FOODIES REJOICE! No more dangling weiners on a stick over the open fire on your next outdoor camping adventure. I’m not going to lie. We enjoy really good hot dogs every once in a while when we car camp. However, the best campfire food to cook is the basics. Listen, with that tantalizing lure of the fire pit that calls out to our culinary souls, who has time for complicated!
Our camp cooking adventures usually start long before we ever embark on the great outdoors. Let’s be honest, we are ALWAYS thinking about food! Typically, we are not following recipes but stick with the basics which are: eggs, bread, a liquid fat, two staple veg such as green beans and potatoes, and a few proteins such as steak, chicken, and ground beef. Our best dishes have come from using a little bit of everything left over at the end of a great weekend. Sometimes a bit weird but very tasty!
PRO TIP: Shop your house for groceries and see what will make easy camping meals. Less time in a grocery store gets you to base camp quicker.
OUR ABSOLUTE BEST CAMPFIRE FOOD AND SET-UP
Farmer’s markets make my heart sing. If we are close enough while out car camping, we will hit one up and load up on some pretty produce, local meats, loaves of bread, and cheeses. On one of our many adventures, we challenged ourselves to only purchase what we could find at the farmer’s market to cook on the campfire. It was exhilarating and so much fun to create fantastic food with just the ingredients found. Philip created one of the best sandwiches from what we purchased. Listen, we do not have years of experience but we do love great food!
Philip and I love to set up our camp kitchen. In the past, it has been a grand affair. These days, we car camp out of the Hulasqautch, (our jeep), so we take a minimalist approach to our camp gear. To make great food at camp all you need are the basics. A cast iron skillet, camp stove, a cooking pot that doubles to heat water for our coffee, and a 1-3 person cookware mess kit. That rounds out our camp cookware with a few extras like an oven mitt, tongs, spatula, and a large collapsible bowl. A picnic table pulls double duty for prep and eating. The simpler the better!
PRO TIP: Be lazy! Cook extra of everything so you build on it later. Take advantage of the campfire when you have it .
THE HUMBLEST OF CAMPFIRE COOKING
The basic and yet the tastiest of all our absolute best campfire food to cook is the humble toast. Hear me out. On its own, kinda boring right? Imagine that bread with a bit of olive oil or real butter, placed on the grill rack on the open fire. Give it a few minutes off-set a bit from an open flame. Flip it over and toast long enough to get grill marks but not burned. Perfection! Eat it on its own with some great local honey, or homemade jam, or as a vehicle for our next best campfire food…
THE INCREDIBLE CAMPFIRE EGG
A fried egg. Oh My!! Something magical happens to an egg that only happens when you’re camping. It has a special outdoor taste to it, or maybe it is just simply prepared. The first time I ever attempted frying an egg over the campfire, it didn’t go well. The problem? Too much direct high heat and not enough fat. the next time around, I added extra bacon fat and the result was a masterpiece.
To cook the perfect fried eggs over a campfire:
- Offset cast iron skillet from direct flames.
- Put a generous amount of bacon fat or olive oil in the skillet and allow to heat.
- Crack your eggs in and allow them to set up. Gently run your spatula under the eggs.
- Baste with the fat in the pan and cook to the desired doneness.
- Season generously.
OUR ABSOLUTE BEST CAMPFIRE SANDWICH
How do you build from here? Take your toasted bread and add an aioli, a piece of cheese, and your fried egg. Top this with fresh arugula lightly tossed in a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. Voila! I present to you the most amazing sandwich. Are any bits of meat hanging out? You can add it too! Your mouth will thank you. Which leads us to…
OUR ABSOLUTE BEST CAMPFIRE SIDES TO COOK
There is no limit to what you can cook with just a cast iron, a grill grate, and an open flame. Let’s chat about the sides. When we camp, it usually involves fresh green beans, asparagus, potatoes, and squash. Preparing them is a breeze. Each one begins with olive oil in the cast iron over direct heat to start. When this is hot add your vegetable of choice. Keep an eye on it because it cooks quickly. After a bit, move the skillet off to the side for more indirect heat to finish cooking. Green beans are so delicious after being kissed by the flame. Which compliments…
LET’S COOK SOME MEAT
A fantastic ribeye steak. Here is how we do it. Bring your gorgeous piece of meat to room temperature and season him well. Check your campfire to make sure you have great heat distribution and a bit of a flame. Put the grill grate down and get it good and hot. Place your steaks on the grill grate and cook to the desired temperature. Not going to lie. We like our ribeyes mid-rare so generally speaking maybe three minutes on each side. Just a guess. If given the opportunity, we would like him back on his feet. That’s how we like ours cooked. Steak not your jam? How about a burger nice and juicy cooked in the cast iron, or better yet, chicken thighs!
Heat your cast iron with a heaping dollop of bacon fat on the grill grate of the campfire. Once hot, add thighs in skin down. Cook for ten minutes and flip. Continue to cook for about another ten minutes. Right before chicken is done, baste with your favorite BBQ sauce. Check the temperature so no one dies. Your temperature should be 170-175 degrees bone-in and 165 degrees for boneless-skinless chicken thighs.
OUR ABSOLUTE BEST CAMPFIRE FOOD TO COOK PLATING OPTIONS
- Fried egg on toast with a side of potatoes
- Breakfast Bowl- potatoes, asparagus, leftover meat, fried egg, topped with arugula
- Hamburger topped with fried egg, bacon, cheese and arugula
- Ribeye, potatoes, and asparagus or green beans
- Chicken thighs, green beans, and garlic toast
WHY WE LOVE IT
Campfire cooking at camp brings a certain thrill. A “back to nature” kind of experience for us. There is something comforting about building a fire, tending it, and then creating your nourishment. The smells and the warmth it gives you can only happen when you are on a road trip back to basics. Everything we cook can be eaten on its own, or built upon each other for the perfect food experience. No rules, prepping at home, or tired foil packets. These are our absolute best campfire foods to cook. Everyone has their “go-to’s” for sure, yet these are the ones we gravitate to or some version of them. If you are brand new to cooking at camp, check out this post.
How do you love to cook at camp? Do you use the campfire, trusty camp stove, or both? What is your absolute best campfire food to cook? Let us know in the comments. Happy Wandering Friends and we will see you on the next outdoor adventure!
MORE ADVENTURING….
BEST FLORIDA BREAKFAST IS IN ST. AUGUSTINE,FLORIDA
Thanks for stopping by! Come along for the adventure as we explore Florida & beyond. Discovering off-the-beaten-path destinations, testing out cool gear, eating & creating fantastic food along the way. Happy wandering!
This is wonderful for our summer camping adventures!
Thanks! Have fun!
Skillet potatoes, bread and cheese, YUM!!!
It’s the best!
Ooo, hamburger topped with a fried egg, bacon, cheese, and arugula would be my favourite!