How to Perfect Foil Packet Meals
What is a foil packet meal?
Foil packets were pretty much the fanciest cooked meals we could make on a campfire; a far cry from roasted hotdogs. Foil packet dinners are designed for cooking on the fire, but are even more easily cooked on the grill or in the oven.
Foil packet dinners make perfect camping meals with easy cleanup.
5 Tips for perfecting foil pack meals
1) Use One or Two Layers of Heavy Duty Aluminum Foil
I see so many foil packet recipes out there that recommend using two layers of regular aluminum foil. The reasoning for this is usually that it provides extra protection from rips and tears, but to be honest, I have had nothing but trouble with the regular stuff. I don’t ever buy anything other than heavy duty. The regular thickness just tears too easily, even if it is doubled up, so do yourself a favor and invest in the good stuff. You’re worth it. Most of the time, one layer of heavy duty foil is enough for anything cooked on the grill or in the oven. I do recommend that you use two layers if you are cooking directly in the coals, like for fire-roasted sweet potatoes. The extra layer adds a little more protection for the harsh coal environment.
What you don’t need is the kind of foil with additional non-stick coating. The packaging indicates that the non-stick coating is food safe, but they don’t actually tell you what it is. It’s a polymer…a.k.a. plastic. Depending on the use, it may be food safe, but given that you might be working with really high temperatures (like campfire coals), you don’t want to risk it. If you need to oil a sheet of foil, feel free to do so based on your needs. It only takes a second.
2) Pick the Right Ingredients
Not all ingredients are created equal when it comes to foil packet cooking. Vegetables that contain and release lots of moisture when cooking (such as mushrooms and zucchini) aren’t the best choices for foil packets, unless you want things to be a little soupy. The same goes for proteins. Fatty proteins (such as ground beef with a high fat content) will create a grease bomb in your foil packet. This is not to say that you can’t have these things as a part of your meal! Just consider cooking high moisture veggies or fatty meats separately on the grill instead of in a foil packet. Below is a list of foods that work perfectly in a foil packet. Mix and match as you see fit, just make sure to consider tip three as well before throwing anything on the grill!
VEGETABLES
Corn
Brussel Sprouts
Asparagus
Potatoes
Sweet Potatoes
Peppers
Cauliflower
Broccoli
Carrots
Onions
Green Beans
Snap Peas
PROTEINS
Lean Beef
Chicken Breast
Salmon
Shrimp
Pre-Cooked Sausages
Vegetarian Sausage
Tofu
Chickpeas
Cashews
SPICE IT UP
Lemon
Lime
Cilantro
Ginger
Garlic
Parsley
Dill
Spice Blends
Compound Butter
Salmon with lemon, asparagus, and garlic and herb butter is a classic foil packet dinner.
3) Consider Cooking Times
When choosing what ingredients to cook together in a foil packet, make sure to consider how long things take to cook. For instance, cooking raw potatoes and salmon together in a packet will likely result in overcooked fish and undercooked potatoes. I always look up how long my ingredients will take to roast in a standard oven and go from there. A better match for salmon in a foil packet would be asparagus. Both take about 10 to 15 minutes to roast in an oven, depending on the temperature of the oven and size of the ingredients.
If you’re set on making a foil packet with ingredients that have differing cooking times there are still some things you can do.
Consider parboiling (partially cooking in boiling water) things like potatoes, carrots, or other dense root vegetables before adding them to the foil packet.
Cut longer-cooking ingredients into smaller pieces.
Cook ingredients separately if the cooking times vary wildly.
The best way to get started with foil packet cooking is to start with ingredients that are already cooked so that you are essentially just re-heating your meal over the open flame. Once you have this down you can move on to more interesting and exciting recipes. There are plenty of foil packet dinner recipes out there, but don’t discount sheet-pan dinner recipes. Sheet-pan dinners are just foil packets without the lid. Look for sheet-pan recipes that don’t contain high-moisture or fatty items and ones that tell you to put everything in the oven at the same time. If a sheet-pan recipe has you add chicken to the pan after the vegetables have cooked for some amount of time, just do the veggies in a foil packet and grill the chicken separately. It won’t make any more mess and it’ll be just as delicious. I promise. I do this with a slightly modified version of Smitten Kitchen’s Sheet Pan Chicken Tikka and it’s amazing!
4) Don’t Over-Fill Your Packet
There are a couple of reasons not to put too much into your foil packet. The first is pretty obvious. You don’t want to have a dinner explosion on your hands! An overfilled packet is more likely to bust open, particularly at the seams. When sealing you should be able to fold the edges in two to three times along each edge to ensure a strong seal. If you have too much in there, things will literally fall apart. I like to start with a single sheet of heavy duty foil placed on a flat surface. I add my ingredients in a single layer, leaving at least an inch-wide foil border around the outside of the food. I then cut a second piece of foil a little bit longer than the first piece, drape it over the food, and fold the edges in 2 to 3 times. If all of the food doesn’t fit I make another foil packet.
The other major reason not to over-fill your foil packet has to do with even cooking. You want your meal to cook as evenly as possible. An overfilled packet means that the food closest to the heat will cook faster than the stuff on the inside. Keeping the packet relatively thin and flipping once makes sure that you don’t end up with burnt food on the outside and undercooked food on the inside.
Be careful opening your foil packet. There will be steam!
5) Watch Out for Steam
Because you did such an awesome job sealing your foil packet (you did, right?), there is going to be steam trapped inside. Let the packet rest for a couple of minutes before tearing in, then slice down the middle with a knife. Let the puff of steam dissipate before really digging in. Your fingers will thank you!