Frying is a pain, no matter where you’re doing it. It uses a ton of oil (that you have to figure out how to dispose of), makes the house smell like a fast food restaurant, and encourages owning big uni-purpose machines to avoid too much hassle. We’ve learned that baking fryable foods provides almost the same level of satisfaction, and wanted to show you how to do it at camp.
You can make fries out of most veggies, and they are all delicious. I love zucchini fries and mushroom fries and regular ol’ potato fries, but I really love green bean fries a lot. The most difficult part of making a breaded recipe while camping is the egg dredge. We’ve avoided that here by using chia seeds instead. They can be mixed with water to create an egg-like texture that will hold the breading onto the veggies quite effectively, and there’s no perishability or transport factor to consider.
The breading on green beans generally doesn’t appear to do well holding onto the beans (due to their tough skin), but when baked, the whole thing has the crisp coated texture that you’re looking for.
Dutch Oven Green Bean Fries
Yield
4 servingsPrep Time / Cook Time
/Activity Guide
Car CampingIngredients
- 1 pound green beans
- 1 tablespoon chia seeds
- 4 tablespoons water
- 2 cups panko bread crumbs
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon pepper
Tools
- Campfire
- Dutch oven
- Fork
- Tongs
- 2 shallow bowls
Method
- Build your cooking campfire, getting a good bed of glowing coals ready for your dutch oven. Preheat dutch oven in the fire.
- Stir together chia seeds and water in one shallow bowl. Let stand for about 10 minutes, until thickened.
- Add bread crumbs, salt and pepper to another shallow bowl.
- Dredge green beans in chia mixture, then bread crumbs, and then place on a baking sheet or plate, in one layer. Drizzle with olive oil.
- Place as many green beans in preheated dutch oven as will fit in one layer. Cover with the lid, and place coals on lid (see this temperature chart to get a 400 degree oven).
- Bake until bread crumbs turn golden brown, about 15 minutes, stirring with tongs once or twice during the process.
- Serve with ranch dressing or garlic aioli (garlic, mayo, lemon juice, salt and pepper).
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