What better way to spend time together as a family than cooking a comfort food favourite together around an open fire on a warm summers night? Now we are no great experts on this type of cooking, but our son Luke loves to cook, loves to BBQ and has previously done some open fire cooking as a student (don’t all students do this?). We have not spent any money on purchasing specialist equipment, nor do we intend to, but it was a fun way to spend an evening together, produced great food and is something we will definitely look to do again.
Equipment.
Open pit fire/BBQ. We used a cheap, small camping kettle BBQ and used charcoal as a fuel as opposed to wood.
Heavy weight cast iron pan with lid. We used a pro cook cast iron casserole pan that we use at home on the hob and in the oven.
Oven gloves/fire gloves. We would love to have these, but we didn’t! We had two tea towels for manoeuvring the pan, and BBQ tongues to move the coals if needed.
Ingredients for a simple Cajun Jambalaya.
Onion
Bell pepper
Olive oil
Spicy chorizo
Chicken thighs
Long grain rice
Chicken stock
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper
Method.
Light the fire of your choice and give it ample time to burn down to white hot coals. We used a small kettle BBQ and charcoal for our heat.
Chop and finely dice the onions and bell pepper.
Skin and coarsely chop the chorizo.
When the coals are up to heat and the flames have died down, add the pan to the grill top and add olive oil to the pan.
Add the chicken thighs to the pan to sear. Turning occasionally until golden brown.
Remove the chicken from the pan and add the onions and peppers to cook in the pan juices.
Boil a pan of water and make your chicken stock. We used two small stock pots rather than stock cubes…it seemed slightly more realistic!!!
When the onions and peppers have softened, add the chorizo to the pan and allow the sausage to brown and release its rich oils.
Add a teaspoon of paprika and cayenne pepper to the mix in the pan and then add 1 cup of uncooked rice. Mix thoroughly until the rice is fully coated with the oil and spices.
Add the hot stock to the pan and bring to the boil.
Add the chicken thighs to the pan.
Cover and cook for 20ish minutes until the stock has cooked away and the rice is cooked. Stir occasionally to stop the rice sticking, but remember that any crunchy bits are what makes campfire cooking so wonderful.
Serve immediately steaming hot from the pan, with a slice of lemon if you are feeling fancy, a dash of Tabasco if you are feeling spicy, or on it’s own if you forgot to pack all of the above like we did.
Oooo yummy - one to remember on our next jaunt in Ruby. Not oen fire but just one-pot/slow cooker.