Tin Foil Dinner Tips
Guest Author - T. Lynn Adams
Usually, when I say we’re trying something new for dinner, my children groan and start campaigning their own
ideas. However, when I told them recently that we were going to experiment with unusual tin foil dinners and I
would write about our favorites, even my teenagers rallied behind the idea. I couldn’t keep up with the spontaneous
assembly line that formed, and that was part of the fun.
We hit the refrigerator first, searching for leftovers. (Yes, leftovers are legal. In fact, it’s a wonderful way to use
them!) We found cooked spaghetti noodles, stroganoff gravy, and some peas. All of them were used successfully in
different ways. (See Tin Foil Dinner Recipes)
Here’s what we learned, just in time for Girl's Camp, scout camps and even our branch overnighter.
1. Make sure you have a large enough piece of foil. We used 12-inch wide foil and tore off pieces that were 18
inches long. This seemed to work fine for us. Do you need to double wrap? We only did that with one dinner which
had marinade inside the packet. However, always bring extra foil to camp incase a packet tears or needs to be
rewrapped after checking.
2. Spray your foil with cooking spray or brush on a coating of oil. (According to reynoldskitchens.com it doesn’t
make a difference which side of the foil you put closest to the food. The shiny side is created by the machine as it
rolls the foil over the steel rollers. It doesn’t affect cooking. [Note: if you are using their non-stick tin foil it has a
special coating applied to the dull side. In that case, the dull side should be against the food.])
3. Since meat takes longer to cook, put it on the bottom of your packet. Pound or cut thicker meat to facilitate
cooking. (We found 1/2 of an inch thick or less works best for hungry crews who don’t want to wait.)
4. When using chicken, all the recipes we found said to lightly pre-cook the chicken first (at home) before
assembling the dinner. Since all chicken is thick, we cut ours into 1/2" pieces and quickly browned the chicken in a
dry skillet until just white but still slightly pink inside. It finished cooking in the tin foil.
5. Noodles and rice must be pre-cooked before adding to your packet.
6. Toss potatoes in oil to prevent sticking and encourage more even browning. We used one tablespoon of oil for
every one large potato we used.
7. Add moisture to your dinner in the form of a few extra tablespoons of butter, milk, soup, or even water. This will
also prevent things from sticking.
8. Get a good seal. Fold the long sides together, crease them well and fold them over at least three times. Leave
some room for expansion and steam. Fold in the corners of the remaining sides and then fold them over at least
twice. Pinch the folds tight.
9. Experiment with flavors: BBQ sauce, salsa, soy sauce, teriyaki sauce, mustard, Italian dressing, soups and more.
If adding a liquid like soy sauce or Italian dressing, fold all but the last side of your packet, pour in the liquid, then
seal it tight.
10. NEVER put cheese, caramels or marshmallows inside your foil packet. These will scorch quickly and burn the
food. Add them after the food is cooked and let the heat from the food melt them.
11. As a general rule cook on or near white coals. Avoid the red or glowing coals. You can also bury your packet
under the ashes; just don’t forget where!
12. Turn your packet halfway through cooking.
Meat will take the longest to cook. Depending on the thickness of your meat and the heat, cooking times range from
10 minutes per side to 20 minutes, for a total time of 20 to 40 minutes.
Hard, raw vegetables--such as carrots and potatoes--can take as long as meat. Slice them thin or grate them to speed
cooking.
Onions will cook fast so tuck them between the meat and potatoes. That way they are not next to the fire and will
flavor both the meat and potatoes.
Green, yellow and red vegetables cook faster than meat, potatoes or carrots. Mix up a packet of these vegetables and
cook them separately. Cooking times range from 8 to 10 minutes per side.
Sliced fruit and berries will cook quickly (approx. 7 minutes per side) and so will thin biscuit dough. Whole apples
take longer but cored out and stuffed with raisins, brown sugar and cinnamon, they are a hot treat worth waiting for
if you like apple pie!
I was surprised to discover the traditional tin foil dinner (hamburger and potatoes) was not touched by my hungry
family. They opted for, and enjoyed, the other varieties more.
Traditional dinner or not, always keep a few hot dogs ready to go on a stick incase the meal doesn't turn out. Also,
pack along the catsup or steak sauce. Lots of things taste wonderful around the campfire with a layer of steak sauce!
Bon Appétit!
It’s that time again, time to pretend that I know my way around a kitchen, and time for ya’ll to pretend to be
interested in my sometimes pathetic forays into domesticity. Now, I’m not typically the camping type, at least not
so much as an adult. I don’t mind tents and campfire and scurry little critters for an overnight adventure, but much
longer than that and I really start to crave a hot shower. At any rate, this week I found myself “chaperoning” my
favorite group of high school students on an overnight camping trip. It’s a long story on how, exactly, I managed to
end up there, but the cookery that was involved should be documented. I decided to make a classic, no-fuss, Tin
Foil Dinner. I have seen these babies made a million times in a million different ways, but I have yet to put my own
together and then carefully tend the thing whilst it cooks on hot coals. So, I figure it counts, right?
For those non-camping savvy individuals, a Tin Foil dinner is typically some kind of meat and veggies with a bit of
sauce, wrapped in a couple of layers of tin-foil and then slow-roasted over a dying campfire. According to my
experience, the hour-long wait for appropraite coals (must be white, not orange, and no flames) and the hour-long
wait for cooking will guarantee that regardless of your Tin Foil Mastery, this dinner will taste fantastic.
The recipe will be after the break without any of my afterthought improvements; here’s the nitty gritties:
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Total Prep-Time: 15 minutes to put together, about an hour to cook.
Was the recipe easy to follow: Yes.
Are the ingredients easy to find: Yes.
Do you need special equipment: Does a smoldering campfire count as special
equipment? If so, then yes.
Does the end result taste delicious: It was ok, I would have added more seasonings;
onion, garlic, salt & pepper. Also bell peppers would have been fantastic, and perhaps
cream of mushroom soup instead of cream of chicken, and maybe some chives,
and…hmmm, I must make these again with some improvements.
Would I make it again: Yes, and I may try steak instead of ground beef. Or chicken
with BBQ sauce and pineapple…who wants to go camping?
Anything Else: Make sure you have marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate so
you can whip up some s’mores while you’re waiting for your dinner. And then again
after your dinner.
Tin Foil Dinner: Basic Recipe
(Makes 2)
1 pound ground beef
2-3 large baking potatoes, chopped into bite-size pieces
2 large carrot, chopped
1/2 yellow onion, diced
1 TB minced garlic
Salt/Pepper to taste
2/3 cup Cream of Chicken Soup
Tin foil
Spread out two generous sized pieces of tin-foil for each dinner, you’ll want to make sure you have enough to wrap completely
around the finished pile of meat and veggies. Divide the hamburger into two portions and form into patties and place in the center of
your tin foil. Cover each patty with onion, garlic, salt & pepper and any other seasonings you like–I used Lawry’s Season Salt and
some Steak Seasoning.
Then you want to divide the chopped potatoes and carrots between the two dinners; if you keep things more-or-less in a pile it will
make the wrapping up step a bit easier. Cover your pile of veggies with a big dollop of sauce, I used Cream of Chicken Soup right
out of the can.
At this point you can re-season adding more salt or pepper or whatever spices you like. Now it’s time to wrap up your dinner. While
you cook this you’ll put the veggie side on the coals with the meat part facing up, keep that in mind whilst your wrapping. I asked my
brother for the appropriate Tin Foil Technique, and according to him you need to treat your dinner more like the contents of an
envelope and less like a baked potato. Fold in the long-sides of foil, bring the short-sides together and roll them together down
towards your dinner. You may need to add an extra layer of foil to make sure all your filling is covered in foil.
That’s it, your dinner is done. Well, it’s put together. The cooking part took forever! It’s best to have white-hot coals and,
depending on how hot those coals are, your dinner will probably take anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour. You will probably want
BBQ tongs to flip your dinner over occasionally, and you can check your progress by taking it out, unwrapping and testing one of the
potatoes; when the veggies are soft and the meat is browned your dinner is done. And you’ll probably be starving, so I hope you
enjoy your meal.