One of my favorite part of camping is the food. I love cooking outdoors with only an open fire. Cast iron cookware is about as fancy as I care to get when I’m camping. Some of the best camping food recipes only need hot coals and some tin foil.
Growing up I spent many weekends camping. My parents put me in Cub Scouts as soon as I was old enough. I spent 5 years there and moved into Boy Scouts. I spent several more years there eventually becoming an Eagle Scout.
In all the time I spent camping, I cooked on everything from a fire made from scratch to a beastly propane burner. I’ve cooked everything from hotdogs on a stick to fresh trout that I caught a few hours earlier.
Let me tell you, just because you don’t have access to a stove doesn’t mean you can’t whip up a pretty fantastic meal.
I know whenever I am putting together a meal plan, it is usually dictated by what kind of equipment I’ll be taking with me.
So here’s a list of some of my favorite camping recipes broken down by the way they can be cooked.
Dinner On a Stick
One of the easiest ways to cook when you’re camping is food on a stick. All you need is heat and a stick.
You can buy fancy camping skewers, but I usually just find a good stick when I get to my campsite. Sure it’s probably not 100% sanitary, but you’re camping right? Become one with nature….
Seriously though, if you’re concerned about it. 5 minutes over a hot fire will kill anything unsanitary that may have been on the stick.
Now when it comes to food on a stick one of the most obvious is hotdogs. There’s really not much to say about ‘em. Put a hotdog on a stick. Put the stick over the fire. Eat.
If you want to get a little fancier, I really like making pigs in a blanket over a fire.
You need:
- Canned biscuits (Or you can use a biscuit mix, but that’s a little more work)
- Hotdogs
Put your hotdog on a stick then mould a biscuit over it. You may have to put another stick though it sideways to get the biscuit to stay on. Roast it over the fire until the biscuit is nice and brown. Viola! Super easy.
Hot Off The Grill
Next to food on a stick, cooking on the grill is one of the easiest ways to cook when you’re camping.
You don’t need to go overboard and buy an expensive camping grill. All you need is something that will sit over the fire and hold food.
I’ve used all kinds of things as a grill over the years. One of my favorite ways is grill is to make a grill out of small tree branches and aluminum foil.
I find a dozen or so branches about 10 inches long and about the size of a pencil. Green branches are the best. I wrap each one in foil then weave them together in a checkerboard pattern. Support it with a couple of rocks and you have an easy homemade camping grill.
Here’s one of my favorite camping recipes that works perfect on the grill:
Spicy Ranch Burgers:
- 1 pack of spicy ranch dressing mix
- 1 pound of ground beef or turkey
- Optional: shredded cheddar cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste
Mix everything together in a pot or bowl or whatever kind of container you have. Make 4 patties and put ‘em on the grill.
It’s really easy and the burgers are awesome!
Over the Coals of a Campfire
I really love cooking down in the coals of the campfire. You get a really steady heat that can work just like cooking in an oven. Only instead of an oven, your dinner is cooked in foil.
Two of my favorite recipes are the hobo meal and omelet in a bag.
Hobo Meals:
- Stew meat
- 1 sliced potato
- Baby carrots
- Sliced onions
For this one I get a 12×12 square of foil. Put all the ingredients in the middle along with a little bit of water and wrap them up very tightly. Place the pouch in the coals of the fire for 30-45 minutes. Use tongs or a stick or something to pull it out when it’s done. Just check to make sure the meat is cooked and the potatoes are soft.
It’s really easy to make and pretty tasty too! Don’t like beef. Chicken works just as well.
The second meal that works great in the coals is what I call omelet in a bag. It works just like the hobo meal, but you do it with breakfast food.
- Breakfast sausage
- 2 eggs
- Sliced onions
- Frozen hash browns
Just like with the hobo meal I combine everything together on a piece of foil. Wrap it up and put it in the coals of the fire.
It usually takes about 30 minutes. You just want to make sure that the sausage is cooked all the way though.
Easy Dutch Oven Recipes
Oh man do I love dutch oven recipes. Over the years I have literally been amazed by some of the things I’ve seen cooked in a dutch oven. Everything from cakes to pizza to cobler to homemade bread to chocolate chip cookies.
One really easy dutch oven recipe is a dutch oven taco bake. You need:
- 1 pound of ground beef
- 1 package of taco seasoning
- 4 large flour tortillas
- 2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
- Some type of cheese sauce. Check the ethnic food section of your grocery store.
I usually line my duch oven with foil first to make cleanup easier. First, cook the ground beef in the dutch oven. Add the taco seasoning according to its directions. Once cooked, pull the ground beef out and set aside.
Then put down the first tortilla in the dutch oven. Put 1/4th of the beef, cheese and cheese sauce in. Then put the next tortilla, beef, cheese, etc. Laying everything up as you go.
Once done, put the lid on the dutch oven and place it over the fire. Put 4-6 hot coals on top and let it cook until the cheese it melted.
I also use my dutch oven just like a regular old pot to cook really easy things like stew and chili. You could also do something like beans & texas toast.
I’ve only scratched the surface here on what you can cook while you’re camping. Give these camping recipes a try. I have no doubt that’ll you love how easy they are and how awesome they taste!
