Camping Recipes

Great meals are made while camping. Camp cooking is fun and our creativity seems to soar. Just about anything can be made in your outdoor kitchen. The only limitation is your own imagination and innovation.

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These recipes are suggestions only and are meant to be helpful to our readers. Ingredients and preparation methods should be used at readers own discretion.

When camping, the rule of thumb for great recipes is to maximize taste and nutrition while minimizing preparation time and cleanup. The best camp cooking recipes allow you to do this with the limited resources available in the outdoors. These five campfire-cooked classics cover all the staples you need in a delicious, filling way.

Breakfast Burritos

Ingredients (for 1 serving):

  • cooking spray
  • 1 medium tortilla
  • 1-2 eggs, depending on preference
  • 2 bacon strips
  • Optional: onion and green pepper
  • Salt and pepper

To make these quick, easy-to-eat breakfast burritos, start by building a bed of hot coals and setting a frying pan on them. Give the pan a shot of cooking spray, and place the bacon strips on it. While the pork’s sizzling, use a mixing bowl to whip the eggs and optional chopped onion or peppers together. When the bacon’s done, set it aside on a couple of paper towels and pour your egg mixture in the pan. Stir frequently, as the coals will be hotter than the eggs’ optimum cooking temperature. When they’re finished (it should only be 5-10 minutes), lay the already cooked bacon and fresh eggs in the center of your tortilla, salt and pepper to taste, and roll it on up.

Pot Pie in a Pouch

Ingredients (for 1 serving):

  • cooking spray
  • ¼ to 1/3 pound ground beef
  • 1 small diced potato
  • your choice of vegetables, including green beans, carrots, onions, green pepper – or anything you like!
  • Salt and pepper

Before the cooking starts, you’ll need a bed of hot coals to work with and some aluminum foil. Lay the foil flat, spray it with some cooking spray, and place all of your ingredients in the center together, separating the ground beef into pieces so you don’t end up with a semi-raw patty. Then, fold up the foil so it encloses the ingredients in a pouch form, and simply place the pouch inside the bed of coals. Keep in mind that it’s very hot in there, so you’ll need to check the enclosure early and often. Cooking time is roughly 15 minutes, depending on the coals’ temperature.

Barbecue Burgers

Ingredients (for 1 serving):

  • cooking spray
  • 1 quarter pound beef
  • 2 tbsp of your favorite brand of barbeque sauce
  • a hamburger bun
  • Optional: your preferred condiments, including lettuce, tomato, onion, etc.
  • Salt and Pepper

This exceedingly simple lunch staple uses barbeque sauce to improve upon any potential culinary shortcomings associated with open-fire cooking. To start, build a cooking fire, let it burn down to hot coals, and place a small grill grate or frying pan on top. Mix a tablespoon of barbeque sauce into your ground beef, and form it into a patty (incorporating the sauce with the raw burger imparts flavor and helps the patty stick together when flipped). When formed, place the patties on the pan or grate, flipping once every 4-5 minutes until the meat’s juices are running clear. Finally, slather on the other tablespoon of barbeque sauce, slap the patty on a bun with your favorite condiments, and enjoy!

Camper’s Crappie

Ingredients (For 1 serving)

  • 2 tbsp vegetable oil
  • 1 to 2 crappie fillets
  • Your favorite breading (can’t go wrong with Andy’s)
  • Salt and Pepper

This basic fish recipe has endured as a favorite of campers and fishermen for more years than we can count. Start with the usual: building a bed of hot coals and placing a frying pan on top. Pour in your vegetable oil, and bread the crappie by placing the breading and fillets together in a bag and shaking it. When the oil is sizzling, place the fillets in the pan. Cooking time is relatively short, roughly 10-15 minutes depending on the temperature of the coals.

Chicken Chili

Ingredients (for one Serving):

  • ½ chicken breast
  • ½ can great northern beans
  • ½ can chicken broth
  • ½ of a small onion, chopped
  • 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
  • salt and pepper
  • optional: seasonings including oregano, cumin, and chile peppers to taste

Chicken chili, also known as “white chili” to some campers, is a dinnertime classic at many campsites. To make it, get a bed of hot coals smoldering. Then throw a pan on top, coat it with vegetable oil, and put the chicken breast in it. Cover it and let it cook until no pink is left in the breast (or about 165 degrees Fahrenheit). While it’s cooking, combine the broth, beans, onion, and seasonings in a separate pot and stir. When the chicken is done, dice it, toss it in the pot along with everything else, and let it simmer over the coals for 20-30 minutes. With that, your white chili will be piping hot and ready to enjoy.

15 Replies to “Camping Recipes”

  1. i am totally like breakfast with barbecue burgers, i think your recipe deserve to be tried. please let me know if you have some more advance burgers recipe

  2. We always do boxed mac & cheese + hot dogs. The kids get to grill their own hot dog on twigs they find in the woods. M&C cooks fast and only takes one pot, so cleaning up is easy too.

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  6. Try Beef, Bean & Cheese Burritos

    2 lbs ground beef
    1 can refried beans
    1 box of velveta cheese
    2 packages taco seasoning
    1 can Rotel (optional)
    Flour tortillas

    Cook and drain ground beef, add taco seasoning, beans, cheese & Rotel cheese. serve on tortillas.

  7. A favorite camping recipe with my kids for the first night of camping is Tacos in a bag:
    1 lb hamburger
    6 small (single serving size) Doritos chips
    1 pkg taco seasoning
    onion
    lettuce
    tomato
    shredded cheese
    taco sauce
    sour cream (if desired)

    Cook about 1 lb of hamburger, add taco seasoning packet
    chop up onion, lettuce, tomato (whatever you would normally eat on tacos)
    Crush chips in Dorito bag, open bag, add meat, veggies, cheese and sauce (sour cream if desired)
    Eat up!
    Clean up is easy…just burn or throw away your bags
    only washing is forks and frypan!!!

  8. The best thing i can think of that young teens would be able to make and is easy to pack is good ‘ol beans and weiners.

    all you nees is a spoon, pot, fire/stove, can of beans and a couple hotdogs.

    just slice the hot dogs up and throw em in to the pot with the beans, heat them up and enjoy ! its the easiest, simpilest and lightest thing to pack I know and its filling ans taste great.

  9. I am taking 3 12yr olds camping and looking for things they can cook themselves at the campfire.

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