Camp Oven Chili con Carne

Camp Oven Chili con Carne

This is so easy … this is actually the first ever recipe we cooked in our brand new camp oven on our own. We used ingredients that we had in the freezer and pantry and walah! Mexican bowls for us. It really could have been done in a frying pan, but we really just wanted to use our new camp oven – and Chris had a great time cooking it 🙂

 

Ingredients:

  • 500g mince beef
  • 1 brown onion, diced
  • 1 red capsicum (optional)
  • 1 packet taco seasoning (or make your own)
  • Chilli and/or cayanne powder (optional and amount to taste)
  • 1/4 cup red wine
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1 can red kidney beans
  • 1 can crushed tomatoes (optional)
  • 2 Tbsp olive oil

Method:

  1. Preheat your camp oven over the coals.
  2. Add the oil and onion and stir until onion is transluscent.
  3. Add mince beef and stir until browned all over.
  4. Add taco seasoning and stir to combine.
  5. Add water, wine, beans and tomatoes if adding and stir well.
  6. Replace lid on camp oven and return to the coals for about 10 minutes or until the liquid has reduced.
  7. If it is still quite runny, remove from the coals, take the lid off and allow to continue to cook in the pot until the desired consistency is achieved.

To Serve:

We generally try to keep things fairly low carb, so we served this in a bowl topped with cheese, sour cream, tomatoes and avo. But you could serve it in in wraps, tacos, on nachos or however else you usually eat Mexican meat. To reduce the carb content even further, omit the kidney beans and canned tomatoes.

Camp Oven Veggies

Camp Oven Veggies

We aren’t going to pretend to be camp oven experts … in fact, this is only the third ever recipe we’ve made in our brand new cooking appliance! The first was damper made with the help of a qualified baker (!) and the second was a super simple Mexican Chili con Carne.  We just kinda wing it and hope for the best. We didn’t have a trivet (until today … after the veggies) but personally, we liked the way they crisped up on the bottom and were soft and fluffy on the inside. We’ve made it a few times like this and have just purchased a trivet from BCF today. So that will be our next experiment! For now … this is how we made our roast veggies in the camp oven. Feel free to tweak it and add your own flavours etc. Please comment below and share how you do yours!

Ingredients

  • Veggies of choice peeled (if you like) and cut into similar sized pieces
    • Pumpkin sliced into wedges
    • Potatoes in quarters
    • Carrot in halves
    • Sweet potato (cut in a similar size to the potatoes)
    • Zucchini in halves
  • 30ml olive oil
  • 2 tsp dried rosemary
  • 2 tsp. dried thyme
  • 1 tsp. garlic granules
  • Salt and Pepper

Method

  1. Preheat camp oven in the coals of your campfire.
  2. Pre-cook root vegetables in boiling water for about 10 minutes to soften (this makes them fluffy on the inside and reduces cooking time. You can skip this step if you like and just cook for longer in the camp oven).
  3. Drain water and pour into a large bowl.
  4. Add oil, herbs and seasonings. Toss to combine.
  5. Remove camp oven from the fire, take the lid off and tip your veggies in.
  6. Replace the lid and pop the camp oven back onto the coals.
  7. Add some coals to the lid of the camp oven.
  8. Leave to cook until veggies are done to you liking. Ours took about 25 minutes having been par-boiled. If skipping this step, allow up to an hour depending on how many veggies you have.

Tips

I forgot to add the zucchini once, and added it half way through – this was fine as it takes less time to cook. Same with the pumpkin. So if you can be bothered, add the veggies that cook a little faster a bit later. If not, just throw them all in and embrace the deliciousness that comes out!