Campfire Chicken Dinner

Ingredients

8 chicken drumsticks or thighs
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup orange juice
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
1 large red onion, cut into wedges (8 pieces)
4 potatoes
Vegetables (celery, carrots, parsnip, etc.)
salt and pepper
olive oil
foil


Directions

Make 2 or 3 cuts into each drumstick. Whisk the ketchup, orange juice, vinegar, olive oil, garlic, oregano and pepper together in a large ziploc bag. Add the chicken and mix to coat well. Cover and keep cool, occasionally shaking the bag, for at least 6 and up to 24 hours.

Combine the chicken with chopped vegetables. In this case, we used potatoes, onions, and celery. This is quite flexible, although I think it's very important to have the onions and the celery since they provide a lot of the flavor. Other possible additions include peas, carrots, and other roots vegetables.

Season with salt and pepper.

Close up the tin foil into tight, leak proof packages. You may need to use another layer of tin foil just to be sure.

Place the tin foil packages at the edge of the fire. Do not place them directly in the flame. The goal is not to burn them to a crisp, but to roast them slowly with the heat from the fire. After about 40 minutes, remove the tin foil packages from the fire. Open and check that the chicken is cooked (juices should run clear when you cut into the thigh meat next to the bone).


NOTE: The marinade can be mixed at home so that it's ready to go. Or you could even put the chicken in to marinate before you leave and that way it's ready to go for your first night away.