Foil-Wrapped Tuna Tortillas
Tuna salad rolled in a tortilla and heated in foil over coals until the cheese gives up.
- calories
- 330
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 66
- protein
- 19 g
- serves
- 8, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 5 min
- total time
- 15 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
- Lunch
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- Foil packet
- Grab and go
- Needs a cooler
- Basic
Ingredients
| Flour tortillas | 8 | 7 to 9 inch; smaller ones tear less in foil |
|---|---|---|
| Tuna | 2 cans or pouches | pouches skip the draining and the smelly can |
| Celery | 1 cup, diced | about one large stalk |
| Sweet pickles | 1/2 cup, diced | roughly 3 small ones |
| Miracle Whip or light mayonnaise | 1 cup | single-serve packets if you have no cooler |
| Shredded cheddar | 1 cup | |
| Aluminum foil | 8 sheets |
Method
- Dice the celery and pickles small. Big chunks roll badly and fall out the ends.
- Drain the tuna if it came in cans. Pour the liquid into the fire, not on the ground, and pack the cans out sealed.
- Stir tuna, mayo, celery, and pickles together in one bowl or a gallon freezer bag.
- Lay a tortilla on a sheet of foil. Spread an eighth of the mix down the middle, scatter an eighth of the cheese over it, and roll it up. Wrap the foil tight.
- Set the packets on a grate over coals, or spear each one on a stick. Turn them every minute or so. Five minutes is usually enough.
- Coals, not flames. Direct heat scorches the tortilla before the cheese inside has warmed at all.
This is a campfire sandwich that solves the problem of cold tuna salad on a cold night. The foil does the cooking: it traps steam from the mayo and tuna and heats the roll evenly instead of charring one side. Wrapped tight, it also means no pot and no plate.
Heat control is the whole recipe. Put these in flames and the tortilla blackens in a minute while the cheese sits there solid. Coals that have gone grey, a grate, and steady rotation gets you melted cheese and an intact wrap. If you have no cooler, the variation below moves the whole thing to shelf-stable parts — pouch tuna, mayo packets, hard cheese — and it works the same.
Packing
Dice the celery and pickles at home and bag them; carry mayo in packets or a squeeze bottle. Everything except the tortillas and foil lives in the cooler. Tear and stack the foil sheets before you leave so you are not fighting a roll of it in the dark.
Variations
- Canned salmon or chicken swaps in one for one.
- No cooler: use foil-pouch tuna, mayo packets, and a shelf-stable cheese like a small wax-sealed gouda. Drop the celery or bring a carrot instead.
- A spoonful of relish replaces the diced pickles and saves a cutting board.
https://www.boyscouttrail.com/content/recipe/tuna_tortillas-1073.asp