Foil Dinners - A Camping Meal That's Easy to Make

One of the simplest meals you can make while camping is a foil-wrapped dinner. It has an added bonus of being easy to assemble and to cook, plus everyone can prepare the dinner the way he or she wants it. This makes it a great dinner for getting the kids involved in campfire cooking because they can make up their own packet.

Basically, this meal is kind of like a one-pot dinner, like a pot roast. It's the steam inside the sealed foil packet that really does the cooking, so keep this in mind when you choose your ingredients. Here is our suggested list:

One-quarter pound ground beef patty or boneless chicken breasts

One large onion, peeled and cut in half

One large potato, cut into sections no bigger than an egg

One large carrot, sliced

You can use any kind of meat (or even seafood) that you prefer. Back in our Boy Scout days, we mostly used ground beef. The grease cooking into the potatoes, onion and carrot gave everything a wonderful flavor, even though it might not have been all that great for our arteries.

A healthier choice, which we've made recently, was a boneless, skinless chicken breast. Just be sure to use some seasoning (Old Bay is a good choice) because the chicken won't have the same bold flavor as ground beef.

Ground beef and boneless chicken breasts are pretty forgiving about their cook times, but if you are a bit more attentive a good piece of fish, such as cod, is really delicious steamed in a foil packet. Just be sure not to overcook it.

Foil dinners are just as delicious made without meat. Just sprinkle the veggies with your choice of seasoning to add zing before sealing the foil wrappers.

Use a heavier duty foil for this meal. (Lacking that, we recommend double wrapping your foil dinners.) Use a piece about 18-inches long. Put in the meat, sliced potatoes, carrots and onion. Add a little water to help generate steam. Don't forget the salt and pepper. Now fold over the foil and seal tightly. You don't want the steam to escape or any ashes to get in.

For this foil dinner, you want nice hot coals, not roaring flames, so allow the fire to die down. Using a stick or better yet a camp shovel, make a depression in the coals and lay in the foil packet. You can then shovel or nudge more coals on top for an even heat. Allow a good half hour for cooking. It's not really necessary to flip your foil packet as long as it has good, even exposure to the coals.

Remove from the fire and unwrap to test for doneness. (Don't lean in too close because the steam can be wicked hot right from the packet.) You can always seal it up again and replace on the coals, but thirty minutes should be sufficient.

Now, sit back and enjoy your dinner. The second best part, after eating, is that there are no dishes to wash. Just crumple up your packet and throw it away.

Ian Fitzell is the editor of Camping Sky, a blog dedicated to upscale family camping.

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