Campfire Nachos in a Dutch Oven

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Nachos are a family favorite. Right up there with tacos. Or any Mexican food for that matter.

Campfire nachos are a great way to take a favorite food out into the wilderness. We cook our nachos in a Dutch Oven or a tin foil pan.

Use what you have. Just because you don’t have a Dutch Oven does not mean that you can’t make nachos on your next camping trip.

Cooking in a Dutch Oven over a Campfire

The recipe for campfire nachos is super simple. There are a few tricks to make the process of cooking them over an open fire even easier.

I browned the burger at home and add the seasoning. It is one of the ways that I could take some of the stress off cooking outside. Prepping things in advance is a great trick to making your next camp trip a success.

Everything else was a quick grab from the fridge or at the store on the way out to our camping spot.

Nacho Ingredients

• burger of choice (turkey, beef, venison, elk)
• taco seasoning
• cheese
• black beans (optional…H.T. would prefer they didn’t exist)
• olives
• salsa
• chips
• other toppings of choice (jalapeños, onions, tomatoes, sour cream, refried beans, avocado, etc.)

Pack up the things you would normally add to your nachos if you were making them at home. I would love to add avocados, but they weren’t in season. I forgot the jalapeños. Next time!

Prepping Your Ingredients

There really isn’t much prep for nachos. Just toss everything in the pot and warm it up.

You will need to brown the burger if you didn’t precook it at home.

TIP: We used a Swedish Torch to cook on for this camping trip. It cooked from the bottom (where the chips were) and burned the chips before the cheese melted.

We recommend just cooking all the toppings and then serving it on your chips. Burned corn chips are NASTY!!

Layer your seasoned taco meat (on the bottom of the pan if you are not including chips).

Then add in your other toppings. Beans, salsa, avocado, jalapeños, olives, cheese, etc.

Once you have all the toppings added that you want to cook (save the sour cream for the final garnish), put the lid on the Dutch Oven and place it on the fire, in the coals, or on the fire grate.

Cook until the cheese is melted and everything is at the desired temperature.

Add your sour cream to the top of the nachos or on individual servings.

If you didn’t include the chips in the Dutch Oven, you can just use the mixture as a chip dip or you can spoon it out onto a plate full of chips.

All the Nachos!

We have cooked fajitas and a number of tin foil meals that were reminisent of Mexican food, but we have rarely made nachos.

That is about to change. This dish was super easy to pull together, yummy (other than the burned chips) and clean up was a breeze.

I spent the rest of camp time helping the boys with firewood, sniffing flowers, and relaxing in my hammock.

Campfire Nachos

Print

Easy camp food that you can make quickly. Campfire nachos will be a family favorite.

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Total Time 20 minutes

Ingredients

• burger of choice (turkey, beef, venison, elk)
• taco seasoning
• cheese
• black beans (optional...H.T. would prefer they didn't exist)
• olives
• salsa
• chips
• other toppings of choice (jalapeños, onions, tomatoes, sour cream, refried beans, avocado, etc.)

Instructions

1. Brown taco meat if you didn't precook it at home.
2. Cover the bottom of the container with tortilla chips.
3. Layer your seasoned taco meat (on the bottom of the pan if you are not including chips).
4. Add other toppings.
5. Layer with cheese.
6. Cover and place in fire, on the grill, or on a heat source.
7. Cook until cheese is melted.

Notes

Chips are nasty when they burn. If your heat source is from the bottom, then I would recommend not adding them to the dish. Cook all your toppings and then serve over chips when they are heated and ready.