September 9 2015

You’ve dreamed about it, but you’ve never had the courage to go through with it. It’s too wild a dream, you tell yourself. I’m here to tell you that you can. With a little courage and ingenuity, you can enjoy fried chicken in the backcountry.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Flour

Buttermilk

Chicken

Salt and pepper

Vegetable oil

Two camping dishes or tupperware pans

A frying pan. A small one with deep sides is ideal

A spatula, or ideally tongs

Step one: Fill one tupperware with buttermilk, and the other with flour.

Step two: Roll the chicken in the flour. After that, roll the chicken in the buttermilk and back in the flour again. The chicken should be completely coated in flour.

Step three: Fill the frying pan with an inch of oil. Get it as hot as possible without the oil bubbling over and becoming a Leave No Trace nightmare.

Step four: Place the chicken very carefully in the oil and fry it one side at a time. Consider holding a plate upside down with a pot gripper to catch spraying oil.

Step five: Let the chicken cool down and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Step six: Enjoy, but not before instagramming your dinner because we are all narcissists now.

PS: For obvious health reasons, this is something I would only make on the first day of your trip, unless you have experience traveling with perishables. Try to keep your meat frozen as long as possible before you embark. Starting with frozen water bottles hill help keep the chicken as cold as possible. Also, it doesn’t really make sense as anything but a group meal.

PPS: I’m not going to lie and say that cleanup isn’t a nightmare, but it doesn’t excuse you from LNT cooking.