Buffalo Chicken and Rice, One Pot
Freeze-dried chicken, hot sauce powder, and instant rice. The wing flavor without the bones.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 13 min
- water
- 450 ml boiled
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Dinner
- Canister stove
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant rice | 3/4 cup | parboiled, the kind that rehydrates in five minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried cooked chicken | 1.5 oz | stands in for the wings |
| Hot sauce powder | 1 tbsp | cayenne-vinegar style; Frank's sells a dry version |
| Tomato powder | 1 tbsp | replaces the ketchup |
| Sugar | 1 tsp | |
| Ghee or butter powder | 2 tbsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | dropper bottle |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Chili powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Kosher salt and black pepper | 1/2 tsp total | |
| Powdered blue cheese or ranch dressing mix | 1 tbsp | optional, stirred in at the end |
Method
- Boil 450 ml of water. Add the chicken first and let it sit off heat for five minutes — it rehydrates slower than the rice does.
- Bring it back to a boil, stir in the rice and the spice mix, then cover and kill the heat.
- Wait eight minutes without lifting the lid. The rice finishes on residual heat.
- Stir in the oil. If it looks dry, add hot water a splash at a time.
- Sprinkle the dressing powder over the top and eat straight from the pot.
The source cooks wings low and slow in a crockpot, then broils them under a butter-hot sauce-ketchup glaze. None of that survives a trail kitchen: no slow cooker, no broiler, no raw poultry, no cold butter. What survives is the flavor combination, and that is really just cayenne heat, vinegar tang, fat, and a little tomato sweetness. All four exist in powder form.
Rehydrating the chicken before the rice matters. Dropped in together, the rice finishes while the chicken is still leathery. Ghee powder or a hard fat is doing what the butter did in the sauce — it rounds off the vinegar edge and carries the heat. Cut it and the whole pot reads as sour rather than hot.
Packing
Rice, chicken, and every powder except the dressing go in one freezer bag at home. Oil rides in its own bottle. The dressing powder gets a small bag of its own so it stays a topping.
Variations
- Swap the hot sauce and tomato powders for a tablespoon of BBQ seasoning and you have a different dinner from the same base.
- A foil packet of chicken works if you cannot find freeze-dried, but it costs you four wet ounces.
- Dried celery flakes add crunch and a little of the original's cooling contrast.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/slow-cooker-buffalo-wings