Camp Food #1 - Chipotle Chicken Skewers

We camped a while ago at Limekiln State Park in Big Sur, CA and it was truly beautiful. It is a magical campground with redwoods on side and a beach on the other. We had a site next to a burbling brook and under the redwoods.

As always with me, food is a big part of any activity and camping gives me an opportunity to cook on fire. Plus everything tastes good around a campfire.
On camping trips, I usually marinate some kind of meat the previous night and seal in double ziploc bags. The meat is perfectly safe stored in a cooler with plenty of ice. This recipe is particularly easy, and the meat being boneless, cooks quickly on the fire.

One thing I have learnt over several camping trips is that the quality of the cooked product really depends on the coals/fire. Use a lot of coals and wait till they get really hot and completely ashy. This takes a good 25-30 minutes. Also, make sure your grill is fairly close to the coals. On this trip, the fire pit was really deep, so we made a bed of rocks in the fire pit and put the coals on top of them to bring them closer to the grill.

Chipotle chiles are basically smoked jalapenos. They are easily available in the US (dont know about India) in canned form, soaking in adobo sauce, which is made up of tomato paste, garlic, cumin and vinegar. The end result is a deep smoky heat that I love.

Ingredients

boneless skinless chicken thighs
chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
ground cumin
garlic
yogurt

cherry tomatoes
onions
green peppers
lemon

Method

Make a marinade by grinding half a can of chipotle peppers with two cloves of garlic and a teaspoon of cumin powder. Salt heavily and taste. If the you've blown the roof off your head, mellow the marinade with yogurt.

Cube the chicken and mix with the marinade. Leave for several hours or overnight.

Skewer pieces of chicken, alternating with tomatoes and chunks of onion and green pepper. Grill/roast till cooked. Serve drizzled with lemon juice.