If you’re intimidated by the idea of holiday cooking in a camper kitchen, fear not. These RV cooking tips for the holidays make seasonal meals easy to make, clean up, and enjoy the festivities.
These 3 Camper Kitchen Tools are Essential for Cooking RV Holiday Meals
During my 15 years of RVing during the holidays I’ve discovered three essential RV kitchen gadgets to make holiday meal cooking easier. You don’t need to spend a lot of money to enjoy cooking in a camper kitchen.
Carefully selected RV kitchen tools free up space on the stovetop and inside the RV oven. With your stove and oven free, you can cook an easy main course. These three tools make great side dishes inside the camper kitchen.
Instant Pot or Stovetop Pressure Cooker
No RV kitchen is complete without a pressure cooker. Yes, they take up space, but in my experience, the benefits of an RV pressure cooker outweigh the negatives.
Go new school with an Instant Pot. Or rely on the old school stovetop pressure cookers the way I do. Both let you cook great food with minimal mess. You can also pre-make some of your holiday side dishes in a pressure cooker, then reheat them just before serving. Sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce are my favorite sides to make before cooking the main RV holiday meal dish.
Hand-Held Immersion Blender
What I love most about my hand-held immersion blender is the ability to blend foods inside the pot they’re already cooking in. Instead of using a separate bowl or blender pitcher to make RV holiday dishes like butternut squash soup, the immersion blender lets you do all the work inside the pressure cooker pot.
Cast Iron Skillet
One of my best RV cooking tips for the holidays is for an item that you can use all year. The humble cast iron skillet is must-have gear because you can use it on the stove, on the campfire, or even on your awesome RV barbecue grill. You’ll enjoy the extra room inside your tiny RV kitchen to cook the main course. Use a cast-iron skillet outside just before the main meal is served. You’ll enjoy perfectly timed sizzling sautéed green beans or other holiday side dishes.
Skip Turkey, Choose an Easy Entrée Instead
If you’re spending the holidays in an RV this year, maybe it’s time to start a new tradition. Forget cooking turkey. Trying to cook a turkey in your RV propane oven is the fastest way to use up your precious propane supply. A huge entrée also prevents you from cooking anything else in there on the big day.
Whether you’re a vegetarian or an RV barbecuing carnivore, you can make an easy main holiday dish inside your RV kitchen, without relying on turkey. My two suggestions to make small RV holiday dish entrees with big flavor include:
- Carnivores will appreciate stuffed Cornish game hens instead of turkey.
- A spatchcock chicken entrée is also easy cooking in an RV oven.
- For vegetarians and vegans, stuffed acorn squash makes a festive main course too.
Prep Ingredients Ahead of the Big Day
It doesn’t hurt a meal to prepare for it a few days ahead of time. Buy pre-chopped ingredients for your RV holiday meals, or gather and chop them all yourself. Just don’t try doing everything on the big holiday. Getting ingredients ready for the big RV cooking effort makes it easier and faster to cook in your small camper kitchen.
Bonus Tip: Make RV Holiday Meals When You’re Dry Camping
If you’re new to spending holidays and Christmas in your RV, cooking is easier when you’ve got full-hookups at an RV park. But as you gain more experience, try branching out to cook RV holiday meals when you’re dry camping.
The best way to cook RV holiday meals when dry camping is to have a big stash of extra paper towels on board. You might even consider serving food on paper plates. And that’s OK! Even great RV holiday meals taste wonderful when served on disposable kitchenware. And there’s a bonus too: you can dispose of paper (no plastic or Styrofoam) kitchenware when you’re kicking up your heels around the campfire after dinner.
