Road Food: Good food that travels well
Whether you’re heading across the country, across the world, or simply across town, this series of recipes is made for life on the move. They’re easy to make, easy to pack, and taste just as good hours later as they do fresh from the kitchen. Perfect for road trips, picnics, hikes, airplanes, potlucks, packed lunches, busy weeknights, and anywhere else you need to go.
This series of recipes is exclusively for members of The Lost Supper Club (paid subscribers).
The Let’s Get Lost Newsletter is available to everyone, for free. This is only possible because of the generous support of paid subscribers. As a thank you, Lost Supper Club Members have access to exclusive content and some cool free stuff including three free cookbooks, access to The CookStack Collective, and this series of Road Food Recipes.
I have been making versions of this recipe for many years. I’ve used bone-in and boneless chicken, thighs, breasts, legs, and wings, grilled and baked, served hot, at room temperature, or even cold, spooned over rice or onto a sandwich, sometimes with yogurt sauce, or with a dipping sauce like ranch or Caesar dressing.
In 2019, Steve and I rode from Colorado to Alaska on a motorcycle, then we rode all over Alaska in the week we had to spend there before turning the bike towards home. One day we found ourselves in Valdez and were so awestruck by the beauty we found there that we didn’t want to leave. Valdez is a small town and this was the middle of July, so there wasn’t an empty motel room to be found. But we desperately wanted to stay for at least one more night, so we kept searching and found a tiny house for rent on Airbnb.
At the time, living our lives in an RV or on a sailboat was not on our radar, so the novelty of a truly tiny space was great fun. We’d been on the road for a couple of weeks by then and I decided that what I really wanted to do was make dinner in that tiny kitchen that we could eat outside, on the little porch, next to the gurgling stream that ran through the property.
So, we went to the local grocery store and piled ingredients for the night’s meal into the back of the bike. What did I make? Paprika chicken. I don’t remember what I served with it, I just remember it being the most obvious choice: just a small handful of ingredients, one pan, and a home-cooked meal I knew we’d love.
Now that we live our entire lives on the road, I’ve come up with ways to make our old favorites more travel-friendly. That’s what this recipe is.
This recipe requires about 5 minutes of prep time and can be served hot, at room temperature, or cold. It’s one of my favorite things to take on travel days, boat days, or picnics. Pack it in to-go containers, pile them into a cooler, and off you go.
This also makes an excellent packed lunch. If you're shuttling kids to sports practices, dance lessons, or other extracurricular activities, it's an easy way to feed yourself, and everyone else in the car, a high-protein, home-cooked dinner with less effort than a trip through the drive-through.
If you want some veggies to go with your protein, cut up raw veggies or a simple tossed salad are both great options. I also sometimes like to boil veggies just until they are crisp-tender in heavily salted water or really flavorful broth. Drain the veggies, let them cool, and then pack them in their own to-go container. If you’ve salted the water well enough, or if the broth contains enough seasoning, they won’t need any additional seasoning.
And slices of loaf cake are standard around here for any kind of packed lunch. I do my best to keep a few individually wrapped slices in the freezer. Thanks to a recent trip to the local farmer’s market, we have more blueberries than we know what to do with, so we now also have slices of blueberry loaf cake in the freezer. There are certainly worse things.