Penne Alfredo with Blackened Cajun Chicken

I was working on a chapter on herbs, spices, and flavorings for my next book, “Black Pot Beginners”, and I wanted to test out the Cajun blackening mix on chicken, instead of salmon, like I had done a few years ago. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it, though, what to serve it with.  Rice? Potatoes?  Those both sounded good, but in the end I decided on penne pasta with an alfredo sauce.

It turned out to be both complex and simple.  It’s simple, in that it only took about an hour to an hour and a half to do the entire meal (not counting the thaw time for the chicken), and that no one part was really complicated.  However, I was doing essentially three things at once (cooking the chicken, cooking the pasta, and making the alfredo sauce).  It was tricky to balance them all to be done at about the same time.

First, I mixed up the Blackening powder mix.  I would recommend doing a double or triple batch, and storing the excess in an old spice bottle.  Make sure you label it, or you’ll look at it in three months and say, “What on earth is this stuff?”


Mark’s Blackening mix

• 2 tsp cumin
• 2 tsp crushed coriander
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp coarse ground black pepper
• 2 tsp thyme
• 3 tsp paprika
• 3 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• ½ tsp cayenne pepper

Now, here are the ingredient lists and instructions for all the rest of the parts of the dish!

Mark’s Blackened Chicken:

12” Dutch Oven
24+ coals below to start, then...
12-14 coals below
13-15 coals above

• 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts, thawed and patted dry
• 1-2 Tbsp olive oil
• Mark’s Blackening Mix

The Pasta

10” Dutch oven
20+ coals below

• 1 lb of penne pasta (or, actually, any kind of pasta you like)
• Some water

The Alfredo Sauce

8” Dutch Oven
10+ Coals below

• ¼ cup butter
• 1 small onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• ~3 Tbsp flour
• 2-2 ½ cups milk
• Salt
• Pepper
• Nutmeg
• ½ cup shredded mozzarella
• 4-6 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese 

To time this out just right, I started by figuring out which of the three steps would take the longest.  I figured it would be the pasta, because the water would take some time to boil.  Then, I figured the chicken would be the next longest, and finally, the quickest and easiest would be the sauce.  They don’t all really have to come out at the same time, but you want it to be pretty close, so no one element has too much time to cool.

I started by lighting up a full chimney of coals.  Once I got some white on them, I set them under the 10” Dutch oven, about half to ¾ full of water.  I set the lid on the Dutch oven, because I can never get enough heat to boil water uncovered.  Also, all throughout the steps, I kept adding more coals to the chimney to keep plenty of fresh coals.

While that’s starting up, I added some more coals to the chimney, and began preparing the chicken.  I took out the thawed chicken breasts and laid them out on paper towels to pat dry (both sides).  Then I sprinkled them pretty liberally with the spice mix.  Actually, when I did this, I shook them in a zip-top baggie with the spice mix.  This turned out to be way too strong.  So, when you’re dusting the breasts with the seasoning, go heavier than you would if you were just shaking on a little salt and pepper, but not as heavy as it would get if the breast were dredged in spice.

Once there’s spice mix on both sides, I let them sit for a while, to absorb the flavors.

Meanwhile, I spritzed the inside of a 12” Dutch oven with a bit of oil spray, and put it on some coals.  A lot of them.  After it’d been on a bit, I drizzle in the olive oil and let that heat to a shimmer.  The Dutch oven was quite hot by this time.  I put the chicken breasts in the Dutch oven, and they immediately started sizzling.  I let them sit, cooking uncovered, for several minutes.

It was at about this point that I could see that the water was boiling, so I added the pasta, and set the lid back on.

I turned the chicken breasts over, and let them sear on the other side.

At this point, I also put the 8” dutch oven on some coals and put in the butter to melt.  While that was going, I ducked inside and quickly diced an onion, and minced the garlic.  I tossed that in to the melted butter to saute.

All along this time, I kept checking the pasta, to get to the “al dente” stage.  I also took the chicken off the coals as they were, adjusted them to be the numbers below and on the lid, as shown above, and set that aside to finish cooking through.

I added the flour to the butter and onions, and stirred with a spatula to make the roux.  I added it a tablespoon at a time.  I was looking for it to be thick, but still a bit runny.  I let that cook for a bit, too.  I still wanted it to be blonde, not red or brown, so I didn’t cook it too long.  I added the milk and the spices, and put the lid on.

When the pasta was to the right doneness, I pulled it off the coals, and drained the pasta with a colander. I poured that back into the Dutch oven, so its residual heat would keep it warm.  At this point, the chicken was cooked all the way through.  While I was waiting for the milk to boil, I sliced the chicken with long diagonal cuts.

Once the milk was boiling, I added the cheeses, and kept stirring while they melted.  I used brick parmesan and a grater, too, because I like the stronger flavor.

Then, I brought it all together.  Pasta in the bowl, a couple of spoonfuls of sauce on top, and a few slices of chicken on top of that.  It was delicious!


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Deconstructed Jambalaya Ham in a Dutch Oven

My father-in-law bought us a ham for Christmas dinner, and I was contemplating how to make it.  I’ve got a lot of ham recipes already, and I was tempted to just do one of those again.  But, I also thought about doing it differently.

To get some ideas, I browsed the web.  As I was doing a search, I saw a recipe for a jambalaya with ham chunks in it.  I looked it over, and thought I could deconstruct it.

“Deconstruction” is an interesting process that has gotten a lot of attention in the food world in the last few years.  The idea is that you begin with an idea for a well-known dish, then in your mind you separate out the ingredients one from another.  Then, you create a new dish, using those same ingredients in new and recombined ways.

In this case, the thought was to roast the ham with all the herbs and seasonings flavoring it.  Then, to combine all of the veggie ingredients around the ham, and to use the veggies and liquids as a baste to flavor the ham roast.

I was a bit nervous to do it.  My father-in-law is a very traditional eater, and I wasn’t sure how he’d go for it, and my wife was even less convinced when I explained what I’d be doing.  I decided to go ahead with it anyway.


Deconstructed Jambalaya Ham

14” Dutch oven

18 coals below
18 coals above

• 1 8 lb ham, thawed
• Liberal shakes of:
• Salt 
• Pepper
• parsley
• thyme
• basil
• bay leaves
• Paprika
• Cayenne (not as much, to taste)

• 3 medium onions, diced
• 3 sweet peppers
• 4 med tomatoes, diced
• 3 stalks of celery, chopped
• 5 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped

I started out with the thawed ham (which was a spiral cut, pre-cooked).  I cut it out of the package and put it into the 14” Dutch oven without letting it drain, to keep as much of the liquid as possible.  I mixed all of the seasonings in a bowl and mixed them up, then rubbed them all over the ham.  I put that onto the coals.

I waited only about a half hour to begin chopping up and prepping the veggies.  When they were all ready, I tossed them in around the ham.

I made sure that I had plenty of fresh coals ready to keep coming in from time to time from the side fire.

When the veggies had been in for a half hour or so, I began scooping the cooking veggies and liquids up and spooning it over the ham about every twenty minutes or so.  I also started thinking about a side dish.  I had the bread sculpture from the other day, and some salad, but I wanted a bit more variety.  I thought about doing some roasted seasoned potatoes.

Simple Dutch Oven Roasted Potatoes

10” Dutch oven

10 coals below
10-12 coals above

• 4 large Potatoes
• olive oil
• salt 
• pepper
• paprika

I chopping up the potatoes, thin.  I poured the olive oil on them in the 10” Dutch oven, and added the seasonings.  I stirred it up well, and put it on the coals.

From then on, it was easy.  I just monitored the coals, and the temperature of the ham, and got it on the table when it was done.  The roast cooked for a total of about 2 ½ hours.

The verdict?  I loved it, my wife loved it, and even my father-in-law asked to take some home!






Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Crayfish Boil

Recently, we had one of the most amazing, fun, and delicious family experiences in a long time.  We went Crawdad catching, and then had a Cajun crayfish boil and feast.

Let me interject here, that I don’t really know what to call them:  Crawdads?  Crawfish?  Crayfish?  Mud bugs? Lil’ Lobster Mini-me’s?  I think Crayfish sounds more “dignified” and “crawdad” sounds more bayou.  My kids liked the sound of “crawdad” better, so that’s what we ended up calling them.

Then I faced another difficult problem. Not only did I not know what to call them, I also didn't know how to cook them!  I surfed all over the ‘net looking for advice and recipes.  There was plenty.  Too much, in fact.  Too much contradiction, to be exact.  Everyone said that their way of doing it was the only way of doing it.

Normally, when I encounter that, I just brush it all off as folklore, and do a kind of hybrid of everyone’s recipes.  But the contradictory information was more of the type that scared me.  If you do it this way, then your crawdads will die, and you don’t EVER eat crawdads that died before you killed them!  Don’t do this, don’t do that!  It was all quite frustrating and confusing.

In the end, it all worked out.

Dutch Oven Cajun Crawdad Boil

2x 14” Deep Dutch ovens

A whopping LOT of coals underneath each one.

• A whole lot (15-20 lbs) live crayfish
• 1 carton salt
• A lot of water

• 1 Tbsp black pepper
• 1 Tbsp coriander
• 1 ½ Tbsp cloves
• 1 ½ Tbsp allspice
• ¼ lb kosher salt
• 3 Tbsp cayenne pepper
• 2 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp thyme
• 1 Tbsp oregano
• 1 Tbsp dry mustard
• 6 bay leaves, crushed
• A lot more water

• 4 onions, sliced
• 2 heads garlic, broken apart, not peeled
• 3 jalapenos, sliced

• 3 lbs potatoes, in 1” sections
• 8 ears corn, broken in half
• 1 lb sausage (andouille, or smoked), cut into ½” pieces

I won’t go into the catching, here.  That will go for another time.  In this place, we’ll just talk about the cooking.

I started with the crawdads.  The first thing I did was to “purge” them.  The idea is to make them sick so they purge out their guts before you try to eat them.  I filled up the cooler where I had them stored with water, and shook in about a half of one of those cylindrical cardboard cartons of salt.  Right away, the crawdads reacted, swimming and thrashing around in the water.

I drained it, and then repeated the process.  At the time, I was nervous about killing them, but it turns out that you have to try REALLY HARD to kill them.  Like, dropping them in seasoned, boiling water.  Salt may freak them out, but it doesn’t kill them.  Yet.

Then, I filled it up again, and drained it again, without salt.  I repeated that clean rinsing process again.  Next time, I’m going to do that many, many more times, to clean them more thoroughly.

While, I was doing the “salt, rinse, repeat” thing, I also got out the Dutch ovens, and started up the coals.  Once the coals were basically hot, I put the dutch ovens on and filled them about ¾ of the way with water.  I put the lids on, because water boils better in Dutch ovens with the lids on.  I also knew that it was going to take a long time to boil that much water.

I mixed up the spices, and began cutting the veggies while I waited for the water to boil.  The spices I split into half, and put half in each dutch oven.  I put one head of garlic (broken up) into each pot, and I put two sliced onions in one of the pots.  I suppose i could have done the whole thing with just one Dutch oven, but one of our friends that we had invited over is allergic to onions.  So, my thought was to make one pot without onions, and one with.  The recipe listed above says 4 onions, though, 2 in each pot.  You do it how you want to.

I kept the coals replenished, and as hot as could be.  Before long, the water was simmering, and then boiling.  Once the boil was going, I put in the potatoes, sausage, and corn.  As soon as I did that, of course, it stopped boiling.  I put the lids back on and let it come back up to a good stead boil.  I let it cook until the potatoes were soft enough to eat, and the corn looked bring yellow.

Finally came the moment we’d all been waiting for.  Using my food tongs (not my coal tongs), I started grabbing the crawdads and dropping them into the boiling pots.  I tried to keep them even between the two.  I don’t know that it mattered a whole lot, though.  They turned this rich red/brown almost immediately.  I put the lids back on and let them come back up to a boil for a little bit, mostly to give the spices time to infuse in the meat.  Finally, I used a strainer to scoop out the crawdads, and the corn, potatoes, and sausage.

Traditionally, you serve crawdads poured directly on to a newspaper-covered tabletop.  We actually used dishes.

After only a few, I got the hang of eating them.  I would grab the crawdad tightly between the tail and the shell, and twist the tail off.  I would pinch pretty hard, so as to not get so much of the guts in the body.  Then, I’d crack off the first one or two segments of shell on the tail.  Gripping the end of the tail between my thumb and forefinger, I squeezed while tugging the meat out with my teeth.  I never built up the courage to suck out the head, like some real cajuns do. There’s not much meat in the tail.  Fortunately, that’s why you cook up so many of them!

After every few crawdads, I’d pause and eat a few potatoes, onions, or corn cobs.  Oh, and the sausage.  Those were all delicious.  It was the first time I’d tasted corn that sweet and spicy!

Even though it all tasted delicious, at the end of it all, this was not so much a dish to cook, as it was a whole experience for the family to savor.  It was one that we’ll remember for a very long time!







Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Blackened Salmon on Veggie Rice

So, I’ve been struggling with what to cook at the Eagle Mountain Pony Express Days Cookoff. I finally settled on some recipes, and last Sunday, I did a trial run. The cookoff is for three dishes: A bread, an entrée, and a dessert. I finally decided on the braided bread with an orange and brown sugar glaze, a blackened salmon on a bed of rice and veggies, and the paradise pie knockoff recipe I did a while back. I had to work out a schedule, that was pretty tight, to be able to deliver the three dishes on time.

I started out with mixing and kneading the bread. I used the same basic recipe I always use, but I halved it, because of what happened last time! Once it was kneaded, I set it aside to raise.

Then I started on the paradise pie. I got that made and on the coals.

Next I started on the spice mix for the salmon and the veggies for the rice. Here’s that recipe:

Mark’s Dutch Oven Blackened Salmon on Veggie Rice

2x 12” Dutch Ovens
20+ coals beneath each one

• 1 Tbsp cumin
• 1 Tbsp crushed coriander
• 1 Tbsp garlic powder
• 1 Tbsp coarse ground black pepper
• 1 Tbsp thyme
• 2 Tbsp paprika
• 2 Tbsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano

• 4-6 salmon fillets

First, I mixed all the spices in a ziplock bag. Then I cut the skin away from the salmon filets and cut them into chunks about two inches wide. I put the fillets into the bag, closed it, and shook it all up to really coat the salmon. Then I pulled the salmon out and put them into another bag, letting them sit and absorb the spices for about an hour.

About this time, the Paradise Pie was done, and I pulled it off the coals. I left it in the 10”, thinking that I’d reheat it later. The bread was ready, too, so I punched it down, and stretched it into three long ropes and braided them. I placed that back into a dutch oven, in a circle, and set that aside to proof (the second raise).

Then I started on the rice. I started by chopping up all the veggies.

• 2 sweet peppers (I used half each of red, yellow, orange, and green, for color)
• 1 jalapeno, seeded and sliced
• 4 green onions, sliced

• ¼ lb smoked sausage, thin sliced
• 1 onion, sliced
• 2 tbsp minced garlic

• 1 cup rice
• 2 cups chicken stock

• Zest of 1 lemon
• Juice of 2 lemons
• salt and pepper

Once the veggies were all chopped, I put the onions, garlic, and sausage on the coals to brown. Once those were ready, I put in the veggies, the rice, and the stock. Then I added the lemon stuff and the seasoning. I covered it and left it on the coals (I transferred some to the top) for about 20 minutes, until the rice was done.

While the rice was cooking, and the bread was cooking, I did the salmon. I put a lot of coals under a 12” oven with some oil in the bottom. I let it heat up a lot. I actually put a thermometer in the dutch oven, and heated it up to 300 degrees. Then I took the salmon fillets and put them into the oil and let them sizzle for about two minutes before I turned them over. The seasoning was good and black, and man, it smelled GREAT! After another two minutes, I pulled it off the coals, covered it with the dutch oven lid, and let the residual heat cook the fish the rest of the way through.

Just before the bread was done, I added the orange glaze to the top. It was made of:

• ½ cup brown sugar
• Juice from half an orange
• Zest from one full orange
• Liberal shakes of cinnamon and nutmeg

When the bread came out it was yummy! A bit too done on top, but the glaze tasted wonderful. I heated up the Paradise pie on the top coals of the rice, and melted the butter and cinnamon sauce in my 8” dutch oven on the bread’s coals. The pie I served up with whipped cream and chocolate syrup. The bread I served as it came out. The salmon was served on a bed of the rice. When I do it all for the cookoff, I’ll garnish them all up cool.

It really tasted good. I have to say, though, that these last few experiences where I’m cooking lots of dishes all at once are really tiring. That, and I find that I can’t pay enough attention to one dish to really make it the best I can. Once these cookoff adventures are over, I’m gonna go back to just cooking up one thing and learning how to really do one thing really well.

Salmon and Jambalaya in the Dutch Oven

Last weekend, we had some good friends over for games and dinner. They're a young couple, and my wife and I had become fast friends with his parents, and watched him grow up. Now he's married and telling this story makes me feel really old...

Anyway, I made some dutch oven for them. I did a variation of the old Jambalaya recipe, combined with the Lemon Salmon recipe I did for my folks and at the cookoff. It turned out REALLY well.

I started off just making the jambalaya according to the recipe. The only thing I added was a hefty portion of medium-sized shrimp. I did cook it a bit differently, though. I put the dutch oven (a 12", open) on a lot of coals to cook the sausage, onions, and peppers, and then when I added the broth (I used a cup and a half) and the tomatoes and spices, I covered the oven, and did coals on top as well as under. Using more liquid and keeping the lid on cooked the rice much better, and I found it wasn't runnier, like I'd feared it would be.

When I put the broth and tomatoes, etc, into the dutch oven, I also set the salmon portions on top. I dusted them liberally with this really great cajun spice mix we've got, and then topped that with a slice of butter and a slice of lemon, just like the other salmon recipe.

I also tried to do some garlic butter cheese biscuits, but that didn't turn out so spectacularly. I did it from a mix, and added butter, grated cheese and minced garlic. They tasted OK, but I'm wanting really bad to match what they do at Red Lobster, and I'm not even getting close.

Still, I got lots of kudos on the jambalaya, and my friend said he doesn't even really like seafood. So, that worked out well!

I get to do Dutch Oven Tamales again this weekend, for my wife's scrapbooking party!

Zesty (but not too hot) Jambalaya

Today, I did a cool jambalaya that I pulled from recipezaar.com. Here it is with my commentary and adaptations


2 tablespoons canola oil
about a tsp of minced garlic
1 onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 long stalks of celery, chopped
1 lb smoked sausage, sliced thin
1 (14 1/2 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 cup chicken broth (I used bullion, and next time, I'm probably going to use 1 1/2 cups, so the rice cooks better)
1 heaping teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/3 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 bay leaf
liberal shaking of a commercially made cajun spice mix
1 cup uncooked rice

First, I heated the dutch oven with some oil in the bottom. It was a 12" shallow oven (my workhorse), and I had about 11 or 12 coals on the bottom. Then I put in the veggies and the garlic. I stirred that around a bit until I saw some brown, especially in the garlic.

Then I put in the sausage, and stirred that in. I cooked it for a while. Next time, I think I'll cook the veggies and the sausage a bit more, until they brown some more.

While this was going on, I was also boiling the water and the bullion cube in my 8" oven over about 8-9 coals. I covered it, but didn't put any coals on top.

Then I added the tomatoes and the spices, along with the chicken broth. I let that simmer for about 20 minutes, uncovered. Next time, I'll probably do all the steps up to this one covered as well. I think I lost a lot of moisture in the cooking, which made the rice not cook as well.

Then I added the rice, covered it up, and let it simmer. I took a lot of the under coals and put them on the top. I probably had 7-8 below, and the same on top. I let it simmer for abou 30-40 minutes, until I felt the rice was done. Actually, the rice pretty much absorbed all the liquid, and still tasted a little undone. That's why I'd like to have more liquid in the mix to begin with, and keep it covered.

I also tried to make some cheddar biscuits, and they turned out OK. I just added some grated cheese and garlic powder to a bisquick mix. I had a hard time baking them. I think I just didn't have it hot enough. Still, when they did bake, the weren't burned or doughy, so I guess it turned out OK.