Foil Packet Pierogies with Squash and Sausage
A sheet pan dinner folded into foil and set over coals. Twenty minutes, no pot.
- calories
- 700
- weight
- 16 oz
- cal / oz
- 44
- protein
- 30 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 22 min
- total time
- 32 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
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Frozen potato and cheese pierogies | 1 box (about 16 oz) | stay frozen in the cooler until they hit the foil |
|---|---|---|
| Butternut squash | 1 medium | peel and cube at home, 1/2 inch |
| Fully cooked chicken sausage | 24 oz | two packages, sliced into coins |
| Olive oil | 3 tbsp | |
| Salt and coarse pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build a fire down to coals, or get a grill grate hot over medium. Flames will scorch the foil before the squash cooks.
- Tear four arm-length sheets of heavy duty foil. Divide the squash, sausage coins, and frozen pierogies among them.
- Drizzle each pile with oil, season, and fold the foil into a sealed packet with a seam you can open and reclose.
- Set the packets on the grate or on the coal bed. Twelve minutes, then flip each packet.
- Ten more minutes. Open one and stab a squash cube. If it gives, they are all done.
- Open the packets wide to vent the steam or the pierogies go soft. Eat out of the foil.
This started as a sheet pan dinner, which is already most of the way to camp food. The oven becomes coals and the sheet pan becomes foil, and the method does not otherwise change: everything is cut to a size that finishes in the same twenty minutes.
The frozen pierogies are the reason this needs a cooler. They also do the work of a starch without any water, since they steam themselves inside the packet. Sausage that is already cooked means the only real doneness question is the squash, so cut it small and check it there.
Packing
Cube the squash at home and bag it. Slice the sausage at home too. In camp you are opening three bags and folding foil, nothing else. Pierogies go at the bottom of the cooler.
Variations
- Swap half the butternut for acorn squash, seeds out, cut into thin wedges. It cooks faster, so add it at the flip.
- A sliced onion and a handful of sauerkraut in each packet pushes it toward the pierogy's actual origins.
- No fire: the same packets work on a canister stove in a dry pan with a lid, over low heat, turned often.
https://homeandkind.com/blogs/food-recipes/sheet-pan-dinner