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Sky’s Favorite Camping Recipes: Spitfire-Roasted Chicken with Grilled Veggies

Spitfire-Roasted Chicken with Veggies

For the past few weeks, I’ve been sharing a variety of great healthy camping recipes, but today, I want to share with all of you one of my favorite camping recipes: Spitfire-Roasted Chicken with Grilled Veggies.

On camping trips, we like to do a lot our cooking over the fire pit with a spit, and you’ll soon learn why if you try out this recipe. Cooking your meat over the fire creates a very different flavor from simply roasting it in the oven. The fire gives the chicken a smoky flavor that is simply to die for.

While this recipe calls for chicken, keep in mind that you can also do rotisserie cooking with spare ribs, a rack of lamb, or prime rib as well.

Ingredients

  • 1–3 whole chickens (depending on size of your family/group)
  • olive oil
  • salt and pepper
  • 2–10 cloves of garlic (depending on how many chickens), sliced and cut lengthwise (slivered)
  • sage
  • veggies (choose your favorites!)

Directions

  1. Prep the chicken. Using a knife, create an opening in the skin of your chicken and slide slivers of garlic underneath at 2- to 3-inch intervals. Then oil the chicken evenly and douse with salt, pepper, and sage.
  2. Set up your spit. To create hot coals, start a fire and then let it die down until the flames are no more than 6 inches from the wood. Then center the spit over the fire (you’ll want to do this without the chicken to get the correct placement).
  3. Turn spit outward and put chicken on the rod. This step can be tricky because you want a good tight fit so the spit turns the chicken with it. If your spit comes with prongs, use those to hold the chicken in place.
  4. Cook the chicken. Turn the spit so the chicken dangles over the fire. Depending on how hot the fire is, you may need to adjust the spit’s height to prevent the chicken from burning. Keep stoking the fire and adding wood, if needed, to keep the flames low. The chicken should gently sizzle and become golden over time. It should cook for one hour.
  5. Cook the veggies. This step won’t take long, so you can wait to cook your favorite vegetables until you’re near the end of the hour. Prep the veggies first with spices and olive oil (I like grilled asparagus marinated in a blend of olive oil, garlic salt, and pepper). Then you can either grill or steam your veggies for 10 minutes.
  6. Check the temperature. After cooking your chicken for an hour, use a meat thermometer to make sure the meat is done; it should be at least 165 degrees. Then cut up the chicken, serve, and enjoy!