Ham and Cheese Hash Browns Foil Packets

Hot breakfasts while camping are wonderful – these make ahead foil packets with hash browns, ham, and cheese are fantastic!

We love a hot breakfast after sleeping outdoors. And we have quite a few favorite pie iron breakfasts in our repertoire. But sometimes we don’t want to fuss with cleaning them every single meal. So if we have properly planned ahead we can grab some foil wrapped premade breakfasts such as these ham and cheese hash browns from the freezer and have a hot breakfast with less effort at the campsite!

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Who doesn’t love food cooked over a campfire? Actually, we know a lot of people who don’t and we just have to feel sorry for them. Because we love to cook over a campfire, especially in foil packets. These are easy to use, easy to customize, and easy to cleanup. Since there are hundreds of recipes out there for things to cook inside a foil pack, you are sure to find something that will be extremely delicious when cooked over the campfire.

What we love about Ham and Cheese Hash Browns Foil Packets:

• Great use of leftover ham
• We love potatoes at breakfast
• Yum, cheese…

The Ingredients for Ham and Cheese Hash Browns:

• Olive Oil (the basis of so many tasty meals)
• Salt & Pepper (as you wish)
• Ham (chopped, diced, shredded)
• Cheese (we recommend shredded)
• Frozen hash browns (shredded or chunks!)
• Hot sauce and/or Salsa (optional but we like to spice things up)

The Process Part One:

1. Combine your ham, cheese, olive oil, and hash browns in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
2. Place 1/6 of your mixture in the center of the packet.
3. Fold the long sides together and form a seam. Then roll the short sides up to form additional seams.
4. Refrigerate up to three days or freeze until time to go camping.

The Process Part Two:

1. Start your campfire or heat up your grill so that your heat source is ready. If using wood or charcoal, let the flames die out prior to cooking your food.
2. Place your foil packets over heat for 25 minutes, flipping about half way through, or until the cheese has melted and the hash browns are cooked through.
3. Carefully pull the packets off and let them cool for a minute or two.
4. Either open up the seams and crush the foil into a bowl shape or empty the food into another bowl or plate for eating.
5. If you like it spicy, drizzle some hot sauce or salsa over your cooked packet for added enjoyment.

FAQ and How to Customize:

Q: My child won’t eat ham. What other meats do you suggest?

A: We would suggest any already cooked meat in small bite size pieces. I think some leftover steak sounds good personally. Chicken might be a bit too bland for me unless we have cooked it with some spices earlier. I might even try some sausage personally. However, it is really up to your own preference. Anything could work.

Q: Why not add egg to the foil packet?

A: We tried this, and it was very tasty. But it was so very messy! The egg leaked all over the inside of the packet. Luckily, we are fairly experienced at sealing our packets, so liquid doesn’t leak out of them. See below for our suggestions on how to best make it work.

Q: Have you added vegetables to this one?

A: Why yes! We are always up for some diced peppers and onions in a savory breakfast dish. If those veggies aren’t your favorite, try something else. We won’t yuck your yum no matter how unusual it sounds to us. We might even try it!

Suggested Side Dish: Eggs

If you want to include eggs with your breakfast, there are multiple ways to do so. We have tried including them in the foil packets. This is tasty, but very messy. Which means we typically cook them in our skillet over our camp stove, either scrambled or fried.

If you do want to mix your eggs into the foil packets, we recommend doing this at home with a zip top bag. We place all our ingredients in the bag, close it tightly, and smoosh everything around. Then we make our foil packets and freeze immediately. This makes it not quite as messy as when you try to cook them immediately.

General Tips for Cooking in Foil:

• You will definitely want to use heavy duty foil. It only takes one time of losing your food into the fire from cheap aluminum foil to realize it is worth the cost to purchase quality aluminum foil.
• Not everyone feels the need to line their foil with parchment paper, but we prefer to do so. We can’t cook over the fire with paper alone, but we also don’t like to eat food cooked directly in foil. Doing this allows us to use the foil more than once or as a bowl for eating making for fewer dishes to wash.
• Be careful when it comes to opening your foil packet. Steam builds up inside of them, which is good because that is how your food cooks, but you can injure yourself upon opening if you are not careful.

Equipment Needed:

• Aluminum Foil: We use heavy duty aluminum foil for all of our foil packet recipes. It only takes one time for your foil to fall apart during the process of cooking to realize the importance of quality foil.
• Parchment Paper: Some people don’t like to cook over high heat with aluminum. Parchment paper is the way to go here. Line the inside of the foil with the paper and everything cooks the same, just without touching the foil. Bonus-the foil stays clean and can be recycled.      
• Heat resistant gloves: If you are going to be working around a fire, at some point you will probably get burned. These gloves can help prevent that.

More Hot Breakfast Recipes to Enjoy:

• Biscuits and Gravy in a Pie Iron
• Dutch Oven Dutch Baby
• Sausage and Potato Breakfast Burritos

Ham and Cheese Hash Browns are a great hot breakfast while camping!

While we love crispy hash browns, these make ahead foil packets are so delicious with the ham and cheese that we find we don’t miss the crunch at all while camping. Tell us what you think. And tag us on Instagram @campinganswer and give us suggestions for other tasty breakfasts to try.