Easy Camping Meals For the Whole Family

For us, camping means so many things. Family. Togetherness. Exploring. Memories. We accomplish that of those things in so many ways, including with our camping meals. We generally rely on fun, easy meals that do not take a ton of work to put together. Because, let’s be honest, who has that much energy after spending the day hiking, kayaking, biking, or whatever other exploring we dove into that day? But, at the same time, after those exhausting days, we also want delicious food that our entire family of six will eat without complaint and that also does not feel like we’re just eating the same old, same old that we might have at home.

In our case, camping trips, big and small, are vacations. Easy camping meals that we all enjoy can be hard to find, but we have found the meals below to do that and then some. Whether it’s the first dinner of the trip after having driven all day, or you have spent the day away from the campground exploring and everyone is limping back to the camper, or you have just spent the day lounging at the pool and simply don’t feel like spending hours preparing and cooking dinner, these meals make dinner super easy and taste so amazing that, even if you have multiple kids who each have very different palates, they will all like them too! Now, those are some meals that when you find them, you hold onto them! Here are our family’s favorite easy camping meals we can make in no time:

• Blackstone Chicken. We literally do not go camping without making this for dinner AT LEAST once. And it’s so easy! We take boneless skinless chicken breast (usually the tenderloins but regular breasts work too) and cut them into chunks. Then we cut up potatoes (I usually get a bag of the Petite Medley of gold, red, and purple mini potatoes), white mushrooms, an onion, and a pepper or two (usually a green and/or red bell pepper).  Honestly, you can mix it up and whatever grilled veggies you like to it. As you can tell, there is no science to this meal, which makes it the perfect camping meal. We usually put the potatoes on the Blackstone first since it takes them a lit longer to cook. We season them with a blend called Holy Smoke which we get from a local spice shop called Colonel De Gourmet Herbs & Spices. It’s a combination of black pepper, garlic, onion and mesquite smoked kosher salt, and it’s delicious. We use it in so many dishes, and we absolutely love it on this. After seasoning the potatoes with Holy Smoke, we cover them with a grill cover for a few minutes before adding the chicken. We season the chicken with Holy Smoke too. Once that cooks for a few minutes, we add the veggies. After fully cooking all components, we mix them up and serve them on one platter. If there are any parts to it that a kid (or even an adult) doesn’t like, they can just pick around them. This is truly a versatile, hearty meal that absolutely lends itself to a great and easy camping meal.

• Loaded Tater Tots. Who doesn’t love tater tots? They are an easy side dish, but have you ever considered them for the main course? While not in our regular rotation of meals at home, we love having this as something out of our ordinary while camping. We travel with our Cuisinart Air Fryer Toaster Oven, and it’s perfect for air frying beautifully crispy tater tots. From there, the options are endless. We generally have a protein, which is usually shredded chicken or pork, but sometimes it’s bacon or chili. You, of course, need cheese. We have used shredded cheddar, mozzarella, blended cheeses – again, there are so many possibilities. Then, you can really let your creativity shine by adding all sorts of sauces and toppings – jalapeños, green onions, tomatoes, sour cream, salsa, barbecue sauce, beans. Honestly, whatever your heart desires here. My favorite tots are loaded with barbecue sauce, provolone cheese and shredded chicken. My husband loves them slopped in chili, cheese and sour cream. The kids love toying with different combinations. This is one of those meals that is so easy, fun, and tasty that it feels like a bit of a treat while we’re camping.

• Nacho Bar.  In case you haven’t noticed a theme, we love quick, easy and versatile dishes while we are camping. A nacho bar is another meal that you can completely customize to your family and their preferences. In our family, some of us prefer chicken while others prefer ground beef, so we usually have both. The secret is to have pre-make it before your trip. Even if we are going to be camping for weeks, we will cook up some ground beef before we leave and, if we’re not going to eat it within the first few days of our trip, we’ll throw it in our freezer in the camper. For chicken, see the Rotisserie Chicken section below. Either way, both are pre-cooked, so we’re just reheating them. Then, we set out everyone’s favorite cheese, some shredded lettuce, diced tomatoes, banana peppers, jalapeños, salsa, sour cream, queso, or whatever someone requests. I absolutely love barbecue anything, so, like the tater tots, I love mine with barbecue sauce, shredded mozzarella or provolone and shredded chicken. The great thing about this recipe is that we can change it up a bit every time, so it doesn’t get old. What we rarely change are the nachos. We get the Kirkland Signature Organic White & Yellow Corn Tortilla Chips from Costco. That is the one and only thing all six of us agree needs to be part of the nacho bar each and every time. My husband and I ultimately love this meal because of how quick and easy it is. The kids love it because it gives them options to make their nachos exactly how they like them.

• Personal Pizzas.  Something that can put a damper on a camping trip real fast is arguing with kids about dinner. That’s one reason a lot of our favorite camping meals are so customizable. Plus, it gets the kids involved in the kitchen and gets them excited about dinnertime, which is a fantastic bonus. And their favorite camping meal to make is pizza. I pick up pre-made pizza crusts, a jar of pizza sauce, pizza cheese, and then a variety of toppings. Again, you can include whatever works for your family. For us, it’s usually pretty simple with pepperoni and banana peppers. To be honest, most of my kids just want cheese pizza. But some like a lot of sauce while one of my kids basically just wants crust and cheese. Weather permitting, we set up outside at the picnic table. Each kid gets a pizza crust on a plate. I set out a bowl with a little olive oil and a pastry brush. They each  lightly brush olive oil on the crust. Then, they spoon the amount of sauce they want, sprinkle on some cheese, and then they add the toppings they want, if any. Then, we actually cook them in our Davy Crockett Green Mountain grill. We set it to 450 degrees and put them in for 5 to 6 minutes. This is such a fun, easy meal that everyone will love!

• Rotisserie Chicken Multiple Ways.  We are cheating a bit with this one, because this is actually a collection of meals in one paragraph. And all of them begin with Costco’s rotisserie chickens. If you haven’t had one, you have been missing out, my friend. Every time I go to Costco, I try to get two. We will then usually eat it for dinner that evening. Then, we pull apart all the chicken that is left, separating it so that some goes to the fridge while the rest goes to the freezer. What is in the fridge can be used for various meals through the week. What is in the freezer can be used to fill in gaps in meals before I make it back to Costco. We essentially do the same thing while camping. I buy one or two chickens just before we leave and pull them apart. Depending on the length of our trip, I will either put it all in the fridge, and I’ll throw some in the freezer as well. It can seriously be a lifesaver after a long day of exploring. We use it to make chicken tacos, chicken and rice, on pizza, on nachos, in wraps. Seriously, you can throw it into just about anything. I truly don’t think you find a better deal on chicken. It’s ridiculously cheap. It’s already cooked. You can use it as your protein in so many different meals. Plus, it saves an insane amount of time preparing your meal since you simply have to heat it up. I am not sure how we got through an entire week’s worth of meals without this in our lives – at home and in the camper!

• Honorable Mention: Skyline.  Full disclosure, we’re from the Greater Cincinnati area. If you are from here or have traveled here, you have probably heard about our obsession with chili on hotdogs and spaghetti. There are several chili joints in town, including a well-known one called Skyline, and everyone has a favorite. Our family is pretty firmly in the Team Skyline camp. Our camping meal tradition is that on the first night of every camping trip, we make Skyline for dinner. Generally, we’ve been driving all day, and this is a quick, easy meal that we all enjoy. We make a box of spaghetti, warm up a can of Skyline chili, and top spaghetti with the chili, Skyline cheese and Skyline crackers (I told you we are firmly Team Skyline). Sometimes, to mix it up a bit, we might also throw in some hotdogs for a Skyline coney option. While this is certainly one of our family’s favorite camping meals, it is a very regional dish, so it does not quite seem to fit in the main list. Nonetheless, considering we make it on every single trip we go on, I simply had to include it. If you have the chance, especially if you happen to be traveling in the Greater Cincinnati area (or even in the St. Petersburg or Orlando areas since they now each have a Skyline also), try it out. It just might become one of your family favorites as well.

If you have fallen into a rut when it comes to your camping trip meal planning, throw some of these into the rotation. You’ll love how easy they are. Your family will love how good they are. It’s a win-win! Don’t get me wrong, we also love to mix it up with other meals like smoking a pork shoulder, grilling steaks and baked potatoes, and our beloved InstaPot meals, but all of those require a little more planning and aforethought. Other than making sure you have the ingredients in your fridge and pantry, these meals can be thrown together on a dime. And because you can change things up so easily with them, it doesn’t feel like you are eating the same thing all the time.

We also love that the kids can get so involved with making them. We have even made it part of our Skyline tradition that one of our daughters (who loves to cook) always makes it for us on that first night. While it’s a super easy dish to make, it makes her feel appreciated and valued, and it lets my husband and I focus on getting the camper set up and organized. What are your family’s favorite easy camping meals? While we love our current rotation, we are always looking for new ones to try. Leave your favorites in the comments below. For more adventures from G6 Adventures, click here.