Foil-Packet Mint Pork Chops
Pork chop and sliced potatoes sealed in foil, buried in coals, opened twenty minutes later.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 14 oz
- cal / oz
- 44
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 1, 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
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Thin-cut pork chop | 1 chop | thin matters, a thick chop will not cook through in the coals |
|---|---|---|
| Potato | 1 medium | russet or yukon, sliced thin |
| Minced garlic | 1 tsp | the jarred kind is fine |
| Dried mint | 1 tsp | |
| Honey | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | to taste | |
| Heavy-duty aluminum foil | 2 large sheets |
Method
- Burn the fire down to coals. You want an even orange bed, not flames.
- Stack two sheets of foil. Build a bed of thin potato slices in the middle, roughly the footprint of the chop, one or two slices deep.
- Scatter the garlic and pepper over the potatoes.
- Set the chop on top. Crumble the dried mint over it and spoon the honey on.
- Lay the rest of the potato slices over the chop so it is covered on both sides.
- Fold the foil into a sealed packet, crimping every edge twice. Leaks are the whole failure mode.
- Set it in the coals and cover it partway. Give it 20 to 30 minutes, turning once.
- Open a corner and check that the potatoes are soft and the chop is cooked through. If not, seal it and give it another five.
The potatoes are insulation, not a side dish. Coals are hotter than any burner and they do not spread heat evenly, so a chop sitting on bare foil scorches on one face while the other stays raw. Sandwiched between two layers of potato, it cooks by steam and conducted heat instead, and the potatoes take the abuse.
Honey and mint are doing two jobs. The honey caramelizes against the meat and gives the packet enough sugar to brown something in an otherwise wet environment; dried mint holds up to that heat far better than fresh, which turns black and tastes like nothing. This one needs a cooler, so it is a car-camping and basecamp recipe, not a backpacking one — there is no honest shelf-stable version of a raw pork chop.
Packing
Slice the potatoes at home and pack them in a bag with the garlic and pepper already on them. Chop rides in the cooler. Honey in a small squeeze bottle, mint in a film canister or spice jar.
Variations
- No cooler? Swap the pork for a shelf-stable foil pouch of chicken and add it in the last ten minutes, once the potatoes are soft.
- A sliced onion under the potatoes adds moisture and keeps the bottom layer from scorching.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/mint_pork_chops-233.asp