Easy and delicious fire pit cooking

UPDATED: February 8, 2023

Time to crank up your fire pits Australia and get cooking!

Want to learn to get the most out of your fire pit cooking time? As the weather starts to cool down at this time of year, there’s always an increased amount of activity in the great outdoors, with a lot of us choosing to spend more time outside. Whether it’s snuggling up around the campfire at night in the backyard with family and friends, enjoying some ice cold beverages, or cooking up a storm for dinner, us Aussies love getting out in the back yard.

With Summer in full swing, now is the perfect time to take advantage of the warmer weather and get your family out in the backyard, around the fire pit and try cooking up some of these amazingly delicious but simple fire pit cooking recipes. Specifically written for families, these simple treats take no time at all to prepare and are easy to cook, especially for young family members.

Fire Pit Potato Bake

One simple recipe that is perfect for a fire pit is foil packet potatoes. To make this recipe, you will need:

• 4 medium-sized potatoes, sliced into thin rounds
• 1 onion, sliced into thin rounds
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder

To make the foil packet potatoes, first preheat your fire pit to medium-high heat. Next, place the sliced potatoes and onion in a large bowl and toss with the olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic powder until they are evenly coated. Divide the mixture evenly among 4 large pieces of foil, and fold the edges of the foil up to create a sealed packet. Place the foil packets on the preheated fire pit and cook for 15-20 minutes, or until the potatoes are tender. Serve the foil packet potatoes hot, garnished with additional salt and pepper if desired.

Easy Fire Pit Damper

Always a family favourite, especially when smothered in loads of quality butter and golden syrup, a good damper that’s well cooked can’t be beat. This recipe couldn’t be simpler, too.

Ingredients

• 2 cups self-raising flour
• 1 Tbsp butter – Salted cooking butter is best, the colder the better
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• Pinch salt
• 1 cup milk – you can also use water too, but milk gives the best texture

Method

In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients and mix well. Rub the butter in with your fingertips until it makes a nice fine crumb. Add the milk and combine until a nice smooth dough is formed.

You can place the dough into a camp oven and cover with hot coals until cooked in the centre, or for a fun ( and way messier ) version for the kids, mould the dough into long sticks and cook over the coals.

Serving

Damper is such a versatile food, and is the perfect carrier for your favourite flavours. Cover with butter and golden syrup or honey for a delicious dessert, or add in some chives and onion for a savoury option thats great with camp dinner as a bread. Yum!

Fire Pit Burgers

Grilled over the open flame and coals, these tasty Aussie-inspired burgers are a hit with both adults and kids and are perfect for fire pit cooking. One thing to note, don’t waste your money on premium lean mince, a good burger needs a decent amount of fat to remain juicy, so regular supermarket mince works perfectly. You can also add any number of different herbs and spices to the mix if you want to spice it up a bit. Use chilli flakes for some heat, or some dried rosemary or marjoram for a delicious herby crust.

Ingredients

• 1 kg Beef Mince
• 1 Small Brown Onion
• 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 Tsp Paprika
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp Cracked Black Pepper
• 1 splash of Soy Sauce

Method

Finely dice the onion and mix all the ingredient together in a bowl. Form the mixture into burger patties of medium thickness. A patty made too thin will overcook easily and tend to dry out over the open fire. It’s best to make these burgers a little thicker than you would if cooking on a gas barbecue or on the stove.

Fire Pit Cooking FAQ

Backyard Snags on a Stick

Not really a recipe as such, but always a winner with the kids. First you need to find some good quality sticks, ones without too much curve and strong enough to hold your sausages without falling into the fire ( always a dark moment in a child’s life. )

I’d also recommend using one of those fancy marshmallow holders that you can get from Bunnings and similar stores.

Ingredients

• 1 kg Quality Beef Sausages
• Sticks

Method

Thread good quality beef ( or pork, or chicken ) sausages onto the stick , carefully making sure that they are evenly skewered right down the centre line of the sausage. This helps them to cook evenly on all sides, and prevents the devastating ‘snag drop’ that has ruined many a night.

You’ll know when they are done when the sausages are golden brown ( hopefully not black ) and are cooked right through.

Fire Pit Chook Burgers

Our new family favourite!
Perfect for all of the family, these spicy chicken burgers are the perfect treat for a hot summer evening around the fire. Made with chicken thighs, these cuts have a but more protective fat and are more suited to fire pit cooking.

Ingredients

• Chicken Thighs
• 2 Tbsp Sriracha
• 1 Tsp Garlic Powder
• 1 Tsp Paprika
• 1 Tsp Salt
• 1 Tsp Cracked Black Pepper
• 2 splashes of Kecap Manus ( thick, sweet soy )

Method

Combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and mix well. Beat the chicken thighs until they are flattened and then add to the marinade for at least an hour to let the flavours infuse into the chicken. The longer you are able to leave it, the better it will taste, so you can even do this the day before and let marinate overnight in the fridge. Spicy!

Grill over the open flame until the chicken thighs are nicely charred and cooked all the way through. Serve on a fresh bun, with some coleslaw and some tangy barbecue sauce. Yum.

Fire-Roasted Vegetable Kebabs

A super-simple recipe, but one that never fails to impress around the campfire. Our tip is to use the longest kebab skewers you can find, to keep hands away from the heat as much as possible. Also, if you can find some solid metal skewers then they wont bend too much when lifting them from the fire.

Ingredients

• Your favourite seasonal veggies like: capsicum, zucchini, potato, sweet potato, onion etc
• Olive Oil
• Salt, Pepper or seasonings

Method

First of all, cut the vegetables into similar sized pieces. This will allow them all to cook evenly and have the correct amount of cook time for each to be nice and tender.

Combine the olive oil and seasonings, salt and pepper in a small bowl. You can use any type of seasoning here to add some zing. We like to use some garlic powder, paprika and even chicken salt!

Coat each piece thoroughly with the oil and seasoning mixture then carefully thread them onto the skewers.

Roast over some hot coals on the fire pit, trying as much as you can to avoid the open flames as the harsh heat can burn the vegetables.

Need a firepit to create these delicious recipes? Why not get your very own custom firepit.