Tag: authentic camping meals

Campfire Jambalaya: A Taste of New Orleans

Jambalaya
New Orleans Chicken & Sausage Jambalaya cooked over campfire

When I was in my 20’s, I visited New Orleans for the first time and fell in love instantly. That first trip my friend and I visited the New Orleans School of Cooking. We learned how to make jambalaya, gumbo, bread pudding and pralines. I highly recommend adding to your next trip to The Big Easy. On a recent camping trip, I decided to try making jambalaya over the campfire. I was happy it turned out great! Jambalaya is a comfort dish. It can feed a group and is perfect for a slightly chilly camping evening. The most common proteins in jambalaya are chicken, sausage, and shrimp but my recipe omits shrimp. Also don’t forget the “holy trinity” of Cajun cooking – onion, celery and bell pepper. I cooked this in my reliable cast iron pan and I paired this dinner with my campfire cornbread.

Ingredients –

  • 1/4 c. oil
  • 2 cups cooked chicken, shredded (I roasted a chicken for this before the trip. Just shred and add to a Ziploc bag to put in cooler)
  • 4 andouille sausages
  • 1 c. chopped onion
  • 1/2 c. chopped celery
  • 1/2 c. chopped green bell pepper
  • 1 tbsp. chopped garlic
  • 1 cup long grain rice
  • 2 cups of chicken stock or broth (I would bring extra like 32 oz carton)
  • 3 large tsp. Joe’s Stuff seasoning (or voodoo seasoning)
  • 1/4 c. paprika (smoked or sweet. I used smoked)
  • 2-3 chopped green onions (optional)
  • 1 14.5 oz canned chopped tomatoes
Sausage & Chicken with onion, bell pepper and celery (holy trinity) sautéing

Directions –

  1. Cook sausage in pan with a bit of oil. Once fully cooked, remove and slice. Set aside for now
  2. Add oil to cast iron and let it heat up
  3. Once hot, add chopped onions, celery and bell pepper to pan
  4. Stir the holy trinity until the tenderness you want
  5. Add sausage and shredded precooked chicken to pan
  6. Pour broth into pan and season with Joe’s Stuff (or Voodoo) and paprika
  7. Bring to a boil
  8. Add rice and bring to a boil again
  9. Cover with foil and move pan to indirect heat
  10. Cook until rice is done. This will depend on how hot your fire is but should take about 30-45 minutes
  11. Check while cooking periodically and add more broth as needed to cook rice
  12. Cook covered for 25 minutes and then remove foil and continue to cook until rice is done, stirring periodically to make sure rice doesn’t stick
  13. When done, top with green onions and chopped tomatoes, if desired

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Easy Cast Iron Veggie Frittata for Camping

If you ever wanted to know how real my blog is (and that I’m not working to get influencers or likes), you can tell from my photos.

I have a good group of friends who go camping with me and encouraged me to make this blog because they LOVE my food and they thought others would like as well. In fact they recruit others who never go camping (including this summer) on the sole basis of my food

My motto is I don’t do the basics – hot dogs, hamburgers. Nothing against any of those things, I just love to push myself. And not all our winners, but when something is, I want to share this here!

I say this because my friends will be the first to tell you – I am so busy prepping, cooking and serving the meal, that a lot of times, I don’t turn on my phone to take a picture (I ALWAYS camp where there is NO signal so my phone is never on!). In fact a big group trip we had this summer, I had to have people remind me and we were all living in the moment, that out of 8 people, only one remember on one occasion!

I preface all of this because this meal is one of them. I saw the grill we had when we got there and realized it was not big enough to cook reasonably for 8 people completely in two cast iron pans. So I did a quick maneuver to make the frittata and it was so good, half of it was served up before I could take a picture (hence the first picture!)

The fun thing about this dish is you can play around. I made it again the next day with a couple different ingredients. We had half the group loving tomatoes which I say is a must for this, but another half hating them, which is why half the frittata has tomatoes. You can strategically place based on likes!

Morally of the story, I hope you come here to find new recipes, try them and love them and share! And if anything, just know I’m 100% authentic!! Cuz I promise I am and just want you all to enjoy – bad pictures or not 😂

Breakfast Veggie Frittata

Ingredients –

  • 2 tbsp vegetable or olive oil
  • 1 yellow or white onion, diced
  • 1 – 2 tomatoes, diced
  • 2 tbsp minced garlic
  • 1 cup spinach
  • 8 – 12 eggs (depending size of group), whisked
  • Sliced mozzarella and/or Mexican cheese
  • Any leftover meat or deli meat you want to use up (optional)
  • Any other veggies you want to use up (optional)
  1. Slice all veggies and mince garlic
  2. In one cast iron pan, pour oil into it and heat
  3. Add onions and garlic and sauté until tender
  4. Whisk eggs in a bowl with veggies and cheese
  5. For easy cleanup, line another cast iron with aluminum foil (if only one pan, skip this step)
  6. Pour mixture into pan
  7. If omitting any veggies for the group, do not add them in the bowl in step four and carefully place them on top of the eggs in the pan here on one side to separate from total
  8. Cover pan with foil
  9. Place over indirect heat on the campfire
  10. Cook for about 35-45 minutes until the eggs have set in the pan (don’t jiggle in the middle when you move the pan)
  11. Top with hot sauce, if desired
  12. In the first picture, instead of shredded cheese, I topped with American cheese. Also good but recommend shredded!

I would love feedback! If you have tried this recipe, please rate below and/or comment!

Rating: 5 out of 5.