FeatherSticks · Cooking
Foil Packet Cooking: How to Cook in Foil on a Campfire
Dinner in a sheet of foil. No pot, no dishes, just coals.
Quick facts
- Time
- 15–60 min on coals, depending on food
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Best for
- Vegetables, potatoes, fish, small chicken pieces
- You need
- Heavy-duty foil, tongs, gloves, a coal bed
What you need
- Heavy-duty aluminium foil
- Long tongs
- Leather fire gloves
- Probe thermometer for meat
- Long green stick or small shovel for raking coals
- Small cutting board and knife
- Bag for used foil and rubbish
- Cool box for raw meat and fish
Step by step
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1 Cut food to an even size
Slice potatoes about 5 mm thick and cut everything else to a similar size, so all of it is done at the same time.
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2 Two layers of foil, oil, seasoning
Put the food in the middle of a double layer of heavy-duty foil with a little oil and seasoning. Leave a free edge of at least 5 cm.
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3 Fold a tight packet
Bring the edges together above the food, fold them over twice and roll the ends. Keep some air inside for steam.
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4 Place it on medium coals
Lay the packet seam up on a thin bed of medium coals or at the edge of the ember bed. Never put it into open flames.
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5 Turn once at half time
Turn the packet once with tongs and rake the coals if one side runs hot. Start checking after the shorter time in the table.
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6 Open carefully and check
Lift it out, rest a minute and open one corner away from your face. Test with a knife or thermometer, then pack the foil out.
Common mistakes
- Putting packets into open flames instead of onto coals.
- Using a single thin layer that tears, or folding without a tight seam.
- Wrapping food so tightly that there is no air space for steam.
- Cutting food in uneven sizes so that parts are raw and parts are burnt.
- Guessing whether chicken is done instead of using a thermometer.
- Opening a packet with your face over it and getting a steam scald.
- Leaving foil flakes in the fire pit instead of packing it out.