Coal-Fire Mixed Grill by Temperature
Steak, chops, chicken, and sausage over camp coals, called done by a thermometer instead of a guess.
- calories
- 780
- weight
- 10 oz
- cal / oz
- 78
- protein
- 58 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 30 min
- total time
- 40 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
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Real dishes
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Bone-in chicken thighs | 4 | the piece most often served underdone |
|---|---|---|
| Thick-cut pork chops | 2 | at least 1 inch, thin chops overcook before they brown |
| Coarse beef sausage | 1 lb | boerewors if you can get it, any thick fresh sausage otherwise |
| Cooking oil | 2 tbsp | in a dropper bottle |
| Coarse salt and black pepper | 1 tbsp total | |
| Instant-read thermometer | 1 | not food, but the whole point |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals, then rake them so one half of the grate sits over deep coals and the other half over almost none. You need somewhere to move things that are browning faster than they are cooking.
- Oil and season all the meat. Set the grate over the coals and let it heat for a few minutes before anything touches it.
- Sausage first, over the cooler side, turning every few minutes. It needs time, not flame. Chicken thighs go skin-down over the hot side until the skin sets, then over to the cool side.
- Chops last, hot side, two or three minutes a side for color.
- Probe the thickest part of each piece, off the bone. Pull chicken at 71C, pork at 60C, sausage at 68C, steak at 52C for medium rare.
- Rest everything on a plate for five to ten minutes. Carryover heat carries each piece the last three to five degrees, which is why you pulled them early.
The source this came from is not a recipe at all, it is an argument for owning a thermometer. That argument is worth a recipe. Camp cooking is the worst possible place to judge doneness by feel: the light is bad, the coals are uneven, and the meat has been sitting in a cooler at an unknown temperature all afternoon. Poking a chop tells you very little. Sticking a probe in it tells you everything.
The two-zone fire and the early pull do the rest. Sausage and bone-in chicken need more minutes than steak does, so they get the cooler side while the chops take the heat. Pulling three to five degrees short of target sounds like a fussy detail, but a thick chop keeps climbing for several minutes off the fire, and that is the difference between juicy and grey. Chicken is the one number not to negotiate with: it should read 74C after the rest.
Packing
Meat travels in the cooler, seasoned at home in a zip bag so there is one less thing to open in the dark. The thermometer rides in the utensil roll with a spare battery.
Variations
- Whole chicken on a rotisserie or propped in a dutch oven: use a leave-in probe instead and stop opening the lid.
- An infrared thermometer tells you whether the grate is actually hot before you commit the first piece of meat.
https://braaiculture.com/thermometer-for-food