33 Recipes That'll Make You Love Your Dutch Oven (2024)

When it comes to comfort food, Dutch ovens are ideal for creating deep flavors, delicious roasts, and crave-worthy meals. A good cast iron Dutch oven is a must for any serious home cook. Whether it's a holiday or a typical weekday, this cookware will have your meals making the grade and then some. No matter the style or size, any Dutch oven will open up endless recipe opportunities. Create beautifully braised meat, pot roasts, hearty beef stew, healing chicken soup, or the creamiest mac and cheese. Use it like a slow cooker, a bread cloche, or a pot for frying. These are our favorite Dutch oven recipes to make the most of the cookware.

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Bò Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew)

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Baguette and bò kho are great friends, but you also can serve the stew over pasta — try it over boiled egg noodles or rice noodles (select pappardelle-size noodles). Add a green salad for a complete meal.

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Manhattan Clam Chowder

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This recipe for Manhattan Clam Chowder — known for being tomato-forward with a broth base — has layers of flavor, from the clam broth spiked with white wine to the tender vegetables that are cooked in bacon fat. Half of the clams are roughly chopped, while the other half are left whole in their shells for contrast. As the chowder comes together towards the end, gently mashing some of the baby Yukon gold potatoes with a wooden spoon helps thicken the broth.

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Classic Beef Chili

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Fresh poblano, toasty ancho chile powder, oregano and beer come together to make a flavorful bowl of chili perfect for game day with friends.

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Short Rib Ragù with Orange-Parsley Gremolata

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This ragù stands apart from most with the addition of fennel seeds, ground allspice, and habanero hot sauce. Like most great braises, it tastes even better after a day or two in the fridge, making it a fantastic do-ahead dish for entertaining. Be sure to look for meaty short ribs; they can sometimes be skimpy, consisting of mostly bones. The ragù is topped with gremolata for a bright, fresh finish.

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Easy Chicken and Dumplings

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This satisfying one-pot meal of silky chicken and tender dumplings starts with searing chicken thighs to render fat to cook the mirepoix in, building a flavorful base for this classic dish. Self-rising flour, buttermilk, and butter are the only ingredients in the pillowy dumplings, which come together in the final minutes, cooking right in the creamy soup.

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Dutch Oven Classic Beef Stew

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There's nothing better than coming home to a simmering pot of this warming stew on a cool fall or winter day. Hearty chunks of beef turn tender after a low and slow trip in your favorite Dutch oven; potatoes join the party during the tail end of cooking to retain their texture. Cut potatoes into similar-size pieces to guarantee they cook evenly.

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Posole Rojo

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This long-simmered tomato- and pork-based soup was food journalist Priya Krishna's hangover cure when she lived in Mexico. "Choose from a selection of toppings: finely chopped onions, sliced avocado, lime, radishes, lettuce, queso fresco. Go big, or keep it simple," she says. "That's the true beauty of posole: No two bowls look or taste exactly alike."

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Ragù di Salsiccia (Sausage Ragù) with Tajarin

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Sausage and veal come together in a lightly sweet and aromatic ragù with tajarin — a Piedmontese fresh pasta that gets its gold color from a high ratio of egg yolks to flour. At Casa di Langa in Piedmont, chef Daniel Zeilinga uses tomato water made from fresh tomatoes strained overnight in the ragù; this streamlined version uses a mixture of tomato juice and water, making the dish achievable on any evening at any time of year.

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Jambalaya with Andouille Sausage, Chicken, and Shrimp

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Smoky, gently spiced andouille sausage and a spoonful of Creole seasoning give deep flavor and mild heat to this jambalaya, while the trinity of onion, green pepper, and celery provide a classic aromatic base to the dish. Parboiled rice is perfect for this recipe, since it cooks to tenderness just as the andouille, chicken, and shrimp reach doneness.

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Poulet Mafé

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In Senegal at the Keur Moussa monastery, a typical meal includes poulet mafé, a thick peanut sauce with chicken, root vegetables, and cabbage served over rice, fonio, or millet couscous. For chef Pierre Thiam, poulet mafé is the ultimate comfort food. His advice: "Be patient when cooking mafé. Let the stew simmer slowly until the oil rises to the surface."

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Oxtail Noodle Soup

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We reimagined our favorite Filipino stew into a rich Dutch oven soup with slow-cooked beefy oxtails, noodles, and a hint of nutty flavor.

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Slow-Roasted Lamb Shoulder with Shallots and White Wine

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Pre-salting the lamb (the longer the better) will deepen its flavor and increase moisture and tenderness in the meat. Afterward, a simple sear then braise renders fork-tender shreds of meat. A spoonful of garlicky gremolata heightens those long-cooked flavors.

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Beef Stew in Red Wine Sauce

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This is the quintessential recipe for beef stew with red wine. Jacques Pépin's mother served it at her restaurant, Le Pélican, where she made it with tougher cuts of meat. Jacques likes the flatiron — a long, narrow cut that's extremely lean but becomes tender and stays moist. He doesn't use stock, demi-glace, or even water in his stew, relying on robust red wine for the deep-flavored sauce.

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Louisiana Red Beans and Rice

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"Everyone with roots in southern Louisiana, where red beans and rice is a staple, thinks that their mom makes the best version," says 2019 F&W Best New Chef Kwame Onwuachi. "But I'm the only one who's right. Growing up, my mom used this recipe as a base, sometimes adding in smoked turkey necks or smoked, spiced, and cured tasso ham, in addition to the ham hocks and andouille sausage that impart their smoke, fat, and spice to the Holy Trinity (celery, bell peppers, and onions) and, of course, the sturdy red kidney beans."

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Braised Brisket Potato Tot Casserole

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This homey recipe from The Stray Dog in Minneapolis takes the classic Minnesota hot dish to new levels. Tender brisket is braised in stout beer, while brown sugar helps caramelize the brussels sprouts. A creamy mushroom béchamel brings everything together, while the truffle-laced potato tots cap things off.

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Chicken in a Pot with Lemon Orzo

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This simple one-pot dish is as flavorful as it is easy. It's a great dish to make for a delicious weeknight meal or to share with family and friends.

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Campfire Lamb Peka

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The process for making peka is ancient and involves placing the pan over a bed of glowing coal embers and scooping more embers on top of the domed lid to create an oven-like environment where meats or seafood and vegetables are slow-roasted inside. This recipe has been adjusted to cook over a coal grill but maintains all of the flavors, regardless.

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Sourdough Country Bread

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This sourdough bread recipe is ideal for beginners and expert bakers alike. The toughest part? Waiting for your bread to cool before slathering it with salted butter.

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Gateway Cassoulet

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By cooking several recipe components separately in the same pot before combining them all to meld in the oven, cookbook author Sylvie Bigar reduces the active cooking time for cassoulet to a little over an hour, while retaining the long-cooked, richly developed flavor of the traditional recipe.

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Chicken Cacciatore

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In her version of the classic Italian dish Chicken Cacciatore, chef Karen Akunowicz of 2019 F&W Best New restaurant Fox & the Knife in Boston builds sautéed vegetables, mushrooms, red wine, chicken, and tomatoes into a hearty braise. To round out the meal, serve alongside slow-cooked greens, rice, or polenta.

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Lamb Barbacoa with Masala Adobo

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For this dish, chefs Saqib Keval and Norma Listman of Masala y Maíz in Mexico City draw from Indian and Mexican cooking techniques for a one-of-a-kind flavor profile. The restaurant version uses bone-in lamb wrapped in maguey leaves. We found that you can cook the dish in a smaller Dutch oven if you use boneless lamb and omit the leaves — the results are just as spectacular.

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Spicy Kimchi Tofu Stew

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Stop by a Korean market on the way home for your kimchi, gochujang, and gochugaru, and you can have this soothing, vibrant dish on the table in just 30 minutes. Serve the stew hot with steamed rice.

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Pork Braised in Milk

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The late cookbook author Marcella Hazan popularized this Italian method of slow-cooking pork shoulder in milk, which yields a velvety sauce for spooning over the pork and sopping up with bread.

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Gochujang Cioppino

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This zippy dish with shrimp, squid, mussels, and cod gets a lively Korean twist with tofu and gochujang (Korean red pepper paste). It's garnished with sliced scallions and served with rice crackers or steamed rice.

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Garlicky Braised Lamb Shanks with Sweet Peppers

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In 2018, Food & Wine named this recipe one of our40 best. The lamb can be braised a day ahead, making the meat extra tender and flavorful. Fresh bell peppers inject a bright finish to the rich dish.

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Warm Sausage and Lentil Salad

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This earthy French classic with smoked sausages, green lentils, and pungent mustard vinaigrette is great for winter weekends in front of the fire. Updated twist: Toasted walnuts add great crunch.

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Three-Chile Beef Chili

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With coffee, dark beer, smoky bacon, and three kinds of chiles — ancho, New Mexico, and chipotle — this is one deep, rich, spicy pot of beef chili. Serve it with sour cream, grated cheddar, and tortilla chips.

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Stout-Braised Short Ribs

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Braising short ribs in beer makes them super tender and adds a slightly bitter note. Choose your favorite dark beer, such as a stout, porter, or brown ale.

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Fisherman's-Style Seafood Stew

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Chef Fabio Trabocchi says the key to this brodetto-inspired recipe is to cook the fish and shellfish in stages. The crusty ciabatta toasts make this seafood stew a warming winter meal.

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Lemon-Oregano Roasted Chicken with Potatoes and Olives

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Tangy roasted Meyer lemons pair beautifully with quartered potatoes, olives, oregano, and chicken in this simple one-pot recipe.

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Turmeric Chicken Stew

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Swap in hominy instead of noodles for this version of chicken stew. Fresh turmeric and lime juice add an irresistible deep flavor, though you can substitute ground turmeric if you can't find fresh.

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Rustic Garlic Chicken

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This chicken dish is incredibly flavorful with the addition ofthreeheads of garlic. You don't have to peel the cloves first. They soften during cooking and take on a subtle sweetness. Each person squeezes the garlic out of its skin onto the plate to eat with the chicken.

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Root Vegetable Minestrone

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This minestrone is exceptional because it's packed with so many great vegetables — carrots, parsnips, broccoli stems, and butternut squash — and delicious toasted angel hair pasta. Pecorino cheese is stirred into the soup for even more flavor; be sure to pass around extra cheese to dust individual bowls at the table.

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