Underground pit cooking

While camping last week, I did an underground pit meal of chicken, hoppin john, tatoes, corn and cornbread. It turned out really tasty. :)
This is a smaller version of how I cook whole hogs underground.....it's handy while camping if you do not want to tend a fire.


Getting the hoppin john ready....frying the bacon, then the onions, garlic and peppers...

Adding the bacon/onion/garlic/pepper mix to a mixture of

beans, rice, smoked ham hock, red pepper flakes, bay leaves and spices.....and chicken broth.

Seasoning and wrapping the tatoes and chicken....




The jalapeno corn bread.....


Digging the hole.......


Burning the wood....


After burning the wood to get the bed of hot coals, I built up the ends of the pit with dirt to hold my oven rack...

I always take 2 old oven racks camping with me. They are handy to use on an open fire.

The prepared/seasoned and wrapped food sit on the oven rack....

I placed the pan of cornbread on the pot of hoppin john.


A second oven rack covered with foil for the cover........

I carefully covered the edges of the rack with dirt by hand and packed it down a bit to keep any air from getting in and any heat/smoke from getting out.

Then covered the rest of the rack/lid with dirt....


While kicked back enjoying a cold beverage, watching a pile of dirt, lol........

a tree fell over onto the pit.

The pit was fine......I had to get help to remove the tree though.



4 hours later........

Carefully removing the top dirt by hand.......

Everything turned great!

The chicken was soooo moist and tender...
The hoppin john turned out perfect.

The tatoes were tender....
The corn was juicy...
The cornbread looked iffy....but tasted great...

I didn't really hang around staring at the pile of dirt for the full 4 hours....lol It's a great way to cook while camping when you do not want to spend time tending the fire or you have other fun things to do. :)