Campfire Meat Pies (easy weeknight supper!) with Brady
I had my first meat pie during my brief stint in the SCA, a group of very fun people who completely re-enact medieval times (I loved sewing my own garb!). People would make them ahead of time, wrap in foil and refrigerate, and then we’d heat them by the fire whenever someone got hungry. They were awfully handy and awfully good.
So when Brady goes on camping trips this is the first recipe I go to for convenient food to take with him. The options are endless and I hope you’ll use this one as a springboard and get creative to suit your personal tastes. I’d LOVE to hear about your combination ideas in the comments section! These also make a fun supper for those rushed evenings when you have to head out the door as soon as everyone gets home. They’d work for family movie night or just a lazy evening meal as well.
Ready to get cooking? This is another great recipe to make with your kids or just let your kids make all on their own. Brady is going to help me with this one. He’s quite the cook!
Today I’m using deli roast beef, deli chicken, mozzarella cheese, and cheddar cheese. You’ll need some crescent roll dough to seal it all up in and as you can see I grab whatever I get to first.
I’m also using Ro-Tel in mine. I really love the flavor of chicken, cheddar, and a bit of Rotel. This is where I’d like for you to come in in the comments section and give us all some more ideas for fillings in these pies. Here are a few of mine:
- Chicken and BBQ Sauce
- Leftover pulled pork and BBQ Sauce
- Ground beef, mozzarella, and a bit of spaghetti sauce
- Sloppy Joe Meat Pies
- Deli roast beef, peppers and onions, and mozzarella
- Chicken nugget (a single frozen one) and cheese
What else can you think up? Lets brainstorm together in the comments!
I pull out a few slices of deli meat and give them a good dicing up .
Like this
Now open your crescent rolls and separate them all out like this.
This is best if your dough is really cold. If you let it sit at room temperature it gets very sticky and stretchy and harder to work with.
Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray
Place a bit of meat in the center of each crescent roll as my chief assistant is doing here.
Sprinkle a bit of cheese over the top.
Look at that little face? He’s gotten so tall this year. Yesterday he was in the kitchen with me (we kinda live there) and said
“Ma, I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by, can you believe I’m almost in fifth grade?”
I told him “I know Baby, and the thing is, the older you get the faster it goes.”
He thought about this a moment in his very serious way and nodded saying “Yeah, I’m gonna be all grown before you know it.”
~sighs~
If you are going to use Ro-Tel, make sure you drain it well and then add that, too.
Ooh, chopped green chiles would be good in this!
Here is that a little closer up…
Meat and cheese
Then fold the edges over however you can to get it all sealed up.
These are Brady’s, didn’t he do a great job?
mine usually end up looking like little round packets.
Bake them at 350 for ten to fifteen minutes (mine take about thirteen), until browned.
Allow to cool completely. Im’ using a cooling rack but you don’t have to.
If you’re having these for supper, you can just eat them right now!
Once completely cool wrap each one in foil and write the filling on the package so folks know which one they’re about to eat.
To be honest with ya (I really hate that phrase but I’ll get to why in a minute*) I have no idea what is in this packet because I made them all at once and didn’t keep up. I just wrote “beef” on it as a little visual example. Whoever bites into this one has a 50/50 chance of getting beef and I figure those odds are better than most! So you might want to cook them separately, make all of one variety first and then move on so you know what is what.
*I really dislike that phrase because anytime someone says “To be honest with you” they are basically saying “up until this point I haven’t been…”
So now I gotta go repent for saying it myself.
Place in a zipper seal bag and put in the fridge. Before heading out, place this bag in an ice filled cooler. At the campfire, simply place at fire’s edge or over hot coals until heated through.
If you are having these at home, just eat ’em! You can refrigerate them and reheat in the microwave as well, don’t fret with the foil, I toss them all in a zipper bag unwrapped for the fridge.
Aren’t they pretty?
These chicken, cheese, and Ro-Tel ones are my favorite.
Campfire Meat Pies
- Canned Crescent Rolls
- Deli Meat
- Cheese
- Sauce and other add ins of your choice*
For each little pie you’ll need about 1 heaping tablespoon of chopped meat, 1 tablespoon of shredded cheese, and 1 teaspoon to 1/2 tablespoon of sauce or other add ins. Make sure you leave plenty of room at the edge to seal packet.
Roll out chilled crescent roll dough and separate into triangles. Place meat, cheese, and other add ins in center of each triangle and fold dough over to seal. Bake on greased cookie sheets at 350 for ten to fifteen minutes, or until lightly browned. Serve warm if you like or allow to cool and wrap each individually in foil. Refrigerate foil wrapped sandwiches and place in zipper seal bag in cooler for transport to campfire. Heat at fire’s edge or on coals until heated through.
With a lot of folks planning camping trips this summer, I’d REALLY love to hear your ideas for add ins in these little sandwiches in the comments section on this post!
Nobody cares if you can’t dance well.
Just get up and dance!
Submitted by Ruth Lail. Brighten our day and submit your funny or uplifting quote here!
Cooked ground sausage and cream cheese sounds great.
I make a great ”stuffed roll” filling with shredded chicken, frozen spinach, cream of mushroom soup and mozzie cheese. All you do is put chicken and thawed ( and squeezed) spinach in a bowl, then add enough cream of chicken soup to make it stick together. Then add as much cheese as you like, then use it to fill crescent rolls much like in your recipe. Bake and enjoy! I have even dribbled jarred chicken gravy mixed with the extra cream of mushroom soup over them.
These would be great to make ahead of time and freeze for my kids during the summer months. I had been wondering what they were gonna do for food during the day while I’m at work. Their Dad is no cook….LOL. They can pop these in the microwave & have something good to eat.
Do you guys have any other suggestions for fast, healthy foods that can be heated up.
This seems like a good, quick way to make runzas. I have only had runzas in Nebraska, but, oh, my, were they great! Drained sauerkraut, browned/drained ground beef with onions (garlic ,too if you want), plenty of pepper and whatever cheese that you please. Make the pies with about 1/2 cup of this mixture in the center of dough,seal and bake according to directions and you will have pure YUM! I like mine with plain ole yellow mustard.
When we were moving from Va.Beach to Phoenix I used frozen bread dough to make a different kinds of these for us to eat. One of our favorites was the pizza ones, I just used pizza toppings.
Maybe a little chopped up chicken, a spoon of mixed veggies, and a dollop of cream of chicken soup, salt and pepper to taste, little mini pot pies.
Just thought I’d mention that I prefer to use chopped tomatoes with green chilies (usually any store brand) because it has the flavor of Ro-Tel without the watery runniness. Also, the chopped tomatoes w chilies come in a larger can and cost less. Jes sayin’………