Potato Hobo Packs are great for camping and just a fun way to cook (with little clean-up!). Cooking in foil combines the freshness of steaming with the intense flavor of grilling, since the high heat caramelizes the food on the bottom of the pack.
With a hobo pack, you can add your favorite herbs or vegetables (fennel, celery, carrots, thyme, rosemary, chives). You could also add stew meat. The recipe is very forgiving. If you’re cooking over a campfire, make sure your bed of embers is nice and hot. You can nestle the foil pouch right among the embers.
You can also cook in an oven. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and bake for 15 minutes longer than indicated below.
Place ingredients in a bowl and toss well to combine.
Stack two sheets of aluminum foil (about 18 inches long) on top of each other. Just one sheet is too flimsy and you don’t want the foil to break.
Grease foil with butter (or cooking spray) so that the food doesn’t stick.
Make a mound of potatoes and onion in the center (about half).
Cut butter into small pieces; sprinkle over potatoes. Sprinkle with sage, paprika, and salt.
Optional: If you add meat, cut into small pieces so they finish with the vegetables. Place on the bottom of the mound because meat takes the longest to cook. You could add green and/or red peppers, too.
Fold foil over potatoes so edges meet. Allow space on sides for circulation and expansion. Seal edges, making tight 1/2-inch fold; fold again. Some campers like to bring the four corners of the foil together and crunch the foil into a funnel shape which makes for a good handle to lift in and out of the fire.
Place packs, seam side up, directly on top of the hot coals. Cook about 40 to 50 minutes, rotating packet 1/2 turn after about 20 minutes, until potatoes are tender. Remove from coals and carefully open. Serve warm. Cut large X across top of packet; fold back foil. Sprinkle with chives.
NOTE: Allow the Hobo Packs to cool a little and be careful of escaping steam!
