and sprinkle more flour on top of dough. Flatten dough by hand to about 1/2-inch thickness and then cut with a biscuit cutter. Spray a 16-inch Dutch oven with non-stick cooking spray and then add a little oil to the bottom of the Dutch oven. Place biscuits in Dutch oven, being careful not to overcrowd them. Top with melted butter and set aside to let rise until wrinkles are gone, about 1 hour. Bake, with coals on the lid, for 25 or 30 minutes or until golden brown.
• Dissolve yeast in warm water and whisk to combine. Add sugar and whisk until sugar dissolves. Add sifted flour, 2 cups at a time, whisking after each addition to combine. Peel, wash, and cut the raw potato into quarters; add potato to the flour mixture. Place starter in a large, deep bowl, cover it with a towel, and let rest in a warm place overnight. The starter should be made ahead of time, even 3 to 4 days ahead.

DUTCH OVEN CAMPFIRE CHICKEN WITH BISCUITS

Steps:

• Build a fire in a fire pit or on a metal Dutch oven camp table with wood or charcoal briquettes. Allow fire to burn down to hot coals. This will take about an hour. Using charcoal and a charcoal starter is even faster - like about 30 minutes. A charcoal starter is a metal tube with a handle that makes lighting charcoal easier. You can find them on the internet or at a camping gear store. We REALLY need to invest in one!
• While you are waiting for the fire to burn down to hot coals, scrub and cube the potatoes into about 1x1" cubes and peel and dice the onion.
• Spray a 12 quart cast iron Dutch oven with cooking spray. Dump all three cans of cream of chicken soup in the Dutch oven and add three cans of water. Stir soup and water until well mixed.
• Add potatoes, onions, baby carrots and chicken to Dutch oven and mix with soup. Make sure the chicken and vegetables are covered (or mostly covered) with soup or they will dry out. If you need to, add another can of soup and another can of water. (Today I only used two cans of each and the soup soaked into the chicken and veggies and it was a tad dry.).
• Flatten out the coals. Put the lid on Dutch oven and put the Dutch oven on top of coals. Put coals on top of lid so the top will cook too. This is most easily performed with a small shovel with a long handle. Especially if the fire pit is deep. It's also nice to have oven mitts on your hands 'cuz that fire gets hot!
• Cook chicken and vegetables 40 minutes to an hour, until chicken is cooked through and potatoes and carrots are fork tender. (Note to Self: Don't take the coals off the lid if you have a Dutch oven with an outside rim like we do. Those coals aren't going to drop into the food and you'll have to scoop them on top of the Dutch oven again.).
• Open the two cans of biscuits and put them on top of the hot chicken mixture in one layer. Put biscuits close together so they'll all fit.
• Return lid to Dutch oven and put on coals. Put coals back on the lid if you had to remove them earlier when you checked the chicken mixture. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until biscuits are golden brown.
• Enjoy the fruits of your labor. Speaking of fruit, this dish goes well with fresh fruit and/or salad. We had watermelon and grapes today. Once you're done eating, the coals will be perfect or s'mores, banana boats or other tasty campfire treats.

DUTCH OVEN BREAKFAST BISCUITS

Steps:

• Mix all together.
• Make large drop bisquits and place in oiled dutch oven.
• Cook for about 20 minutes (depends on the number of briquettes used).
• Put on paper towels once removed to absorb excess grease.