One of my favorite things about camping was the FOOD! Hobo tin-foil dinners are the perfect meal to make up ahead of time to bring camping with you!
You can even make these delicious meals on the grill at home or if you have a fire pit in your backyard you can throw them on there too!
If you ask me they are awesome any time of the year, but nothing beats the smoky taste from the fire.
If you like Tin Foil Dinners, be sure to try our Pineapple BBQ Chicken Foil Dinners and our Steak and Potato Foil Pack Dinners!
If you are a fan of foil dinner packs like me, you won’t want to miss out on our other amazing recipes before you head out camping with your family. Take a look at our 30 delicious tin foil dinners recipes, 25 delicious camping recipes, pineapple bbq chicken foil pack dinners, and of course our super popular steak and potato foil pack dinners recipe.
What you need to make the best hobo tin foil dinners for camping!
Hamburger tin foil dinner ingredients:
- Ground beef
- Potatoes (we like redskin or Yukon gold)
- Carrots, thinly sliced
- Onion, diced
- Salt
- Pepper
- Worcestershire sauce
- BBQ sauce (THIS kind has become a family favorite)
- Shredded cheddar cheese
What you will need to make ahead tin foil packet dinners for camping:
- Tin-foil/aluminum foil (heavy-duty if possible THIS kind works wonderfully)
- Nonstick cooking spray
- Grill/Bonfire
If you want to make these hobo dinner packs as close to the camping version as possible without actually camping (I know it can be a lot of work), you can always try to build a fire in your backyard. But, if you are looking to do that, make sure to look at this article on how to make a bonfire in your backyard ahead of time. Howstuffworks.com has a lot of good information and things you might not have thought about! Always be safe while using fire.
Related Recipe: Try our Slow Cooker Ground Beef Hobo Dinner Recipe
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If you are ready to get these hobo tin foil dinner packs made up, read below, and let’s get started!
To start making these foil packs get a large square piece of aluminum foil for each tin foil dinner (this recipe is for 4 dinners).
PRO TIP: Try to use heavy-duty foil as this will hold up best in the cooking process.
Then, spray the inside of the foil with nonstick cooking spray.
Next, separate the ground beef into 4 equal-sized patties and place them in the center of each piece of greased foil.
Now, peel and dice the potatoes, clean and slice the carrots, and dice the onion. Once that is done, divide it all evenly amongst the 4 dinners, placing the potatoes, carrots, and onion on top of the meat.
Next, sprinkle a little salt and pepper on top, along with a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce on top of each of the foil dinners.
Once that is done, fold all of the edges of the foil tightly around the entire meal for each of the foil packs.
After that is all done, place the dinner packs on the grill that is preheated to medium-high heat or over an open fire for about 25-30 minutes or until the meat and veggies are cooked all the way through.
Once they are done cooking, carefully open the foil (there will be hot steam that comes out) and top each one with BBQ sauce and shredded cheese. Then move them to a plate and enjoy!
You can bake these in the oven if you choose at 350 degrees for about an hour or until the meat and veggies are fully cooked through.
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Easy Hobo Tin Foil Dinner Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 pound steak, or ground beef
- 4 potatoes, peeled and cubed
- 2 cups carrots, thinly sliced
- 1 onion, diced
- salt and pepper, to taste
- Worcestershire sauce, to taste
- ½ cup barbecue sauce
- ½ cup shredded cheddar cheese
Equipment
Instructions
- Use a large square piece of aluminum foil for each tin foil dinner. Spray foil with nonstick cooking spray.
- Separate ground beef into 4 equal patties, or steak into 4 servings, and place in the center of each piece of foil.
- Divide potatoes, carrots, and onion evenly between all 4 dinners and place on top of meat. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, to taste. Pour a few dashes of Worcestershire sauce on top of each dinner and fold foil up tightly around the entire meal.
- Cook on a grill on medium-high heat or an open fire for 25-30 minutes, or until vegetables and meat are cooked through.
- Open foil carefully and top with BBQ sauce and shredded cheese.
Notes
- Use heavy duty tin foil for best results
Nutrition
Did You Make This Recipe?We’d love to hear your thoughts! Leave a review or a question in the comment section below the post.Be sure to not miss another recipe!
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A great tip that will help immensely is once you have wrapped it in your tinfoil, get a sheet of newspaper and soak it in water. Wrap the wet newspaper around the tinfoil dinner and then do another layer of tinfoil. This steams your food inside and prevents them from getting your food burned on the edges! You do have to cook about 10 minutes longer but it’s worth it!!!
We made these at Girl Scout Camp. Best meal I ever had after hiking up the Guadelupe River.
Growing up this is one of our favorites. And I also make these Hobo Dinners for my kids. I add cabbage. Gives a nice flavor.
Can this translate to an oven well, or does it need to be grill/campfirey?
Hi Tiffany, we have only cooked the hobo dinners over the fire. I’m sure you could do an oven version. Just not sure what the cooking time and temp would be. The main thing would be sure the hamburger is cooked through and your veggies are tender.
oven = 1 hour 350 degrees been making them since i was a wee lad in cub scouts all the way up to now so i have made them a few different ways. just make sure the meat is cooked through
Growing up my mom made these exclusively in the oven. Love them! Sometimes she would add cream of mushroom on top before sealing them. I believe it was 350 for about 1 hour.
My mom made these at home quite often, just using the oven. ~350 degrees for about an hour is just about perfect. I’ve continued but switch up the veggies from time to time. Cauliflower and broccoli do great as well! =)
I have lots of tots and the way we camp is a pop trailer bought used. Makes the outdoors a bit better than tent camping which is for the Boys Scouts in my opinion. Most state parks have full connections in nice places not from the interstate. Cook meals ahead to save time, set up near the bathrooms and go for only 2 nights. Good luck.
I do these in the oven at 350 for an hour on a cookie sheet. We love them. Can also do chicken breasts with Italian dressing. Have added cheese to both types.
That is a good idea, if I understood correctly. Cook them at home in the oven ahead of time and then take them to warm up over the grill or campfire?
We did not cook them in the oven ahead of time, just over the grill or campfire. The kids love this!!
Some 55 years ago where I lived, these were called Boy Scout Dinners. My brother’s troop used to make them over the camp fire. My Mom decided we could make these & place them on the stove burner (which was gas) & cook on a low flame for 30 minutes. They came out great & we loved them so much we could hardley wait to eat them.
This is great recipe. I also add squash. Summer, Zucchini abd whatever yiu like. DELECIOUS
We made these when I was a kid — just like the recipe–in the fall when we burned leaves. They were part of a “mom’s recipe book” my kids all got when they left home
Where do you find Tin foil?
All I can find is aluminum!
Tin Foil is the same as aluminum foil.
Might try this recipe this weekend, going camping in the Everglades.
I’m thinking of preparing a bunch of these (for 10 adults and 11 kids) for a big family campout coming up. I was thinking about preparing them before hand and freezing them and then cooking them over a campfire once we get there. Would that work? How much longer do you think they would cook for?
Where do you find tin foil? Really!!! People use the label “tin” because it’s easier to spell than aluminum, simple as that, it’s one of the same.
See my reply under L.D.
My family has made this using the oven for years. 350 degrees for 1 hour.
We add green beans.
You can cook it in the oven at 400 degrees for 45 minutes. It won’t be brown, to brown it, open it the last 10 minutes.
We called it Tin Foil in the old’en days.
We make these with cooked chicken and canned vegetables (potatoes, corm, green beans). Really just reheating – no worries about making sure the food is completely cooked. We have done it on the grill as well as in the oven. They sell non-stick aluminum foil. Works great!!
We make them with chicken breasts and pork chops as well. With the pork chops, I usually use sweet potatoes and onion slices. We did this on a church camping trip with 29 people. We cut up all kinds of veggies, had hamburger and chicken, and a couple of different sauces such as Worcestershire and teryaki and hot sauce, and let everyone assemble their own. They put their name on the outside of the foil packs with Sharpies so that they could be identified after cooking
My brother and I have done fish with onion, lemon. potatoes and any fruit we would have around, i.e. green beans, carrots or whatever. Sometimes, we do just potatoes with olive oil and whatever spices we would have on hand.
I don’t know if anyone has brought it to your attention previously… but while review the ingredients of the recipe I though it was wanting 11 pound ground beef…. My that was WOW, and this is for how many servings?… so I decided to read through further (which I usually do anyway) and found that it was suppose to be for 4 servings… next thought, wow that is 2.75 pounds of meat per serving… IT has to be a typo, right??
Hence the reason I decide to send a comment, because if it caused me to question amount at first how many others may it have done the same with… especially if he/she is a novice cook?
I did something similar to this a few nights ago… I wanted pot roast (homemade) but for just one person
but I also wanted to use what was left of a pound of ground beef so my thought was hum… if I wrap everything in foil and baked in oven would it work?.. Low and behold it was Fabulous… kind of a cross between a mini meatloaf and pot roast diner for 1 person… I seasoned my a little differently but if someone want the recipe just send me the request via email and I would be happy to make the substitution if it okay with this websites staff… pleases have them contact me…
Hi Teresa. So glad you liked it and your recipe changes sound amazing. Thanks for bringing the typo to our attention. It has been fixed.
I remember cooking something similar during Girl Scout camp 60+ years ago, except we layered the items in a rinsed out coffee can over embers. Delightful memories!
One of the things that has always irritated me a little is how do you check for doneness inside a sealed package? I have no intuition or knowledge of cooking. I simply follow a recipe sometimes it turns out OK and other times not what I imagined (I is still eaten though :-).
I hate these – until things. just tell me how long :-), I am a simple fella on his own. Not helpless, well I wish I was wealthy enough to be able to emply a cook but I think that is a universal wish.
The idea about preparing the meals and cooking them in advance, then freezing them is excellent. They’ll thaw while you’re traveling to your campsite and nobody will notice that all you’re doing is warming them over the open fire or a grill. My wife and I did this when we were campers and it works really well. These days, we consider roughing it to be a motel without a restaurant. 🙂
I love all of the ideas that have been presented. This shows how versatile this tin foil cooking is!
Frozen potatoes / has browns and frozen carrots are a great substitute for fresh. This way you can be sure the veggies are cooked when the meat is done. I like to use onion soup mix in my ground beef to bump up the flavor.
i like the idea but that’s not ground beef those are beef cubes
I am curious about your meat? What cut is that and does it change the cooking time at all?
You can use steak or hamburger. Just slice your steak thin or make your hamburger patty thin.
You can use hamburger or beef
Could I cook these in the oven if I use parchment I stead of foil? I try to not cook in foil of any kind, if at all possible.
You can typically use parchment in place of tinfoil. In this recipe, because it’s cooked on the grill, I’d be careful using parchment paper. If you prefer you can use it as a lining between the food and the foil
Thanks Bobbi!! I plan on using the oven, so the parchment won’t be a problem there. I never would have thought about using parchment between the foul and the food. This is such a smart solution for grilling. I’m excited now!