Easy Camping Meals to Make Camp Cooking a Breeze
Looking for some quick & easy camping meal ideas to make on your next camping trip? Something that won’t be a ton of work, but still tastes delicious? Well, then this list is for you!
We searched through our recipe catalog to find our favorite quick and easy camping meals. All of the following recipes use just a single piece of cookware (pot, skillet, foil packet, pie iron, etc), feature quick-cooking ingredients, and contain elements that can be prepared ahead of time at home, saving you time at your campsite!
The end result: elevated camping meals that come together quickly and clean up just as fast, so you can spend more time enjoying the outdoors and less time worrying about the next mealtime.
So dive in and discover your next go-to camping recipe!
Our Best Easy Camping Meals To Make Camp Cooking A Breeze
1. Campfire Nachos
What could be easier than loading a Dutch oven full of tortilla chips, melty cheese, black beans, salsa, and all your favorite nacho toppings and calling it dinner?!
2. Chicken Tzatziki Skewers
These Greek-inspired grilled chicken skewers with tzatziki sauce can either be a quick grab-and-go appetizer or the centerpiece of a full dinner spread. Chop the veggies & chicken and make (or buy) the tzatziki sauce at home so all you have to do at the campsite is assemble & grill the skewers.
3. Shrimp Boil Foil Packets
Shrimp, smoky sausage, buttery corn, and zesty lemon, this Shrimp Boil Foil Packet is one of our all-time summertime favorites. And, since the whole meal cooks in foil, there are NO DISHES to clean at the end of the night!
4. Easy Chickpea Curry
Packed with plant-based protein, completely filling, and loaded with flavor, this easy chickpea curry with coconut milk is sure to hit the spot!
5. Sausage Breakfast Sandwiches
Make the sausage patties at home and store them in your cooler so you’ll have them ready to throw on the griddle first thing in the morning. Add in a fried egg and hot-honey sauce and you’ll have a tasty breakfast sandwich with minimal effort!
6. Chicken Pad Thai
This chicken pad thai is easy to make on either a one or two-burner camping stove. Make the pad thai sauce at home before your trip, or use store-bought sauce to keep things simple!
7. Dutch Oven Mac & Cheese
Using only 7 ingredients, this Mac & Cheese is a simple yet satisfying meal. Since it cooks in a Dutch Oven, it’s completely hands-off, too – just dump the ingredients in, set it over coals, and dinner’s ready in 10 minutes!
8. One Pot Pasta Primavera
This recipe features a ton of fresh veggies, pasta, and a creamy cheesy sauce that cooks in ONE skillet, so clean-up is a cinch.
9. Easy Trail Mix Recipes
Make these trail mix recipes at home before your trips so that you and your camping crew have lots of grab-and-go snack options throughout the day.
10. Foil Wrapped Sweet Potatoes & Chili
This easy vegetarian chili comes together quickly and is perfect for stuffing coal-roasted sweet potatoes.
EASY CAMPING RECIPES USING 5 INGREDIENTS OR LESS
When you are out camping, hiking, and backpacking you have a lot on your plate. Sadly, gourmet food is usually not one of them. It can be down right impossible to pack enough food and gear to make delicious and varied meals, right? Wrong! With the right know-how you can make amazing food without a lot of gear or ingredients. Check out these 25 easy camping recipes that use 5 ingredients or less and you’ll never cook (or eat) the same way again.
CAMPING BREAKFAST IDEAS
1. CAMPFIRE SCRAMBLED EGGS
Eggs
Water
Clarified Butter
I know what you’re thinking, ‘everyone makes scrambled eggs; this isn’t special.’ But hear me out. Most scrambled eggs that people make are lifeless, bland mounds of disappointment and regret. Especially the eggs that are made when camping. But when you master this recipe sublime, cloud-like eggs will be your reward.
Usually we would be using simple non-salted stick butter, but not everyone will have a cooler or a refrigerator that can fit ‘extras’ like butter. Clarified butter will do what we need, but if you can bring stick butter, use that instead. As you can see, I only listed 3 ingredients without any amounts. That’s because it depends on how much you are making. The ratio is this : for each egg add 1 tablespoon of water and 1 tablespoon of butter (clarified or not).
Add your ingredients to a sauce pan. Yes, a sauce pan. A pot. Not a frying pan like you’re probably used to. I like to leave the egg yolks unbroken at first. If one breaks while cracking, that’s fine. Start off away from the fire and just stir, getting the egg whites and water to mix. Then put the pot over the fire. Once the eggs start to get warm you can break the yolks and get the eggs all mixed together. At this point the butter should start to melt, too. Once the butter is melting take the pan off the heat and keep stirring. You want to keep taking the eggs off the heat and then back on. We’re looking for a slow warm that barely cooks the eggs and allows the butter to melt, but nothing more. It’s usually going to be a routine of 30 seconds over the fire, 15 seconds off. Once the butter is completely melted and mixed together you can leave the eggs on the fire a little bit longer. Keep stirring until your eggs just come together. Your eggs will not seem done, and they aren’t. But take it off the heat anyway. The residual heat in the pan will take your eggs to perfection. Oh, by the way, you can cook yours eggs at home like this, too.
2. CAMPFIRE TOASTED CINNAMON ROLLS
Everything is better over a campfire and cinnamon rolls are no different. A warm and delicious way to start off your day of backpacking and camping right. Great for kids! See The Full Recipe Here.
3. GRANOLA OVER A CAMP FIRE
6 Cups Rolled Oats
2 Cups Pecans or Almonds
½ Cup Vegetable Oil
½ to 1 Cup Maple Syrup
1 Cup Dried Cranberries
Sure, you could make granola at home before you head out to the campsite. But when you make your granola fresh and over an open fire you instill it with tasty qualities that add flavor, aroma, and texture.
Get a cast iron pan nice and hot. Add your nuts and toss them around. It’s a good idea to take the pan off the fire as you toss them around to ensure you do not burn them. Once they start to have a nice nutty smell you can add the rolled oats. Cook this slowly over the fire until it becomes brown and nutty.
Take the pan off the heat and add the Vegetable oil and the Maple Syrup. Depending on the consistency you like, you may want more or less syrup. Toss this together and when it’s completely mixed put it in a bowl. Add the dried Cranberries and eat warm. You can also keep it covered and it will last for more Breakfasts to come.
4. BACON AND CHEESE PULL-APARTS – A DELICIOUSLY EASY CAMPING MEAL
Buttery, warm, and gooey! These delicious Pull-Aparts are an amazing way to start off the day right, keeping you warm and full for hours!
14 dinner rolls (thawed, still cold)
1/4 cup melted butter
8 strips of cooked bacon (break into small pieces)
2 cups cheddar cheese (grated)
This simple Dutch Oven recipe is perfect for making a quick homemade meal and we are sure this will be a new camp favorite.
Let’s start with dinner rolls that are thawed, but yet still cold for this recipe to turn out perfectly. Go ahead and cut the rolls in half. Then, pour the melted butter into your 12-inch Dutch oven. Take the rolls and begin rolling them in the butter, giving them a nice coat and arrange these inside the Dutch oven.
Next we’ll sprinkle the tops of the rolls with bacon and cheese. Use as much or as little as you’d like. After garnishing, take the lid and cover the Dutch Oven. Give it time for the rolls to rise until their size is doubled. Now bake this for 20-25 minutes at 350°F. When finished, remove from heat and enjoy your new favorite camp meal!
Temperature Control for Dutch Oven using Briquets: bake at 350°F, oven top 16, oven bottom 8
5. POTATO AND EGG SCRAMBLE
2 Diced Medium Potatoes
8 Eggs, stirred
1 Chopped Onion
2 Chopped Peppers (your choice)
2 Tablespoons Butter
This wholesome breakfast is an easy camping meal and a great way to start the day. It cooks up in one pan and serves about four.
First, add 1 Tablespoon of Butter into your cast iron pan and put it over your fire. Melt it and spread it around.
Second, add the Potatoes, Onions, and Peppers. I like the Potatoes to be in chunks and for the Onion and Peppers to be chopped, but it’s your choice. Cooked these until the Potatoes are tender and the Onions and Peppers are nice and cooked. It takes about 20 minutes, but it depends on your fire.
Third, add the next Tablespoon of Butter and, once it’s melted, add the Eggs. The Eggs will fill all the spaces in between the Potatoes, Peppers, and Onions. But to ensure even cooking time, cover the pan with lid or tin foil and let it cook until the eggs are nice and ready, about 4 minutes.
6. CAMPING FARMERS’ BREAKFAST
This breakfast is delicious, gooey, and hot. Full of needed energy so you can camp, hike, and explore.
CAMPING LUNCH IDEAS
7. NEW KIND OF DOG
8 Hot Dogs, Chopped
1 Small Onion, Chopped
8 Ounces Chili
3 Tablespoons Barbecue Sauce
12 Hot Dog Buns, gutted
This is a terrific twist on the old style kind of hot dog. These still have the same old Hot Dog flavor so kids will still love them, but now it comes with a few nice depths of flavor and sustenance so adults tend to like them, too.
Take all the ingredients, except the gutted Hot Dog Buns, and mix it in a bowl. Lay out each Hot Dog bun on its own sheet of tin foil. Fill the Buns with the mixture and then wrap the tin foil so the whole thing is sealed. You can grill these over a flame for about 20 minutes. Or you can put them deep in coals and cook them for 15 minutes. Timing obviously depends on how much heat your packing, but we’re just looking to cook the Hot Dogs all the way through.
8. PEPPERONI PIZZA GRILLED CHEESE
Bread
Butter
Marinara Sauce
Shredded Mozzarella Cheese
Pepperoni
9. DOUBLE BAKED POTATO BOAT
3 Baked Potatoes
9 Strips of Bacon, cooked
Cooked Ham
Sharp Cheddar Cheese
Stick of Butter
This recipes uses a lot of leftovers and turns them into a great meal! Take 3 Baked Potatoes and cut them each 5 times. Do not cut them all the way through, we want 6 equally sized segments across the potato. In each Segment add a small piece of bacon, ham, and the cheese.
Lay each potato out on its own piece of tin foil. Put a little bit of butter on the tops of each potato and spread it around. Seal up the potato in the Tin Foil, find a hot spot in your grill or fire, and cook for about 20 minutes. Make sure you count the number of Potatoes going in and coming out, as they tend to look a lot like darkened coals.
10. CARAMELIZED ONIONS ON THE GRILL
This simple recipes takes direct heat and sweet onions to create a complex and mouth-watering aroma and flavor that can be added to many dishes or just eaten straight up.
