My Christmas present to myself this year was a cast iron dutch oven.
So far I’ve only made Chicken and sausage gumbo and chili colorado.
This week I intenmd to make (Cajun) Steak and gravy. Recipe similar to mine
I might have to flour half the meat and brown the other half bare next time. I kind of LIKE that mealy exterior. I’m willing to experiment, though. And my husband has expressing a willingness to test the results. Yes, he will bravely throw himself on that pot roast in the interests of Science.
anything with the word “braised” in it
This website is a little painful on the eyes, but this beef stew recipe is the best one I have ever made.
Ooo, I gotta try this. Not only do I get to use my dutch oven, but I also get to use my immersion blender!
It’s a two’fer!
I found a recipe and made this tonight it was awesome. (MY DO is cast iron and the lid fits nice and tight.)
Missed the edit window, but I meant the chicken paprikash dish. So good.
The hardest part is waiting hours and hours while your house smells so good. Buy really good quality beef and don’t skimp on any of the time and it will be well worth it.
Oh, good! I should have given you my recipe. If you’re interested in a little bit more about the dish here’s my post about it. If you’re interested in that Hungarian beef stew, here’s my take on it, too..
They’re both great because they are very simple dishes.
Thanks! I used a similar recipe that also had bell peppers (green and red). I did not have sweet paprika on hand, and used “fancy” paprika (whatever that means.) I also used boneless chicken breasts because I had them. It still came out great. I’ll keep an eye out for sweet paprika.
Question about that last few words: why?
We recently got rid of our crappy old soup pot, and I’ve been using the Dutch oven ever since for making stocks and soups. Ours is cast iron, though, and the last two times I made chicken stock, the stock came out dark gray. The first time I dismissed it as anomaly, but the second time I figured it was from the iron; is that plausible? In any case, when I cooked chicken soup from the stock, the dark gray color disappeared; I’m figuring we just ate an extra iron-rich soup.
Should I not be doing this? Is boiling water in the dutch oven a bad idea?
Fancy paprika should have been okay to use. Looking online, it appears to be just a type of sweet paprika. Try to find Hungarian paprika, or a good American paprika if you can. I’ve found some rather nice domestic paprikas from California (Penzey’s has both a good California and Hungarian sweet paprika). The key for me is it should have a fresh, clean smell of red peppers. I also look for a vibrant red color, but some of the hotter varieties of paprika tend to have more of a rusty orange hue to them.
As for the other points, paprikash is flexible and adaptable to what you like. I do a skinless chicken breast version every once in awhile, but cooking it skin-on and using legs and thighs or whole chicken really gives it the right flavor and richness. But it also may be too rich for some people. It’s a heavy, winter dish, and I love it!
That’s a new one to me, too. I make pasta in my Dutch oven all the time to no ill effect.
I just remembered that I used to make chicken cacciatore in my Dutch oven. It’s chicken pieces in a tomato sauce with vegetables and seasonings.