Easy One Pot Camping Recipes

If you’re looking for some new ideas on what to cook for your next camping trip, you’re in the right place! The appeal of easy one pot camping meals is that there’s usually less kitchenware to pack and fewer dishes to clean afterward, a win-win for all involved.

Many of these meals can be made as simple or as fancy as you want – if you want to go crazy and add 6 different kinds of freshly chopped veggies and your signature 3-cheese blend – go for it! If you want to keep it super basic and stick to one protein and one veggie – that’s cool too.

I’ve included a good mix of one-pot meals that can be made car camping in a big pot over a 2-burner camping stove and several that are also backpacker-friendly, meaning they can be carried on the trail and cooked over a small backpacking stove. Many can also be made in a dutch oven or cast-iron skillet over a fire.

Quick And Easy

That doesn’t mean that you necessarily need all these things – a big stockpot, a frying pan, and a dutch oven. I mean that’s great if you

All those things, but you really only need to pack one of them per trip if you’re into keeping things simple. And then simply plan your meals around whichever cooking vessel you choose.

If you want to keep super simple, you can always go to bacon and eggs. Just fry up bacon in a medium or large pan. After it’s done, set aside, drain off some of the grease if you wish, or leave it all in there, and scramble as many eggs as you want for your group.

Make Ahead Camping Recipes

If you have a cast-iron skillet, you must try this frittata on at least one camping trip! It’s a healthy breakfast treat, loaded up with vegetables.

Grits can make for a warm, filling breakfast while camping or backpacking. As with most recipes, you can go as simple or as extravagant as you want here.

Make the grits as you would at home, with plenty of butter or oil to make sure they don’t stick to your pot, then melt in some cheese and top with bacon – whether that’s pre-cooked, pre-packaged bacon from the store, pre-cooked bacon you made at home or just bacon bits. (I love the big bags of bacon bits from Costco.)

Easy & Delicious Skillet Recipes

The amazing thing about these campfire dutch oven nachos is how customizable they are. Use this recipe as a starting point, but know you can omit, substitute, or add in any ingredients you fancy. Dutch oven nachos are the perfect way to feed the family or group!

This is one of my all-time favorite backpacking meals, but would also be great for any car camping trip. I like to make this with pre-cooked chicken from the store or cook your own chicken ahead of time at home. If I’m backpacking, I’ll pack a mix of dehydrated vegetables to rehydrate while cooking the rice noodles or if you’re car camping you can pack fresh, chopped veggies to saute before cooking your noodles.

If you’re car camping and wanted to get fancy, you could make real mashed potatoes in a big pot or dutch oven. If you’re cooking for one, or are lazy like me, you can also use instant mashed potatoes here.

Camping Meal: One Skillet Pasta Primavera Recipe

Be sure to add lots of butter, mix in cheese to melt it, and top with bacon bits and green onions. Make it a meal by adding in pre-cooked shredded chicken or canned chicken.

Cook your quinoa, with any dehydrated vegetables since those will take time to rehydrate, along with some oil, then once it’s done and fluffy, add in your diced up summer sausage.

You can as creative or as simple as you want with this. Add in any vegetables you like, and play around with different spices! You could try turmeric and cumin, or garlic and ginger powder, or some cayenne pepper along with chili powder or paprika.

Rv Cooking: 5 Easy One Pot Recipes For Your Next Camping Adventure

You could use pre-cooked chicken, shredded chicken, or whole chicken breasts for this. If you’re starting with raw chicken, cook it through first, then add a bag of frozen caulirice to your pot/pan and top with a can of Chili Verde (or a container of your own homemade Chili Verde.) Add cheese on top to melt before serving.

This is pretty self-explanatory – preheat a frying pan or cast-iron skillet and then add your bratwursts or sausages. Once they’re mostly done, add in thinly sliced onions and peppers and fry to your liking.

This is great if you have a dutch oven, lots of firewood, and lots of time on your hands 🙂 By that, I mean it’s perfect if you’re planning on just sitting around camp all day enjoying some beverages around the fire.

Camping Basics: Making A One Pot Meal

Once you have a solid bed of hot coals to cook on, place your corned beef, spice packet, and plenty of water in the dutch oven and cook for 2-3 hours.

This Pho Ramen recipe looks amazing and is super easy to make. You could even pack in fresh onion and greens to make this on a backpacking trip if you’re going to use them within the first day or so.

This is great for backpackers or for car campers who are looking for the easiest meal possible. Simply cook up your favorite box of mac and cheese, and then mix in a packet or drained can of tuna.

Tasty & Simple One Pot Camping Meals

If you’re looking for a fairly easy meal for a crowd, this is it. Brown ground beef in the bottom of your pot, add in diced onions and sauté. Add in your favorite beans, black beans, kidney beans, shelled edamame, or a mixture of beans.

Add in a small can of diced tomatoes, a few cups of broth or water, and a generous amount of chili powder, plus cumin, turmeric, salt and pepper to taste.

Then throw in your favorite macaroni and cheese packet. Cooking it all together until the pasta is soft and absorbs most of the water.

One Pot Protein Pasta

This is a delicious, relatively healthy camping meal. Start by browning ground pork in the bottom of your pot or a large pan. Then dump in a bag of plain coleslaw mix (not anything with sauce, just shredded cabbage, and carrots) and I also like to add a can of bamboo shoots.

I make this very regularly even at home, but I rarely actually put egg in my eggroll in a bowl! Why? No good reason. Mostly because I’m lazy or have forgotten too many times and now that is just how I make it. But you could totally crack some eggs in with the ground meat and scramble them up before adding the coleslaw mix.

Okay, this is a no-pot dessert, which makes clean up even easier! Have each person hold their banana as if it’s a boat and peel back just the top section of peel, as if you’re ripping off the roof of a boat.

Easy And Healthy Camping Meals

Then stuff the rest of peel/boat with your favorite fixings. Some ideas are: peanut butter, chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, mini marshmallows or fluff, honey, jam, nuts, berries or shredded coconut.

Let us know your favorite one-pot camping meals in the comments below. Also, let us know if you try any of these recipes and how they turn out for you!

After studying Recreation, Park & Tourism Management, Mallory spent several years teaching environmental education, guiding hikes, and leading backcountry trips. Her life-changing trek from Georgia to New York on the Appalachian Trail is what sparked the creation of Your Adventure Coach, to share backpacking tips and resources with as many new hikers as possible.We love cooking outside, but unfortunately, many home recipes don’t lend themselves well to being cooked at a campground. For most car campers, the relatively limited camp kitchen setup (two-burner stove, no oven, no microwave, no electronic appliances) means you need to be a little more creative with the way you cook.

One Pot Chili Mac

One-pot camping meals (or one skillet meals) can be made with just a single piece of camp cookware. Instead of using separate pans, for example, to boil water for pasta, simmer a sauce, and saute vegetables, one pot meals simplify the process and make the camp cooking experience so much easier!

Less Mess: One of the biggest advantages of one pot cooking is having fewer dishes to wash at the end of the meal. At home, this is nice. But when you’re cooking at a campsite, without a dishwasher (or even a sink!), not having to scrub multiple pots and pans at the end of the night means you get to spend less time cleaning and more time hanging out in front of your campfire.

Timing: Every home cook knows how difficult it can be to get each part of a recipe ready at exactly the right time. This problem can be even worse at a campsite where you can’t just pop something in the oven to keep it warm. By cooking a meal in one pot, everything is ready at once.

Tasty One Pot Camping Meals

Scalability: Whether you’re cooking for two or an entire trail crew, one pot meals can be