Steak Foil Packets (Hobo Dinner)

Close-up of a hobo dinner featuring sliced beef, white rice, and cooked carrot rounds, garnished with green vegetable stalks in the background. The meal looks tender and freshly prepared.

4.67 from 12 votes

Steak Foil Packets (Hobo Dinner)

These Steak Foil Packets (sometimes called Hobo Dinners) are so easy you will not believe it! Fold rice, steak, and onion soup mix into some foil, bake, and voila. Deliciously tender steak and rice, ready to pair with whatever vegetables you want!

Prep Time5

Cook Time1

Total Time1 5

Course: Main Course

Cuisine: American

Servings:

Calories: 550kcal

Author: The Food Charlatan

Ingredients

4 cups cooked rice
1 (1-oz) packet onion soup mix
1 pound steak cube steak or top round steak
1/2 cup evaporated milk divided
carrots, zucchini, asparagus, bell peppers, green beans, etc. (optional)*
heavy duty foil

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. (Or see notes for camp fire or grill instructions.)
Tear off 4 large sheets of heavy duty foil, about 10-12 inches across. Regular foil will work too, just be careful not to tear it. You can double wrap if you're worried about it.
Add 1 cup of cooked rice to the center of each sheet of foil.
Top rice with about 1-2 teaspoons of onion soup mix.
Use a sharp knife to slice the steak into 12 thin strips, about 1 inch across. See photos.
Place 3 strips of steak on top of each mound of rice.
(At this point, you can add chopped vegetables around the edges of the rice. Season with salt and pepper. See notes.)
Pour 2 tablespoons of evaporated milk over the top of each mound of steak and rice.
Sprinkle the remaining onion soup mix evenly over the rest of the steak in each packet.
For each sheet of foil, bring the short ends of the foil together over the rice and steak. Press together and fold down securely over the food. For each end, fold the corners in, and then continue folding until you have a nice secure packet. See photos!
Place the 4 packets on a large baking sheet.
Bake at 350 for 1 hour.
Remove from the oven and carefully open each packet, being very careful not to burn yourself with the steam.
Serve hot!

Notes

If you don't have any leftover rice, here's how to make enough rice for this meal:

2 cups dry white rice
3 cups water
1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons garlic (I added the jarred kind)

Add 2 cups dry rice to a medium pot. (You're supposed to rinse it and I never do...oops.) Add 3 cups water. Add the salt and garlic. Bring to a boil over high heat with the lid on. Once it boils, lower the heat to low. Do not remove the lid. Let cook for about 10 minutes. Remove lid and stir. Turn off the heat and put the lid back on and let steam in the pot for another 5-10 minutes.

*I almost always add whatever chopped vegetables I have on hand to my foil dinners. (For the photos you see on this post, I cooked them separately because I wanted more vibrant colors for the photos.)

Here are some veggie ideas. Divide these amounts between the 4 packets (these are rough amounts):

1 cup each zucchini (chopped large) and carrots (chopped small)
1 bunch asparagus (left whole, ends snapped off) and 2 potatoes (chopped into medium pieces)
1-2 sliced bell peppers and 1 small onion

Be sure to season whatever vegetables you use with salt and pepper, or you could bust open another onion soup packet and use a few teaspoons of that to season the veggies.

Camp fire instructions: Prepare foil packets as instructed, sealing tightly. Refrigerate or keep in cooler. Cook in camp fire coals for 45-90 minutes, turning the packets every 10-15 minutes. The times on this vary a lot because it depends on how how your coals are. It's done when the steak and veggies are tender.

Grill instructions: Heat your grill over medium heat. Prepare foil packets as instructed, sealing tightly. Place on grill and put the lid down. Grill for about 15 minutes. Check for doneness and continue a few minutes more if necessary.

Source: This recipe is another one from my mother-in-law Kris! She says she used to make it in college all the time because it's so cheap.

Nutrition