Kielbasa & Perogies Foil Packets

There’s something satisfying about just loading some food into a foil pouch, tossing it on the fire, and letting it cook. We’ve done up a bunch of different foil packet dinners, and we’ll be sharing some of those over the next while.

Anyway, as a Winnipeg girl, CLEARLY I was going to figure out how to cook perogies over a campfire at some point!

After all, we’d put a TON of work into figuring out the best way to Cook Perogies in an Air Fryer, a few years back.

Coming up with a great campfire cooking technique just sounded fun!

I use onions and sauerkraut for triple duty - as quasi “sacrificial” items, to create the steam that will give the perogies a GREAT finished texture (much better than dry heat), *and* to infuse the perogies with some extra flavour.

Assuming you use enough liquid with the sauerkraut, it doesn’t even end up sacrificed - you can serve it alongside the perogies and sausage!

All around, a really great cooking technique for a cheap, easy campfire meal.

Here’s what you’ll need to know:

Ingredients

This recipe uses only a few basic ingredients, you shouldn’t have any trouble finding what you need in any grocery store.

Some ingredient notes for you:

Perogies

Growing up, my gramma always made the best Homemade Perogies. I’m a bit of a pierogi snob in general, as a result.

The thing is, you’re going to want to use frozen perogies for this technique. Not only is it kind of a waste for homemade perogies, store bought frozen perogies are just much better suited for this campfire technique.

Part of this is the fact that mass-produced perogies are par-cooked, rather than fully boiled. Steaming them finishes them off, but could make homemade perogies soggy by adding too MUCH moisture.

That said, if you want to use homemade perogies, you’ll want to plan ahead, when you’re making them.

Boil them only for a minute or so, rather than waiting until they float (fully cooked). Drain them VERY well, lay them out on a pan and freeze them individually. Once frozen, you can transfer them to freezer bags.

Really, SO much cheaper and easier to just use retail frozen perogies!

Anyway, the big exception, IMHO, is if you need gluten-free perogies. I’ve yet to find a brand that’s worth bothering with, so you might want to check out my Gluten-Free Perogies recipe.

Just follow the par cooking and freezing recommendations, above, rather than fully cooking them.

Smoked Sausage

Kielbasa Sausage & Perogies is a pretty iconic thing in my hometown, so that’s what we tend to do.

If you can’t find Kielbasa, any coil style smoked sausage will work, just get something you like the taste of. We’ve even used turkey Kielbasa, works great!

That said, the sausage doesn’t actually contribute to the cooking technique, so if it’s not your thing, just skip it!

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is a huge part of supplying the steam in this recipe, so - aside from picking one you like the flavour of - be sure to use a sauerkraut that has a decent amount of moisture.

Also: don’t drain it much when using it!

If you’re not into sauerkraut, you can try using extra onions... but I’d also add a few tablespoons of water, for good measure.

Everything Else

Rounding out this recipe, you will need:

Olive Oil Spray
An Onion
Butter
Ground Black Pepper
Salt

... I just don’t really have anything to add, as far as these last few ingredients go!

How to Make Pierogi & Sausage Foil Packets

The full recipe is in the printable recipe card at the bottom of this post, here is the visual walk-through:

About 30 minutes before you plan to serve the meal, get a medium fire going or get your charcoal on the go. You can cook these pierogi foil packets on a charcoal grill, a BBQ, or on a grill plate over a campfire.

For each pouch:

Lay 2 good sized pieces of heavy duty foil crosswise to each other, then spray generously with nonstick cooking spray.

Place your onion slices more or less in a single layer in the center of the foil. Add 2 Tablespoons of butter -spaced out a bit - then top with sauerkraut. I like to kind of scatter the sauerkraut over the onions.

Arrange your sliced sausage over the onions and sauerkraut. Finally, arrange the still-frozen perogies on top, in a single layer.

I like to aim for 160 F when an instant read thermometer is inserted into the center of a few perogies. If they’re not warm enough for your liking, re-fold the packets and return to the fire for another few minutes.

The actual cook time will depend on your grill, the distance from the heat, and how you’ve assembled your foil packets.

Leftovers

Leftovers can be cooled to room temperature, transferred to an airtight container, and chilled for up to 3 days. Reheat before serving.

More Grilling Recipes for Camping

Looking for some great meals to cook on a campfire or grill? Here's a few of my favourites!

Bison Burgers with Bacon and Caramelized Onions
Elk Burgers with Bacon & Sauteed Mushrooms
Fajita Chicken Kebabs
Greek Chicken Souvlaki
Grilled Chicken Fajitas
Lemon-Dill Fresh Salmon Burgers
Easy Grilled Shrimp Tacos
Grilled Tuna Tacos
Mediterranean Chicken Kebabs
Pie Iron Pizza Pockets
Venison Burgers with Bacon & Whiskey Caramelized Onions

Be sure to check out our other Camping Recipes, including Camping Desserts, Camping Snacks, Make-Ahead Camping Mix Recipes, and a ton of delicious Camping Main Dish Recipes.

Also, we had SO much fun designing gourmet jerky recipes for our camping trips, we started a whole new blog for them! Check out Dried & Tasty for all kinds of fun recipes to make in your food dehydrator!