Chicken in foil over an open fire – a whole dinner at the edge of the embers

The three Ts

• Thin potatoes. It's the potatoes that set the time, not the chicken. Slice the raw potatoes thinly, about three millimetres, or parboil them at home. That way they have time to soften in the same time it takes the chicken to cook through.
• Top spot for the chicken. The potatoes lie as a bed on the bottom, the chicken on top and the soft vegetables all around. The bed protects the chicken from the fiercest heat, and the chicken juices run down into the potatoes.
• Thermometer decides. Chicken must always be cooked through, and 70 degrees in the thickest piece is a good measure. The clock tells you when to open the first parcel, the thermometer tells you when to eat.

Why thigh fillets

Thigh fillets cope with the embers better than breast fillets. They have more fat and connective tissue, so they stay juicy even if they get a few minutes too long, and they're roughly the same thickness all over. Breast fillets work too, but they dry out quickly and are thick at one end and thin at the other. If you want to use breast fillets, cut them lengthways so they're no more than two centimetres thick, and start measuring a few minutes earlier.

At home and by the fire

At home

• Prepare the vegetables first, before the chicken comes out, so they don't end up on the same board as the raw meat. Peel the potatoes if the skin is thick and slice them thinly, about three millimetres. Slice the carrot just as thinly. Cut the pepper into wide strips, the onion into wedges and the garlic into slices.
• Parboiled potatoes instead? Boil them in pieces of about one and a half centimetres for 6–8 minutes, so they're half soft. Drain and cool them quickly in cold water and then in the fridge. Parboiled potatoes that are left to cool slowly and sit lukewarm can form a toxin that doesn't go away when they're reheated, so they must be transported cold.
• Mix the spices with the oil in a bowl. Toss the potatoes, carrot and other vegetables in half of the oil.
• The chicken last. Cut each thigh fillet into two or three pieces and toss them in the rest of the spiced oil. Don't rinse the chicken, because the splashes spread campylobacter. Wash your hands with soap and water straight afterwards.
• Pack the parcels as described under Method below and write a name on each one.
• Put the parcels in a sealed box with a lid, and the box at the very bottom of the cool box with the ice packs around it. Parcels can leak, and then the chicken juices should stay in the box and not end up on the bread or the fruit.
• Wash the board, knife and bowl before anything else is done in the kitchen.

By the fire

Light the fire as soon as you arrive. It takes about 45 minutes before the bed of embers is even, and then another half hour before you eat. How to get an even bed of embers is explained in lighting a fire. The cool box stays in the shade, and the box of chicken parcels stays in it until the parcels go into the embers. Chilled food should be out for no more than two hours in summer heat, and never in the sun. How long the cool box keeps things cold and how to wash your hands without a tap is explained in hygiene and washing up outdoors.

The beauty of this setup is that nobody has to handle raw chicken at the fire. Everything raw is already wrapped.

In a tray on a grill instead

If you'd rather cook everything in one go, put the potatoes in the bottom of a disposable tray, the chicken on top and the vegetables all around, just as in the parcels. Cover the tray with a lid of double foil and fold the edges down firmly around the rim. Set it on a grill about a hand's width above an even bed of embers. The tray can't be turned over, so rotate it half a turn after 20 minutes, so that no side stands over the hottest embers the whole time. Allow 40–55 minutes and measure in the same way. Lift the lid away from you, because the steam gathers underneath it. How to get a hot side and a cool side on the grill is explained in grills and fish baskets.

Timings and when it's done

The timings apply to parcels at the edge of an even bed of embers, turned once. Cold chicken straight from the cool box, wind and cool embers all slow things down.

• Individual parcels with thinly sliced raw potatoes: 25–35 minutes.
• Individual parcels with parboiled potatoes: 25–30 minutes. Here it's the chicken that decides, and the potatoes should be piping hot all the way through.
• Tray with a foil lid on a grill: 40–55 minutes.
• Breast fillet instead of thigh fillet: start measuring after 20 minutes.

This means the parcel is done:

• 70 degrees in the thickest piece of chicken.
• Clear juices when you cut into the piece, and the meat is white all the way through with no glossy, pink patches.
• The potatoes give no resistance when you push a knife through them.
• The pepper and onion have collapsed and are soft.

Acidic food and foil

Livsmedelsverket (the Swedish Food Agency) advises avoiding cooking and storing acidic food in contact with aluminium foil, because the foil can break down and aluminium can leach into the food. Children can be sensitive to large intakes, so there's no reason to put lemon or tomato directly against the foil in their parcels.

• Squeeze the lemon over on the plate instead of in the parcel.
• Tomato, tomato sauce, ajvar and marinades with citrus or vinegar need a protective layer. Put the food on a sheet of baking paper, fold the edges up around it and wrap the whole thing in foil.
• The chicken, potatoes, carrot, pepper and onion in the basic recipe aren't acidic and are fine directly against the foil.

Leftovers with tomato or lemon go in a jar with a lid, not in foil. Why, and what happens when foil meets another metal, is explained in the foil parcel guide.

The children's role

Chicken in foil suits children well, because most of the work is done with cold food at home and everyone gets their own parcel. The ages are a rough guide. Go by what your child is used to.

• The youngest choose vegetables, put pepper and onion around the chicken and draw on their parcel with the pen. Let an adult put in the chicken pieces, or let the child do it and wash their hands with soap straight afterwards.
• Slightly bigger children, often from six or seven, can cut pepper and onion on a chopping board and fold their own parcel. An adult presses the folds down one extra time.
• The thermometer reader. An adult pushes in the thermometer, the child reads it and calls out when it says 70.
• The clock. One child keeps track of when the parcels should be turned and when the test parcel should be opened.
• The embers and the opening are jobs for the adults. An older child with experience can turn the parcels with long tongs, wearing gloves and with an adult alongside.

More jobs to suit different ages can be found in cooking with children over a fire.

Leftovers

Eat the parcels while they're hot. Anything left over goes into a clean tub and back in the cool box as soon as it has cooled a little, within two hours at the latest. The next day, the chicken and potatoes are good in a tunnbröd or warmed up in a frying pan.

Allergens

The chicken, potatoes and vegetables contain none of the common allergens. The butter, soured cream and yoghurt contain milk protein, and the bread contains gluten. Read the ingredients list on ready-made spice mixes, which can contain celery or mustard.