Easy Taco Pizza in a Dutch Oven

We made the best Taco Pizza in our Dutch oven on our last camping trip, O’Leno State Park. This was such an easy recipe, mostly because of the pre-prep work done before the campout.

Taco Pizza Ingredients

• 1/2 lb Ground Taco Meat (beef or turkey)
• Refrigerated Pizza Dough
• 1/2 Cup Refried Beans
• 2 Tablespoons Queso
• Shredded Taco Flavored Cheese as much or as little as you prefer
• 1 Cup Shredded Lettuce
• 1 Small Tomato, diced
• Crushed Nacho Cheese Chips to your liking
• Hot Sauce (optional)
• Sour Cream (optional)

Most of the ingredient’s quantites are approximate. I rarely measure ingredients when I am cooking while camping. I usually just throw things together as I go. This is what makes this taco pizza so easy. Just adjust the ingredients to your liking. A little more cheese or less refried beans isn’t going to make much of a difference.

Directions

The first thing I did was purchase my ingredients making sure to buy the lettuce that is already shredded and ready to use pizza dough. This saves a lot of time and effort.

Next I cooked up the ground meat and flavored it with taco seasoning the night before our camping trip. I made too much meat for our pizza size, I made 1/2 pound each of ground turkey and beef. I really only needed about 1/4 cup of each. This was a small pizza. I then refrigerated the ground taco meat until needed.

When you are ready to make your taco pizza at your campsite, assemble your ingredients, prepare your Dutch Oven and heat up your briquettes. I highly recommend placing a parchment paper liner in your Dutch Oven. This limits the mess and will be easier to lift the pizza out of the Dutch Oven when it is done. Make sure to cut the parchment paper to the size of your Dutch Oven so the lid can be placed on without gaps.

Carefully roll out your pizza dough into the Dutch Oven. Since my oven is 10″ I didn’t use all the dough. Just enough to make a 10″ pizza with a good thick crust. If your Dutch Oven is bigger you may need all the dough.

Next spoon out the refried beans and smooth on top of the dough. I used about 1/2 a can. Use as little or as much as you like.

I then squeezed about 2 Tablespoons of Old El Paso Creamy Queso Sauce on top of the beans. This sauce is amazing. Add as much as you like, or even skip this step. It just adds a bit of flavor.

Then add the ground meat. I did half ground turkey and half ground beef, about 1/4 cup on each side.

Finally sprinkle with cheese. Don’t use all your cheese. Save some for when the pizza is done.

Baking

Now comes the tricky part of baking with a Dutch oven. You should already have your briquettes ready to go. You are going to need about 7 below and I used about 20 on top. I knew that the bottom of the pizza would bake quickly and I didn’t want to burn it. Of course it did, just a bit though, but I also had about 9 briquettes below. I really wanted the hot temperature on top to bake the dough to a nice crisp. That worked out perfectly.

I found it easier to place the Dutch Oven in the sand, just in front of the provided fire pit because the ground was more level.

Let it bake about 20 minutes. Take a peek at the pizza and carefully check the bottom for doneness. You may need a bit more time. Baking times will vary with a Dutch Oven.

Toppings

Here comes another tricky part to making Taco Pizza in a Dutch Oven. Removing it from the oven. You are going to need help or be omnidextrous. Using heat resistance gloves carefully remove the Dutch Oven off the bottom briquettes so that it bottom stops baking. Then grab onto the parchment paper and carefully place the pizza on a cutting board.

That sounds so easy in theory. This is what really happened. I carefully carried the Dutch Oven as close to the picnic table as possible to my waiting cutting board. And carefully grabbed hold of the parchment paper on opposite sides and lifted it out of the Dutch Oven. My beautifully baked pizza slid out of the parchment paper and landed directly back into the Dutch Oven upside down.

I stared at it in horror. My husband quickly extracted the pizza from the Dutch Oven and placed it on the cutting board. Saving dinner.

Be very careful when removing your pizza from the Dutch Oven!

After removing your pizza from the Dutch Oven, add your favorite taco toppings. We added shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes and shredded cheese to ours. Don’t forget to add the best part, crushed nacho cheese chips to the top.

Cut the pizza into 6 slices and serve. Top with sour cream and hot sauce if you are so inclined.

The pizza fed three of us. The picky eater didn’t want to try it and ended up eating chips with cheese.

The three of us that ate it, loved it. It was a nice change from hot dogs.

Change up your camping menu with Dutch Oven Taco pizza. You won’t regret it. Also try one of our other favorite Dutch Oven recipes on your next campout.

Happy Camping!

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