Foil Packet BBQ Chicken Thighs
Bone-in thighs, three coats of sauce, cooked over coals in foil that opens at the end.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 40 min
- total time
- 45 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
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs and drumsticks | 2.5 lb | dark meat forgives a hot fire; breasts dry out |
|---|---|---|
| BBQ sauce | 1 cup | decant into a squeeze bottle at home |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | 1 tsp each | |
| Heavy-duty foil | 4 large sheets | |
| Gluten-free BBQ sauce if you need the tag | check the label | many sauces use soy sauce or malt |
Method
- Burn a fire down to coals, or run one side of a grill hot and the other cool. You want steady medium heat, not flames.
- Rub the chicken with oil, salt, and pepper. Set each piece skin down on a doubled sheet of foil and fold the edges into a sealed packet.
- Set the packets on the grate over medium heat for 25 minutes. The chicken cooks in its own steam and renders most of its fat.
- Open the packets. Flip the pieces skin up, brush on a third of the sauce, and leave them uncovered on the grate for 5 minutes.
- Sauce and cook twice more, 5 minutes each time. Each coat sets into the last instead of running off.
- Move the pieces directly over the coals for the last minute or two if you want char. Watch them; sugar burns fast.
- Cut into the thickest thigh at the bone. Clear juice means done.
This started as an oven recipe and the oven was doing two jobs: gentle heat first, then a hot blast to set the glaze. A fire does both, just in the wrong order unless you manage it. The foil packet is the fix. Sealed, it traps steam and cooks the chicken through at a temperature the coals do not control precisely. Opened, the same fire caramelizes sauce in five-minute passes.
Saucing three times matters more than the sauce you pick. One heavy coat slides off and drips into the coals. Three thin ones dry down between passes and build a layer that stays put. Bone-in dark meat is here because it tolerates the ten-minute window where you are guessing about the fire. This one needs a cooler, so it is a first- or second-night meal, not a backpacking dinner.
Packing
Chicken travels frozen at the bottom of the cooler and thaws over the first day. Sauce in a squeeze bottle, not the glass jar it came in. Count out the foil sheets at home and flatten them into your kitchen box.
Variations
- Halved potatoes tossed in the oil go in the packets alongside the chicken.
- No grate: set the sealed packets on the coal bed directly, turning every eight minutes, then finish them open on a rock at the fire edge.
- Cut the sauce with a spoonful of mustard and a splash of vinegar if it is too sweet on its own.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/two-ingredient-crispy-oven-baked-bbq-chicken