Using Dutch Ovens for Cooking: A Guide to Cooking Tender and Delicious Meals

When it comes to cooking tender and delicious meals, using Dutch ovens is an excellent option. The technique involves digging a hole in the ground and placing a Dutch oven inside, then adding coals around it to create a makeshift barbecue oven. This method of cooking has been used for years, particularly by outdoor enthusiasts and those who enjoy camping and barbecuing.

The first step in using this technique is to determine how big a round you need your hole if the ground is hard. If the ground is hard, it's best to use a smaller oven because digging for a long time can be physically demanding. A 12-inch deep hole is ideal, as it allows for sufficient space to accommodate the Dutch ovens and coals without making it too difficult to dig. When you dig that hole, make sure to leave about an inch or two of room around the outside edge to allow for even cooking.

It's also important to note that using this technique requires patience and time. The entire process can take up to six hours, during which time the coals will slowly heat up and cook the meat to perfection. This method of cooking is ideal for slow-cooking tougher cuts of meat, such as chuck roast or turkey breast, which become tender and flavorful with prolonged cooking.

One of the key reasons this technique was developed years ago was to create a makeshift oven that could be used in remote locations where traditional barbecue ovens were not available. By sealing the Dutch oven with foil and covering it with coals, the heat is trapped inside, creating a consistent temperature that's similar to a clay-baked oven.

When digging a hole in wet or damp ground, it's essential to add a layer of coals immediately after completing the hole. This helps dry out the ground and prevents moisture from escaping, ensuring that the heat is retained. In contrast, if you're using this technique on dry ground, you can simply place the coals at the bottom of the hole.

To start cooking, it's recommended to begin with a moderate temperature, around 450°F. As the coals absorb more heat, the temperature will increase, and so will the flavor of the food. To achieve the maximum amount of tenderness in tougher cuts of meat, it's essential to cook for at least three hours, but five hours is ideal.

One critical aspect of this technique is ensuring that the edges are sealed tightly, preventing heat from escaping. If you're using a sheet metal or hub cap to cover the Dutch oven, make sure to seal the edges with foil or another material to prevent cold air from entering and ruining the cooking process.

When taking the lid off the Dutch oven, use a wooden spatula to gently chop up any remaining peppers and vegetables, then place them on a corn tortilla. Top the meat with queso fresco, and finally, add a sprinkle of Kent Rollins' salsa for an extra burst of flavor.

Throughout history, this technique has been used by outdoor enthusiasts and those who enjoy cooking in remote locations. The resulting meals are tender, flavorful, and absolutely delicious. In fact, when we took the lid off that Dutch oven, put a fork in there, and let it cool slightly, the meat just sort of fell apart, revealing perfectly cooked, fall-apart tenderness.

In conclusion, using Dutch ovens for cooking is an excellent option for those who want to experience authentic outdoor barbecue flavors without the need for specialized equipment. By following these simple steps and tips, you can create delicious meals that are perfect for any occasion.

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: endo you know what cactus and post-hole diggers have in common they helped me create the best taco i've ever eaten in my life barbacoa tacos traditionally cooked in the ground come on you don't want to miss it look the wagon is back now if y'all been watching our videos for a while you know that we've been shooting a lot of stuff under the barn or maybe in different places and you didn't get to see the wagon that's because the wagon needed work and what hey we took it plum apart if you'll rewind just a little and go back to the previous two videos over here we did a two-part series on the restoration of the 1876 studebaker chuckwagon barbacoa now when i think of the word barbacoa before i really knew what was going on many years ago i was just thinking it was like burying something in the ground and cooking it now many many years ago they did this they'd dig a hole they had wrapped their meat in some kind of leaf they'd put it in the ground cover it with some hot coals top and bottom and put something over the top to where it can have a steaming effect but when you hear the word barbacoa today automatically so many people think of beef cheek meat now i'm not talking about these cheeks ah not these two i'm talking about these cheeks right here now you take a piece of barbacoa cheek meat and it's setting up here and folks it's got so much really i don't think you could call it marbling as you would call it just little pieces of fat filtered all down through there this beef has got it all in there and it makes it really when you cook it this way a really silky texture of meat that gets so tender and has a tremendous flavor that you're not going to get really with any other cut of beef that's out there that's why i really like it but barbara coeds just means barbecue and for so many years it was lamb goat anything that you want to throw in there and cook you can see it's sort of in layers you know when you take this out here and you go to looking at it there's really two pieces now this fat will cook down but folks i like to trim a little of this off of mine just go ahead and when you cut this you can see this is pretty tough you can see what's going on here trying just to get some a little bit of this fat peeled off there now you can throw the whole thing in there just like it has i have many times and folks that'll work just fine don't make no never mind but you can also trim it up just a little see when you get this layer removed you get down here to where there's a little more tissue that's a little more desirable people will try to substitute a lot of different meats for this but folks i'm all for thinking that you need to keep it somewhat traditional and just use cheap meat because you're going to get that truly distinct flavor that this brings about you can do this with a chuck roast but you're not going to get that flavor that barbacoa and cheek meat is really going to bring out you've seen me in a lot of videos use a natural tenderizer and what is that lime juice now we're not making margaritas and you're not going to taste the lime in this but what does the acidity of the lime dew raise your hand you behind the tree next to the wild tree catching the catfish oh he moved he's camera shy yep you got it right buddy it was what breaks down connective tissue which is muscle to make it what more tender you need to start this part right here the night before because i want you to get it lime juiced and seasoned and then we're going to set it in the icebox for at least 12 hours now one side of this is going to get our taco seasoning which you can find on our website y'all know what that is kentrollins.com and we're going to rub it in there really good make sure you get it all coated well and whoo i can smell that flavor that oregano and that cumin coming out in that if y'all hadn't tried this folks you need to because it will make you the best tacos or burrito meat you'll ever have in your life so got that side seasoned we're going to turn it over but i really like to use our mesquite seasoning on the other side because it's got a little ancho chili powder in it and it sort of brings out some more that really good flavor that we just love so season well so many times people want to under season and overcook this is one piece of meat that we're going to overcook a little because we want it to get really good and tender but make sure you get it seasoned really well when you get it to that point break out your plastic bag zip lock sack whatever you got put it in there put it in the ice chest the ice box something for at least 12 hours we're bringing some different peppers to the plate we have one jalapeno which is going to give us some flavor and a little bit of heat but also one serrano which will give it just a tad of a bite some anaheim peppers which to me give it the green chili effect that's really what's going on with it and time we roast these we're even getting more flavor out of them but my most favorite peppers of all the poblano now folks these when they're roasted just right and you get them cooked down a little bit of chocolate in there in a way but also great deal of smokiness that it brings out i don't think there's a lot of heat in a poblano i've never had one that was really hot put a little water in a plastic sack and then just let them sit there and steam that skin that we blistered is going to come off there oh so nice and easy now traditionally many many many years ago hundreds upon hundreds when they first started doing this they would dig a hole in the ground and then they would wrap the meat like maybe in some banana leaves or something like that something that they could protect it from the heat sort of just burning it plumb up now do you see a banana tree with leaves growing on it anywhere i don't something that we have a lot of in our country is what we call nepalis yes or cactus now you can get them at the store but when you see them up there they usually got a set of tongs grab them with the tongs would you please cause if not there's a bunch of them little hair-like stickers over that are going to get in there you can't get them out you just got to wear them for the rest of your life till they get ready to come out but i'm going to give you an interesting agricultural fact about nepalis there's a lot of protein in there there is many years ago back when the drought was so bad in this country probably a little worse than what it is now there was worlds of these sticking up everywhere out in pastures that had been grubbed off to nothing so what do the ranchers do you take a weed burner and you go out there and you burn these burn all the tines off of them them cows will eat them now once you get them hooked on this a lot of times they ain't gonna let them cool off before they go to eating sure it's sort of a last line of defense but i've seen it keep many old cow alive when it was back in drought conditions but we're gonna go ahead and torch these just a little too to make sure that all them stickers are burnt off well and then we'll scrape them it has been about 12 hours it has if you'd be thinking right with the watch uh-huh the magic of television yes it is but i want you to bring that meat out about 45 minutes ahead of time so it can go warming up just a little and then you can go to blistering and peppers like we just did you've seen me do it and then cactus now cactus is going to bring some flavor into this salsa that we're making but also if you want to go back to a video to where we were actually on this ranch and we cooked a turkey in the ground we used onions at a bumper now this is sort of what these depalies do they sort of act as a bumper for this meat not to be sitting directly on that hot cast iron so let's get our cheek meat out here and just lay them right there on them nopali's sliced up two white onions and just scatter them out in there amongst it because folks they're gonna bring some flavor but they're gonna cook down and get all tender and when we get this all chopped up they're a big part of the family as anybody is next you can take them peppers it's right there in that sack and they're still hot and just go to rubbing them around a little that's going to get some of that char off of it pretty easy but i like to go ahead and it ain't going to hurt nothing if you leave some of that on there i'll cut the ends off of them right here and sometimes i'll even split them apart you don't have to do anything to them you can chunk them in their hole just take the stems off of them if you want the poblano just make sure that you get him and he's a little big to lay in there hole so he is actually a pepper that i do split so cut stem off if you want to get around there to them seeds you can see where i sort of pulled them up and got under if you're doing this in a crock pot in the house and you can you don't have to dig up the backyard now i would like you to turn it up on high go ahead before you ever start put you about all three fourths of a cup of beef broth in that crock pot and then turn it on that way as it warms that broth is warm but you can also at the same time sear that meat if you're going to put it in a crock pot go ahead and sear it in a skillet to give it some good color then lay it in there just like we got it but if you're doing it in a dutch oven you're actually putting it in the ground go ahead and let's take this beef broth pour around the edge and just go ahead i know how much is in there because i used some the other day there's exactly three fourths of a cup left we nearly left it out folks we did my one of my favorite creations and that is about four or five garlic cloves just scatter them down in there anywhere you go i'd rather use them whole as minced of anything but since we're going in the ground we need one more added layer of protection we do if we can get in this box easy open see that right there zoom in here shan it says easy open do you see a place it's easy to open i sure don't that's what you call miscommunication from the people that manufacture to the people that actually gonna buy it if you're gonna put something on there that says easy oh gosh it needs to be easy there we go it finally did that time get you some of that rolled off er if you can find it and this is one time the wind is not blowing at least 60. remember we're burying this in the ground we don't want no sand to get in there and we don't want to lose anything out of here that lid on that dutch oven will protect us but folks i don't like gritting my food so anytime you're going to cook something in the ground in a dutch oven make sure you fold the top first you want to make sure whatever you're cooking with you use that as a template or a guide to how big a round you need your hole if the ground is hard go with a smaller oven because you're going to be digging for a long time we're in a deep 12 today and when you dig that hole you want to make sure that you fit but you leave about that much room around the outside edge but you wanted about two dutch ovens deep because we need to be able to put a good layer of coals in the bottom and then coals on top so two dutch ovens deep remember that and about that much wider than what the oven is itself now why why would you do it this way eventually you could just cook it with coals well you could but you're going to have to spread them cold way back away from it to where you can really cook at sort of a crock pot paste to bring out this tenderness that you're going to have in here why did they do it so many years ago because you could let this cook in this hole for about six hours there is really no way that you can burn this because when you get this covered and sealed what have you done to it you've shut off all the oxygen so we're just going to reserve the heat that we have in there and we're going to make it get just like sort of an old clay bacon oven it's just gonna sit there and get really hot so let's see oh we better put some coals in there first before we put that dutch oven in there if you're in wet ground or something that's damp and you're digging this hole go ahead and put your layer of coals in there right after you get it dug to let it dry that ground out so you won't be losing that heat let's see if old kent was even halfway close in the circumference of this putting it in there and remember put that foil on it look at that there's no temperature gauge on here how hot is that i can't tell you i don't know you're running 450 degrees start out with pretty easy i'll guarantee you that just by cooking stuff in the ground in the past i know at a minimum it's three hours that's what it did to take the turkey breast that's what it does for a chuck roast but this is a whole lot tougher piece of meat but for this to bring out the maximum amount of tenderness we're going to go ahead and trap that heat you can use a piece of sheet metal hub cap whatever you got but just make sure that when you get it on there you seal these edges that way we are not getting any heat to escape out of here we're probably gonna go i'd say close to five hours this way if you need to give it a little more heat you can always add some more heat to the top but about five hours you're gonna be pretty close to where that meat is fork tender because it's a slow cook but oh it is gonna be oh so tasty ain't that a pretty side barbacoa i think i'm right down in the middle old mexico city there on the street vendors is just laying it right out there to me i am hey like i told you it's about four and a half five hours roughly right along in that and whoo you see me when we took the lid off that put that fork in there that stuff just sort of just fell apart and it's all one meal deal it is right here in the pot we just take that wooden spatula and chop up them peppers the nepali everything that goes with it give that meat a good chopping lay it on a corn tortilla get you a little bit of that queso fresco and one thing i'm gonna put on it is some of that kent rollins salsa i am and cut me a little sprinkle right there my cucaracha that stuff is so good it is the meat is oh so tender it is i mean it's got such a great taste the taco seasoning blends in there well but just just a different cheeky meat taste is what you're gonna get out of there that's oh so good remember everything that we use today will be listed down there in the little link below the recipe and all and as always i tip my hat to all our service men and women and all the veterans who have kept that old flag of flying over camp for the rest of you come on in here you know what's fitting to happen give you a big o god bless you one and all and i'll see you down the traditional cowboy barbacoa trail ray yep i'm not good thank you is paying attention you know you can get this salsa at kentrollins.com but also you can get it at woods farm and ranch stores they carry this product along with our other products so be sure and check them folks out youdo you know what cactus and post-hole diggers have in common they helped me create the best taco i've ever eaten in my life barbacoa tacos traditionally cooked in the ground come on you don't want to miss it look the wagon is back now if y'all been watching our videos for a while you know that we've been shooting a lot of stuff under the barn or maybe in different places and you didn't get to see the wagon that's because the wagon needed work and what hey we took it plum apart if you'll rewind just a little and go back to the previous two videos over here we did a two-part series on the restoration of the 1876 studebaker chuckwagon barbacoa now when i think of the word barbacoa before i really knew what was going on many years ago i was just thinking it was like burying something in the ground and cooking it now many many years ago they did this they'd dig a hole they had wrapped their meat in some kind of leaf they'd put it in the ground cover it with some hot coals top and bottom and put something over the top to where it can have a steaming effect but when you hear the word barbacoa today automatically so many people think of beef cheek meat now i'm not talking about these cheeks ah not these two i'm talking about these cheeks right here now you take a piece of barbacoa cheek meat and it's setting up here and folks it's got so much really i don't think you could call it marbling as you would call it just little pieces of fat filtered all down through there this beef has got it all in there and it makes it really when you cook it this way a really silky texture of meat that gets so tender and has a tremendous flavor that you're not going to get really with any other cut of beef that's out there that's why i really like it but barbara coeds just means barbecue and for so many years it was lamb goat anything that you want to throw in there and cook you can see it's sort of in layers you know when you take this out here and you go to looking at it there's really two pieces now this fat will cook down but folks i like to trim a little of this off of mine just go ahead and when you cut this you can see this is pretty tough you can see what's going on here trying just to get some a little bit of this fat peeled off there now you can throw the whole thing in there just like it has i have many times and folks that'll work just fine don't make no never mind but you can also trim it up just a little see when you get this layer removed you get down here to where there's a little more tissue that's a little more desirable people will try to substitute a lot of different meats for this but folks i'm all for thinking that you need to keep it somewhat traditional and just use cheap meat because you're going to get that truly distinct flavor that this brings about you can do this with a chuck roast but you're not going to get that flavor that barbacoa and cheek meat is really going to bring out you've seen me in a lot of videos use a natural tenderizer and what is that lime juice now we're not making margaritas and you're not going to taste the lime in this but what does the acidity of the lime dew raise your hand you behind the tree next to the wild tree catching the catfish oh he moved he's camera shy yep you got it right buddy it was what breaks down connective tissue which is muscle to make it what more tender you need to start this part right here the night before because i want you to get it lime juiced and seasoned and then we're going to set it in the icebox for at least 12 hours now one side of this is going to get our taco seasoning which you can find on our website y'all know what that is kentrollins.com and we're going to rub it in there really good make sure you get it all coated well and whoo i can smell that flavor that oregano and that cumin coming out in that if y'all hadn't tried this folks you need to because it will make you the best tacos or burrito meat you'll ever have in your life so got that side seasoned we're going to turn it over but i really like to use our mesquite seasoning on the other side because it's got a little ancho chili powder in it and it sort of brings out some more that really good flavor that we just love so season well so many times people want to under season and overcook this is one piece of meat that we're going to overcook a little because we want it to get really good and tender but make sure you get it seasoned really well when you get it to that point break out your plastic bag zip lock sack whatever you got put it in there put it in the ice chest the ice box something for at least 12 hours we're bringing some different peppers to the plate we have one jalapeno which is going to give us some flavor and a little bit of heat but also one serrano which will give it just a tad of a bite some anaheim peppers which to me give it the green chili effect that's really what's going on with it and time we roast these we're even getting more flavor out of them but my most favorite peppers of all the poblano now folks these when they're roasted just right and you get them cooked down a little bit of chocolate in there in a way but also great deal of smokiness that it brings out i don't think there's a lot of heat in a poblano i've never had one that was really hot put a little water in a plastic sack and then just let them sit there and steam that skin that we blistered is going to come off there oh so nice and easy now traditionally many many many years ago hundreds upon hundreds when they first started doing this they would dig a hole in the ground and then they would wrap the meat like maybe in some banana leaves or something like that something that they could protect it from the heat sort of just burning it plumb up now do you see a banana tree with leaves growing on it anywhere i don't something that we have a lot of in our country is what we call nepalis yes or cactus now you can get them at the store but when you see them up there they usually got a set of tongs grab them with the tongs would you please cause if not there's a bunch of them little hair-like stickers over that are going to get in there you can't get them out you just got to wear them for the rest of your life till they get ready to come out but i'm going to give you an interesting agricultural fact about nepalis there's a lot of protein in there there is many years ago back when the drought was so bad in this country probably a little worse than what it is now there was worlds of these sticking up everywhere out in pastures that had been grubbed off to nothing so what do the ranchers do you take a weed burner and you go out there and you burn these burn all the tines off of them them cows will eat them now once you get them hooked on this a lot of times they ain't gonna let them cool off before they go to eating sure it's sort of a last line of defense but i've seen it keep many old cow alive when it was back in drought conditions but we're gonna go ahead and torch these just a little too to make sure that all them stickers are burnt off well and then we'll scrape them it has been about 12 hours it has if you'd be thinking right with the watch uh-huh the magic of television yes it is but i want you to bring that meat out about 45 minutes ahead of time so it can go warming up just a little and then you can go to blistering and peppers like we just did you've seen me do it and then cactus now cactus is going to bring some flavor into this salsa that we're making but also if you want to go back to a video to where we were actually on this ranch and we cooked a turkey in the ground we used onions at a bumper now this is sort of what these depalies do they sort of act as a bumper for this meat not to be sitting directly on that hot cast iron so let's get our cheek meat out here and just lay them right there on them nopali's sliced up two white onions and just scatter them out in there amongst it because folks they're gonna bring some flavor but they're gonna cook down and get all tender and when we get this all chopped up they're a big part of the family as anybody is next you can take them peppers it's right there in that sack and they're still hot and just go to rubbing them around a little that's going to get some of that char off of it pretty easy but i like to go ahead and it ain't going to hurt nothing if you leave some of that on there i'll cut the ends off of them right here and sometimes i'll even split them apart you don't have to do anything to them you can chunk them in their hole just take the stems off of them if you want the poblano just make sure that you get him and he's a little big to lay in there hole so he is actually a pepper that i do split so cut stem off if you want to get around there to them seeds you can see where i sort of pulled them up and got under if you're doing this in a crock pot in the house and you can you don't have to dig up the backyard now i would like you to turn it up on high go ahead before you ever start put you about all three fourths of a cup of beef broth in that crock pot and then turn it on that way as it warms that broth is warm but you can also at the same time sear that meat if you're going to put it in a crock pot go ahead and sear it in a skillet to give it some good color then lay it in there just like we got it but if you're doing it in a dutch oven you're actually putting it in the ground go ahead and let's take this beef broth pour around the edge and just go ahead i know how much is in there because i used some the other day there's exactly three fourths of a cup left we nearly left it out folks we did my one of my favorite creations and that is about four or five garlic cloves just scatter them down in there anywhere you go i'd rather use them whole as minced of anything but since we're going in the ground we need one more added layer of protection we do if we can get in this box easy open see that right there zoom in here shan it says easy open do you see a place it's easy to open i sure don't that's what you call miscommunication from the people that manufacture to the people that actually gonna buy it if you're gonna put something on there that says easy oh gosh it needs to be easy there we go it finally did that time get you some of that rolled off er if you can find it and this is one time the wind is not blowing at least 60. remember we're burying this in the ground we don't want no sand to get in there and we don't want to lose anything out of here that lid on that dutch oven will protect us but folks i don't like gritting my food so anytime you're going to cook something in the ground in a dutch oven make sure you fold the top first you want to make sure whatever you're cooking with you use that as a template or a guide to how big a round you need your hole if the ground is hard go with a smaller oven because you're going to be digging for a long time we're in a deep 12 today and when you dig that hole you want to make sure that you fit but you leave about that much room around the outside edge but you wanted about two dutch ovens deep because we need to be able to put a good layer of coals in the bottom and then coals on top so two dutch ovens deep remember that and about that much wider than what the oven is itself now why why would you do it this way eventually you could just cook it with coals well you could but you're going to have to spread them cold way back away from it to where you can really cook at sort of a crock pot paste to bring out this tenderness that you're going to have in here why did they do it so many years ago because you could let this cook in this hole for about six hours there is really no way that you can burn this because when you get this covered and sealed what have you done to it you've shut off all the oxygen so we're just going to reserve the heat that we have in there and we're going to make it get just like sort of an old clay bacon oven it's just gonna sit there and get really hot so let's see oh we better put some coals in there first before we put that dutch oven in there if you're in wet ground or something that's damp and you're digging this hole go ahead and put your layer of coals in there right after you get it dug to let it dry that ground out so you won't be losing that heat let's see if old kent was even halfway close in the circumference of this putting it in there and remember put that foil on it look at that there's no temperature gauge on here how hot is that i can't tell you i don't know you're running 450 degrees start out with pretty easy i'll guarantee you that just by cooking stuff in the ground in the past i know at a minimum it's three hours that's what it did to take the turkey breast that's what it does for a chuck roast but this is a whole lot tougher piece of meat but for this to bring out the maximum amount of tenderness we're going to go ahead and trap that heat you can use a piece of sheet metal hub cap whatever you got but just make sure that when you get it on there you seal these edges that way we are not getting any heat to escape out of here we're probably gonna go i'd say close to five hours this way if you need to give it a little more heat you can always add some more heat to the top but about five hours you're gonna be pretty close to where that meat is fork tender because it's a slow cook but oh it is gonna be oh so tasty ain't that a pretty side barbacoa i think i'm right down in the middle old mexico city there on the street vendors is just laying it right out there to me i am hey like i told you it's about four and a half five hours roughly right along in that and whoo you see me when we took the lid off that put that fork in there that stuff just sort of just fell apart and it's all one meal deal it is right here in the pot we just take that wooden spatula and chop up them peppers the nepali everything that goes with it give that meat a good chopping lay it on a corn tortilla get you a little bit of that queso fresco and one thing i'm gonna put on it is some of that kent rollins salsa i am and cut me a little sprinkle right there my cucaracha that stuff is so good it is the meat is oh so tender it is i mean it's got such a great taste the taco seasoning blends in there well but just just a different cheeky meat taste is what you're gonna get out of there that's oh so good remember everything that we use today will be listed down there in the little link below the recipe and all and as always i tip my hat to all our service men and women and all the veterans who have kept that old flag of flying over camp for the rest of you come on in here you know what's fitting to happen give you a big o god bless you one and all and i'll see you down the traditional cowboy barbacoa trail ray yep i'm not good thank you is paying attention you know you can get this salsa at kentrollins.com but also you can get it at woods farm and ranch stores they carry this product along with our other products so be sure and check them folks out you\n"