10 Tips For Creating Campsite Cuisine

Are You Ready to Do Some Grilling on Your Next Travel Adventure?

Now that we’re heading into better (cooler) weather, chances are you’ll want to be outside more often. Whether you’re on a family camping trip or just out for picnic at your favorite park, there’s no reason to limit your meals to just sandwiches and potato salad. While dehydrated or freeze-dried foods are also a great option, sometimes you want a little luxury! When your car is packed with kids, camping gear and the family dog, you probably won’t have room for your full-size grill. But with a bit of creativity, you can enjoy great campsite cuisine cooked outdoors with a minimum of prep or cleanup time.

01 Go Smaller

02 A Great Grate

03 Keep Recipes Simple

04 Think Packets

05 Aluminum Foil Is Your Friend

06 Go Dutch

07 Campfire Convenience

08 Plan For The Thaw

09 Some Food Has Its Own Container

10 Prepare For Bad Weather

Plus, we’ll also share one of our favorite one-pot meals and the best foil-packet grilled fish recipe we could find.

Unless you’re backpacking and must be conscious of every ounce you carry, you can have great versatility in how you cook when camping. Here are some tips on how to do it better:

01 Go smaller

Unless you’re cooking for large group, keep your equipment more basic. Choose a smaller, lighter grill, like the Weber Smokey Joe tabletop grill (Weber.com), along with fewer, more versatile utensils and knives like the Gramps “knork” (AttleboroKnives.com), which was popular after the Civil War.

02 A Great Grate

When camping, consider bringing a grill grate to place over campfire coals or charcoal in your campsite’s fire pit. Often the grill grates at campgrounds aren’t the best. Many aren’t adjustable for height, meaning you might not be able to get your food close enough to the heat. The Texsport Heavy-Duty Camp Grill has folding legs (Texsport.com).

03 Keep Recipes Simple

Choose meals that take less prep time and provide for easier cleanup. You can grill everything on a grill grate covered with foil and any side dishes in a cast iron pot or skillet over the same coals. This cuts down on cleanup as well as prep time, and fills hungry bellies quickly. Plus, even the simplest of meals is going to take longer when cooked over an open flame – even more time if you’ve got to wait for a fire to get hot before you start cooking.

04 Think Packets

When possible, prep your ingredients at home and put them in sealable bags. You can slice and bag veggies in advance and keep pancake batter and other dry ingredients in pre-measured packets. This way, you’ve got fewer dishes to wash and a decreased prep time.

05 Aluminum Foil Is Your Friend

A sheet of foil over your grill provides for easier cleanup. If you want, you can even place foil packets of food directly in your campfire coals. Keep reading for a top notch foil packet fish recipe.

06 Go Dutch

In addition to a small grill, add a Dutch oven to your kit, the kind with legs that you can place directly into the coals. One of these cast iron kettles will greatly increase your campsite cuisine cooking capabilities. We use a Dutch oven for more than just one-pot meals. These can cook entire chickens, stew meats, and bake desserts incredibly well.

07 Campfire Convenience

Another advantage in cooking over coals in your campsite’s fire pit is that after your food is cooked, you can easily crank up the campfire by adding wood to the coals for a cozy dining atmosphere. Put a coffee pot over coals off to the side to keep water heated for coffee, tea or cocoa.

08 Plan for the thaw

If you plan on grilling meat on a trip that will last several days, you’ll probably have to keep it in a cooler packed with ice. You might want to plan on grilling that unfrozen chicken the first night, the frozen steaks that will thaw by the second night, and keep the hot dogs on hand for the third night.

09 Some Food Has Its Own Container

Potatoes (especially sweet potatoes because they don’t need a lot of other fixings) can be grilled in their own skins. If you don’t mind the wait, you can quite literlly stick whole potatoes into your firepit and they’ll cook over several hours. You can wrap them in foil if you want to eat the skin, and the proximity to the flames gives the inside a unique smoky flovor. Corn, too, can be grilled in their husks. Peel back the husks just enough to add a few pats of butter.

For dessert, cut some peaches in half and throw them on the grill for a few minutes. They get warm and melty – we serve them with ice cream, but they’re great on their own as well.

10 Prepare For Bad Weather

A summer rainstorm can really put a damper on your campsite grilling plans. For that reason, always have a selection of ready-to-eat food. A camp stove used under a tarp or dining fly is also a good bet for a backup cooking method when rain has drenched your fire pit.

Campsite Cuisine Recipe Hacks: one pot meals and packet grilling

One-Pot Camp Recipe By Reuben Bolieu

Open-Faced Chili Cheese Dog Skillet

Take that American classic to the next level, and elevate your campsite cuisine menu. This easy-to-make meal won’t break the bank. It’s a rib-sticker that you can make on any scale and is open to creative, tasty additions of your own.

Ingredients

• 2 hot dogs (any sausages)
• ¼- ½ onion (for cooking and topping)
• Shredded cheese
• 1 can of chili
• Green onions to top (author foraged wild onions for this recipe)

Directions

Make on hardwood coals or a small stove for a controlled temperature.

1. In a carbon steel or cast-iron skillet, heat it up until smoke starts to rise from the skillet.
2. Make bite-sized slices in the hot dogs and place them on the skillet to brown.
3. Once you achieve the desired browning (char), add a small amount of oil to the skillet and chopped onions to caramelize. Cook onions to the desired likeness.
4. Sprinkle some Red Eyed Hog on the onions and hot dogs.
5. Add the can of chili to the skillet and let it come to a boil. Sprinkle some more REH seasoning.
6. Add some shredded cheese over the top, and mix some in to get a creamy texture.
7. Add diced green onions or the remainder of the onions as a topping.
8. The initial hot dog cuts will make it easier to eat. Enjoy with a spoon or fork to get all that chili cheese goodness.

The Ultimate Grilling Guide to Fish 

If you’re camping, consider bringing just a grill grate to place over campfire coals or charcoal in your campsite’s fire pit.

(From The Ultimate Grilling Guide by Griller’s Choice, GrillersChoiceBrands.com)

Foiled Fish on the Grill

Just like the previous recipe, this one is great to add to your campsite cuisine routine because you can make it for any number of campers. It’s a tried and true recipe that pairs well with a variety of vegetables and carbs, so the sides you serve with it really make the meal. Some of our camp favorites are baked potatoes, boil-in-bag rice, and grilled veggie skewers.

Ingredients

• 1 lb fish fillets
• 2 Tbsp butter
• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp fresh dill weed
• 1 tsp salt
• ¼ tsp black pepper
• ¼ tsp paprika
• 1 onion, thinly sliced

Directions

1. Use heavy aluminum foil cut into large squares.
2. Place equal portions of the fish fillets on each piece of foil. In a saucepan, melt butter.
3. Add lemon juice, parsley, dill, salt and pepper. Stir to blend well.
4. Pour this mixture over the fish, sprinkle with paprika, and top with the onion slices separated into rings.
5. Fold the foil around the mixture and seal tightly. Leave a little space for the food to expand while cooking.
6. Place on hot grill and grill 5-7 minutes per side. Fish should flake easily when done.

Editor’s Note: A version of this story first appeared in sister publication Tread’s Grill Guide 2022.