Sheet Pan Chicken and Sweet Potato, Camp Version
Chicken, sweet potato, red onion, and chickpeas roasted in a foil packet over coals.
- calories
- 430
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 39
- protein
- 27 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 15 min
- cook
- 35 min
- total time
- 50 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
| Boneless chicken thighs | 14 oz | thighs, not breast; they forgive uneven coals |
|---|---|---|
| Dried thyme | 1 tsp | |
| Dried rosemary | 1 tsp | |
| Red onion | 2 medium | |
| Sweet potato | 14 oz | cut small, they are the slowest thing in the packet |
| Garlic cloves | 8 | leave the skins on |
| Canned chickpeas | 1 can, about 10 oz drained | |
| Lemon | 1 | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Flat-leaf parsley | 2 stems | optional, and the first thing to drop |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Build a fire early and let it burn down. You want a bed of coals and no flame.
- Cut the chicken into bite-size pieces. Toss with the thyme, rosemary, salt, and pepper in a bag or bowl.
- Cut the sweet potato into half-inch cubes and the onion into wedges. Small cubes matter here; big ones will still be raw when the chicken is done.
- Drain the chickpeas well. Wet chickpeas steam instead of browning.
- Lay out two long sheets of heavy foil, crossed. Spread the chicken, sweet potato, onion, garlic cloves, and chickpeas in one layer. Squeeze the lemon over, pour on the oil, season again.
- Fold the foil into a sealed packet with some air space at the top. Set it on a grate over the coals, or directly on a raked-flat coal bed.
- Cook 30 to 35 minutes, rotating the packet a quarter turn every ten minutes. Open carefully and check that the sweet potato gives to a fork and the chicken is opaque through.
- Squeeze the soft garlic out of its skins with a fork and stir it in. Tear the parsley over the top.
This started as an oven tray bake and moved onto a fire, which is a smaller change than it sounds. A sealed foil packet on coals is an oven with worse temperature control. The fix is cutting everything small and rotating the packet so no one side sits on the hottest spot for half an hour.
Thigh meat is the reason this works at camp. Breast goes dry the moment the coals run hot, and coals always run hot somewhere. The chickpeas add protein without needing to cook, and the whole garlic cloves turn to paste in their skins — squeeze them out at the end and they do the job a sauce would.
Packing
Cube the sweet potato and onion at home and bag them. Season the chicken at home too, in a zip bag in the cooler, so camp prep is opening bags. Bring heavy-duty foil, not the thin stuff.
Variations
- Swap the sweet potato for carrot, parsnip, or winter squash. Cut them all the same size.
- No chicken: double the chickpeas and add a second onion. Cooks in 25 minutes.
- A halved orange thrown in the packet gives you juice to squeeze over at the end.
https://www.matprat.no/oppskrifter/sunn/tray-bake-med-kylling