The Best Campfire Nachos – Easy Camping Recipe
Campfire nachos are a full meal made in one pan right over the fire or hot coals. They’re the ultimate outdoor comfort food and can be customized to please your entire camping crew.
There’s nothing better than melted cheese, expect maybe when it’s melted over the campfire! These easy campfire nachos are packed with meat, beans and melty cheese. It will quickly become a requested meal on your camping menu for future trips.
Camping nachos are now one of my family’s favorite camping recipes. They’re super easy to make and can be customized with toppings to appease everyone.
The hardest part about making campfire nachos is to get everything inside the pan to melt down, without it burning any one spot.
The trick I’ve found to help with this is to add a couple of coals to the top of your nachos. It can actually crisp up the cheese on the top and helps to heat up the top layers faster (to prevent burning the bottom).
How to Cook Nachos over the campfire
Although it may seem that nachos are foolproof to cook while camping, there are a few tricks to get the most even cooking (and melting) of your ingredients.
Camping nachos can be made over the open flame of a campfire or over charcoal/ campfire embers in cast iron pan OR disposable aluminum pan. Follow the tricks below to get the best cook using the cooking method of your choice.
Cast Iron Skillet or Dutch Oven
A large cast iron skillet or dutch oven will give the most even cook on your nachos. The cast iron heats up, hold the heat, and thus acts much more like an oven than aluminum foil.
A cast iron skillet holds two layers of nachos. A dutch oven will obviously hold more (about 5 layers).
With that being said, you can also make nachos over the fire in aluminum foil, and they’re still delicious!
Aluminum Pan with Foil on Top
A 9×9 aluminum foil pan works great for this recipe to make nachos with two layers. Just be sure to elevate the pan off the fire (using a cooking grate) to avoid burning. Also, rotate the pan during cooking to help evenly heat everything up.
Then, wrap 2-3 layers of aluminum foil on top to form a lid. You’ll place a couple of hot coals on top of this to help melt the cheese. Just be sure to move the coals around every couple of minutes so they don’t burn one single spot (like mine did!).
Cook it Over Charcoal Briquets (or Campfire Embers)
Using a cast iron dutch oven (or skillet) and cooking over charcoal is the best way to control the heat source for even cooking. However, you can also use the coals and embers from a fire that has died down.
Place the skillet slightly above (about 1-2 inches) 8-10 hot coals. Cover with a cast iron lid and place about 8 hot coals on top.
If you do not have a cast iron lid, you can use 2-3 layers of aluminum foil and place about 3-4 charcoal embers on top. Move the coals around every couple of minutes to avoid scorching.
Cook it Over the Campfire
When cooking over a campfire, you don’t have as much control over the amount of heat. However, since all we need to do is heat our ingredients through (and melt our delicious cheese), it’s entirely possible to cook these nachos straight over the fire.
Be sure to elevate your cast iron skillet or aluminum pan on a cooking grate, if you set it directly into the fire, you’ll probably have some places pretty well burned.
To help the cheese melt better on the top of the nachos, place some hot embers from the fire on top of your lid.
Cook it Over the Grill
Use charcoal briquets to cook these nachos on the grill. Place about 10 coals in the bottom of the grill, place the nachos on the rack and cover with aluminum foil. If the grill has a lid, close it and the nachos will cook through and melt.
If the grill does not have a lid, place 3-4 pieces of charcoal on top of 2-3 layers of tin foil and move them around every couple of minutes until the top cheese has melted.
My preferred way to make campfire nachos is to use a cast iron dutch oven so I can feed the entire family at once. A cast iron skillet
Ingredients in Camping Nachos
We all know the drill with nachos – they are completely customizable based on the preference of your group! Here are some of my ingredients tips to make these easy to make while camping.
- Ground Beef, Ground Turkey, or Shredded Chicken: (You can easily add taco seasoning to make taco meat as well.) I always bring pre-cooked meat for campfire nachos. It saves SO much prep time and doesn’t affect the final outcome at all. In fact, pre-cooking meats is one my favorite camp cooking hacks – I have them all here: 15 Best Camp Kitchen Hacks.
- Cheese: Monterey Jack is one of the best cheeses for melting, so I always use it when making nachos. Cheddar cheese adds some flavor. I like to blend the two. (Shredding your own cheese will give you a better melt, because it won’t contain the anti-caking agents added to pre-shredded cheese.)
- Beans: Black beans or refried beans are both delicious in this recipe. Use what you have or what your family enjoys.
- Tortilla Chips: Use your favorite corn tortilla chip! Thicker ones hold up a little better without breaking when grabbing from the pan, but any kind of chip does the trick.
- Toppings: I like to add all my other nacho toppings at the end, after cooking, to appease everyone. Plus, it’s so fun to build your own nacho bowl with these favorite toppings:
- avocado
- cilantro*
- tomato
- onion*
- green onions (scallions)*
- red onion*
- jalapeños*
- green chilis*
- black olives
- pico de gallo or other salsa*
- sour cream
- hot sauce*
- Feel free to add the starred ingredients before cooking, as long as everyone in your group likes them! Adding them into every layer tastes even better!
a note from Jenny
Cheese is my favorite food of all time, so you can imagine nachos are very high up on my list of foods I love.
Surprisingly, I didn’t start making these nachos during camping trips until about a year ago. And now, my kids ask for them to be on the menu every time we camp. (They also inherited the “I love cheese” gene from me.)
Looking for other easy camping dinner recipes? I have a few published already, and a ton more coming your way to help make your next camping trip as stress-free as possible!
How to make Campfire Nachos
In this section you’ll find a step by step tutorial of how to make this recipe with photos. The full recipe with exact measurements, steps and a printable card can be found at the bottom of the post.
1. Prep the pan
Be sure to spray the inside of your cast iron skillet or aluminum pan to avoid stuck on cheese.
For easier clean up of your cast iron cookware, line it with parchment paper or aluminum foil and then spray with cooking spray.
2. Layer those nachos!
Place a layer of tortilla chips on the bottom of the pan. Add ground beef/turkey or shredded chicken and beans on top of the chips. Sprinkle cheese on top and then repeat the layering until your pan is filled.
Be sure the top of the nachos are covered in shredded cheese!
Note: You can definitely add some of the topping ingredients before cooking. Onions, salsa, jalapenos and chilis are delicious when heated up within each layer.
As long as everyone in your group like them, go for it! Or, add them to half and keep the other half plain!
3. Cook over the campfire or coals
Follow the directions in the beginning of the post to heat your nachos through, melting that cheese throughout without burning.
The cook time will greatly depend on your cooking method. Dutch oven nachos will take longer to cook (approximately 20 minutes) but nachos in a aluminum pan will cook faster (watch it closely for burning).
I’d recommend checking them during cooking to make sure they don’t get too well done.
4. Add toppings and enjoy!
Once the cheese has melted and you take off that lid, everyone at your campsite will be eager to dig in! (In the video, you can hear my 4-year-old daughter saying, “Yeah, I’ll just have one more nacho.”)
You can add all your toppings right to the pan if everyone agrees, or serve up a hunk of nachos to everyone and let them top their own plates!
The toppings are, by far, my favorite part of nachos. Well, I guess they’re second to the ooey, gooey melted cheese!
Additional Notes about Loaded Campfire Nachos
- If you’re feeding a large family or group, I would highly recommend using a cast iron dutch oven for this recipe, because you can fit so many more layers into it compared to a cast iron skillet. (A cast iron skillet should comfortably feed a family of four.)
- Feel free to add some of the toppings in before cooking. Onions, jalapenos and salsa are delicious when heated within the layers of cheese and chips!
- The recipe ingredients serve six, so you may need a cast iron dutch oven to fit all the layers. Reduce the amount of ingredients if you are making this in a cast iron skillet for four people. You’ll probably need two 9×9 aluminum pans to fit the amounts in the recipe. Adjust the ingredient amounts to serve 4 if you plan to make one 9×9 pan.
Campfire Nachos
Ingredients
- 8 oz. corn tortilla chips
- 16 oz. ground beef, turkey, or shredded chicken, cooked
- 1 cup monterey jack cheese, shredded
- 1 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
- 1 can beans , refried, black or pinto
Topping Ideas
- black olives, sliced
- jalapenos, sliced
- pico de gallo or other salsa
- onions, green onions or red onions
- avocado, sliced
- cilantro
- tomato
- green chilis
- sour cream
- hot sauce
Instructions
- Be sure to spray the inside of your cast iron skillet or aluminum pan to avoid stuck on cheese. For easier clean up of your cast iron cookware, line it with parchment paper or aluminum foil and then spray with cooking spray.
- Place a layer of tortilla chips on the bottom of the pan. Add ground beef/turkey or shredded chicken and beans on top of the chips. Sprinkle cheese on top and then repeat the layering until your pan is filled.
- (Optional: Add any toppings within the layers that everyone loves. Especially good cooked within the nacho layers are jalapenos, salsa, onions, green chilis or hot sauce!)
- Cook over the campfire or charcoal in a cast iron skillet/dutch oven or aluminum pan (following the specific directions for each one described earlier in the post). Add 3-6 pieces of charcoal or campfire ember on top of the pan to crisp up the cheese on top.
- Cook time will vary, but plan for about 15 minutes if cooked in a cast iron dutch oven, 10 minutes in a cast iron skillet, and 10 minutes or less in an aluminum pan.
- Remove from heat and serve, topping with whatever your heart desires!
Notes
Nutrition
I hope this is a recipe that you’ll want to bring on your next camping trip. I promise your whole family will love it!
Well, as long as you keep all the delicious toppings on the side so your boring kids can eat just cheese, chips, beans and meat. Of wait, that’s my kids. There’s no way I could get the four of them to agree on toppings to add!