Oven Tacos, Camp Version
Seasoned beef and beans loaded into hard shells and heated in a covered pot or foil packet.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 89
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 25 min
- water
- 250 ml boiled
- 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
- Dutch oven
- Grill grate
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Foil packet
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried ground beef | 4 oz | canned or pouched beef also works |
|---|---|---|
| Instant refried pinto beans | 1 cup | the flake kind, not canned |
| Taco seasoning | 2 tbsp | |
| Hard taco shells | 12 | boxed, packed in a rigid container |
| Shelf-stable shredded cheese | 4 oz | a hard block grated at camp keeps longer |
| Water | 250 ml | |
| Dried cabbage or slaw mix | 1/2 cup | rehydrates in cold water while the shells heat |
| Hot sauce packets | to taste |
Method
- Boil 250 ml of water. Stir in the freeze-dried beef, bean flakes, and seasoning. Cover and let it sit off heat for five minutes, then stir. It should be thick enough to hold in a shell.
- Soak the dried cabbage in a cup of cold water while the filling rests.
- Fill each shell about two thirds full and top with cheese. Stand them upright in a dutch oven or wrap groups of three in a foil packet, seam up.
- Put the pot over low coals with a few on the lid, or set the packets on the grate. Ten minutes. You want the cheese melted and the shells toasted, not blackened.
- Open, drain the cabbage, and pile it on. Hot sauce last.
Baking tacos before you fill them is backwards on the trail. The point of heating them assembled is that the cheese welds the filling to the shell, so it holds together in one hand next to a fire instead of falling apart on your knee.
The fresh toppings are what got cut. Lettuce, tomato, and avocado all die in a pack, so dried slaw rehydrated in cold water stands in for the crunch. Instant bean flakes do double duty: protein, and a binder that keeps the shell from going soggy the way loose meat would.
Packing
Beef, bean flakes, and seasoning premixed in one bag. Shells travel in the box they came in or they arrive as gravel. Cheese and cabbage separate.
Variations
- Skip the beef and double the bean flakes for a meatless pot.
- Soft tortillas instead of shells work and pack flatter, but you lose the toasted edge.
https://homeandkind.com/blogs/food-recipes/easy-oven-baked-tacos-with-walmart