Cheeseburger Casserole: One Pot Camping Recipe

Everything in this melty mac and cheese with beef is cooked in one pot over the campfire. It’s an easy and delicious camping family dinner!

This cheesy hamburger macaroni casserole is the perfect camping dinner recipe because it can be made in one pot over the campfire. It’s a creamy, melty meal that your whole family will love.

Best of all, there’s no need to drain any liquid, because the pasta steams in the dutch oven and the small amount of leftover liquid is used to make the creamy sauce.

You can also omit the ground beef and follow this same recipe to make a delicious one pot macaroni and cheese over the campfire.

So, let’s make a home-made camping version of what’s essentially Hamburger Helper!

How to Cook One Pot Macaroni While camping

Normal homemade macaroni and cheese requires boiling, draining and a separate roux cheese sauce. I certainly don’t want to go through all of this hassle when camping!

The trick to making this one pot campfire mac and cheese is to cook it in a dutch oven, with coals on top and underneath.

Cook it Over Campfire Embers or Charcoal Briquets

Using a cast iron dutch oven and cooking over charcoal is the best way to control the heat source for even cooking. However, you can also use the coals and embers from a fire that has died down.

Place the dutch oven on top of 8-10 pieces of charcoal or embers to sauté the onions, garlic, and ground beef. Then, after adding the milk, cover the skillet with a cast iron lid and place 10-12 pieces of charcoal on top. This will simmer the milk from underneath and steam the macaroni inside the pot.

Ingredients in Dutch Oven Cheeseburger Casserole

You’ll find the exact amounts of these ingredients in the recipe, but here are a few notes on what’s included and ideas for substitutions.

• Ground Beef: This recipe includes a step to cook the ground beef before adding the macaroni. You can save a ton of time by pre-cooking the meat at home (with the onion and garlic) and packing it in your cooler.
• Onion and Garlic: Sauteing onion and garlic with the ground beef adds extra flavor. You can also add in chopped green peppers to this step as well!
• Milk: Using milk to boil/steam the noodles adds a bit more flavor, but you can also substitute water.
• Macaroni Noodles: The timing on the recipe it based on elbow macaroni noodles, but you can use any noodle you’d like. Just be sure to watch the cooking time if you do make the switch.
• Cheeses: Instead of buying pre-shredded cheeses, buy a block of cheese and grate your own for this recipe. It only adds a couple of minutes, but the cheese melts so much better. I still buy pre-shredded parmesan cheese for this recipe though!
• Cheddar Cheese: This is the staple cheese used in American mac and cheese. Using sharp cheddar cheese gives flavor to this recipe, but you can also use mild for less flavor or extra sharp for a stronger taste.
• Monterey Jack Cheese: I’ve tested a few different varieties of cheese in place of Monterey jack, and this type of cheese is the best for this mac and cheese. It melts perfectly and is milder and slightly sweeter than cheddar which balances the flavor quite nicely.
• Parmesan Cheese: I love the extra flavor and nuttiness that parmesan adds to mac and cheese. I recommend using refrigerated parmesan over the shelf stable powdery parmesan for this recipe.
• Ingredient: notes

Looking for other camping meal ideas? I’m working on writing posts for all my favorite one pot camping dinners, but for now, you’ll find over 40 ideas for make ahead camping meals in this post.

How to make One Pot Mac and Cheese with Beef

1. Brown ground beef with onions and garlic

If you want to omit this step, you can cook your meat before your trip. Actually, this is almost always how I make this recipe. It saves so much time and the hassle of draining the grease.

To cook the meat at your campsite, place your dutch oven on 10 coals and sauté the onions, garlic and ground beef (seasoned with salt and pepper) until it’s no longer pink.

2. Add macaroni and milk

Pour the dry macaroni and milk into the dutch oven. Cover with a cast iron lid and add 10-12 coals on top of the lid. Cook for approximately 10 minutes until the noodles are tender (and most of the liquid is absorbed).

3. Add cheese until melted

Stir in the dijon mustard and cheeses and mix until the cheese melts. If needed, place the lid back on top until the cheese are completely melted.

4. Top with avocado and enjoy!

We love adding sliced avocado to this mac and cheese, but green onion are also delicious.

Here’s a funny story I think about every time I make this meal. One of the first times I made it, one of the neighbor camper kids was at our site and watching me cook.

She told me that it actually looked really good, even though it sort of looked like dog food!! I couldn’t stop laughing, because she is kind of right.

The cheeses melt down to a subdued color, and the ground beef does look like wet dog food. HAHA! (I promise it doesn’t taste like dog food, though!)

Variations to This Recipe

• You can omit the ground beef in this recipe and make the plain macaroni and cheese using this same recipe. Or, substitute ground beef for ground turkey or plant-based meat substitute.
• One time, I diced up hot dogs and threw them in with the noodles (instead of ground beef). As you can probably imagine, my kids loved it!

Let me know if you make this recipe or have a similar one that you love!