Camp Roast Chicken with Italian Seasoning
A whole bird cooked over coals in a dutch oven, then eaten three different ways.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 10 oz
- cal / oz
- 52
- protein
- 48 g
- serves
- 4
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 90 min
- total time
- 100 min
- water
- none
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Whole chicken | 1, about 4 lb | rides in the cooler on ice, cook it the first night |
|---|---|---|
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | canola works the same |
| Italian seasoning | 1 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build a fire and let it burn down to coals. You want steady heat, not flames.
- Mix the Italian seasoning, garlic powder, salt, and pepper in a cup.
- Rub the bird all over with oil, then work the spice mix into the skin.
- Set the chicken breast side down in the dutch oven. Lid on.
- Nest the oven in a bed of coals and shovel more coals onto the lid. Roughly a ring of 10 underneath and 16 on top for a 12-inch oven.
- Cook about 90 minutes, refreshing the coals once at the halfway point. It is done when the thickest part of the thigh reads 165F.
- Pull it off the heat and let it sit 10 minutes before you carve. Cutting early dumps the juice into the pot.
This is a car camping recipe and it stays one. A whole bird needs a cooler and an hour and a half of managed heat, so it belongs at a site you are not leaving. The payoff is the same reason people do it at home: one cook session, three dinners. Breast side down matters more over coals than it does in an oven, because the heat from below is uneven and the breast is the part that dries out first.
The rub is dry spices and oil only, which is deliberate. No butter, no marinade, nothing that needs its own container or its own cold space. The 10-minute rest is not optional at camp either, and skipping it costs you the moisture you will want on nights two and three, when the meat is being reheated in something else.
Packing
Premix the spice rub at home into a small bag or tin so you are not opening four jars at a fire ring. The bird stays in the cooler, bottom layer, on ice.
Variations
- No dutch oven: quarter the chicken and cook it on a grill grate over the same coals, 30 to 40 minutes, turning.
- Night two, pull the leftover meat and stir it into instant rice or a packet soup.
- Night three, the carcass simmers into a broth worth drinking.
https://morefood.org/one-chicken-several-meals-part-1