Chicken Cordon Boca
Chicken thighs rolled around prosciutto and provolone, baked over coals on a bed of spinach and mushrooms.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 56
- protein
- 52 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 30 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 70 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
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Boneless chicken thighs | 8 | pounded flat at home |
|---|---|---|
| Prosciutto | 4 slices | cut in half |
| Provolone | 4 slices | cut in half |
| Mushrooms | 1 pint | shiitake, baby portabella, or porcini |
| Spinach | 1 bag | pre-washed |
| Garlic | 1 head | peeled at home |
| Dijon mustard | 3 tbsp | |
| Cooking oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | to taste | |
| Toothpicks or butcher twine | 16 |
Method
- At home: pound the thighs flat, pepper both sides, brush one side with mustard, lay a half slice each of prosciutto and provolone on the mustard, roll into a packet, and pin with a toothpick. Chill them in the cooler.
- In camp, build a fire and burn it down to coals. You want a bed of even, grey-ashed coals, not flame.
- Oil the bottom of a 12-inch dutch oven. Chop the mushrooms and toss them with the garlic cloves and the whole bag of spinach in the oven.
- Set the chicken rolls on top of the vegetables. Lid on.
- Bury the oven in coals with roughly twice as many on the lid as underneath. Bake 40 minutes, turning oven and lid a quarter turn once partway through.
- Check that the thickest roll reads 165F or runs clear at the center. Serve two rolls per person with the greens, and drink the broth in the bottom out of a mug.
This one earns the cooler weight. The chicken is doing two jobs at once: cooking through, and dripping fat and mustard down into the spinach and mushrooms underneath, which cook down into a broth thick enough to serve on its own. One pot, three things out of it.
Most of the fiddly work belongs at home. Pounding, rolling, and pinning eight thighs at a picnic table costs you daylight, and raw chicken plus a camp table is a cleanup problem you do not want. Do it in a kitchen, pack the rolls flat, and camp prep drops to chopping mushrooms. Coal management is the only real skill here — more on the lid than underneath, or the bottom scorches before the centers are done.
Packing
Roll and pin the chicken at home, then pack the rolls flat in a zip bag in the bottom of the cooler. Garlic goes in peeled so you are not picking skins by headlamp. Mushrooms and spinach ride in their own bag and do not need cold.
Variations
- Swap the provolone for any firm cheese that will not run out of the roll. Fresh mozzarella will.
- No dutch oven: brown the rolls in a covered skillet on a grill grate, then add the vegetables underneath and cover for 20 minutes.
- Salami holds up better than prosciutto if the cooler is marginal.
https://camprecipes.com/classic-recipes/chicken-cordon-boca