Camp Food: Bison Burgers with Spicy Peanut Sauce and Huckleberry Jam

Yellowstone National Park covers a bit over 2.2 million acres, or 3,472 square miles. That’s larger than the states of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. It’s big. A very tiny percentage of that immense land mass is covered in paved roads.

After driving those roads for several days on a recent road trip with my wife, I’ve come to the conclusion that bison are spiteful creatures with a bent for mayhem. With all that land at their disposal, they are absolutely convinced that the only way to move from one area to the other is to walk, or sometimes just stand for no reason, on those paved roads.

After spending hours stuck in traffic caused by bison in the road, a good bison burger seemed like a great idea. All images by author

We lost a lot of time to bison jams. So much so that I began to hold a grudge. When we stopped at Legacy Butcher and Burger Company in Cody, Wyoming, I noticed the ground bison in the meat case. A bit of a revenge plan entered my mind.

Our next stop on the trip was a small, off-grid cabin in Polebridge, Montana, just outside the west entrance to Glacier National Park. Our cozy cabin had everything we needed: a bed, living area, small fridge, table and couch, but it didn’t have a range. That was no problem, though, as I broke out our Camp Chef Everest 2X camp stove and the Camp Chef Griddle, which perfectly fits on the stove’s cooking surface.

The Camp Chef Everest 2X is the perfect stove for a road or camping trip.

If you have ever spent much time in the Yellowstone area, then you know that everything revolves around huckleberries including jams, jellies, sauces, ice cream (we had huckleberry ice cream in at least four states) and even pastries at the nearby Polebridge Mercantile.

Montana, Idaho, Wyoming and northern Utah make up the epicenter for all things huckleberry.

We had picked up some jam at the Mercantile and I wanted to use it in the recipe. What goes better with fruit jam than peanut butter? Not much. But I didn’t want to use straight PB&J on my burger. Instead, I rummaged through my camp kitchen box, found some smooth peanut butter, some soy sauce, some sesame oil and a bit of Cajun style seasoning blend. Mix them together and you have a pretty good Asian style spicy peanut sauce, which is the perfect addition to the huckleberry jam.

A few simple ingredients from the camp kitchen box turned out a passable Asian style peanut sauce.

I seasoned up the bison burgers with Realtree APX seasoning blend and some roasted garlic seasoning that I keep in my box.

Season both sides of the burgers to your liking.

After seasoning, I gave the burgers a good sear on both sides on the griddle. After getting a good sear on all surfaces, I reduced the flame on both burners and finished cooking the meat to a nice medium.

Sear the burgers, then reduce the heat and continue cooking to a nice medium doneness.

While the burgers cooked, I blended a half cup of peanut butter with a quarter cup of soy sauce, a tablespoon of sesame oil and about a tablespoon of Cajun seasoning. Check for flavor and adjust to your liking.

When the burgers were close, I topped each with a slice of provolone cheese, then toasted some buns on the griddle.

Add some sliced provolone and toast the buns on the griddle.

Place burger on bun, top with some peanut sauce, then spoon on some huckleberry jam. We’d spent the day in the park hiking through the snow at high elevations and we were famished. These burgers hit the spot and helped ease my resentment at the bison.

Top the burgers with a bit of the peanut sauce and a spoonful of the huckleberry jam.

Don’t have bison or huckleberry jam? This recipe will work for any wild game or beef burger and with whatever fruit preserves you enjoy. We’ll be making it again with some ground venison and blackberry jam at deer camp this fall.