Buffalo Chicken Meatball Mash
Freeze-dried chicken, breadcrumbs, and hot sauce, rehydrated into a hot buffalo bowl.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 144
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 400 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
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried cooked chicken | 1.5 oz | stands in for raw ground chicken |
|---|---|---|
| Plain breadcrumbs | 1/3 cup | unseasoned panko or regular |
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Chili powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Kosher salt and black pepper | 1/4 tsp each | |
| Ghee or butter powder | 1.5 tbsp | ghee in a small screw-top jar does not need cold |
| Hot sauce | 2 tbsp | Frank's, decanted into a dropper bottle |
| Ketchup | 1 tbsp | single-serve packets |
Method
- Boil 400 ml of water. Add the chicken and let it sit off the heat for five minutes until it softens all the way through.
- Stir in the milk powder, garlic powder, chili powder, salt, and pepper.
- Add the breadcrumbs a spoonful at a time, stirring, until the pot goes from soupy to thick. Stop before it turns into paste.
- Melt in the ghee, then pour the hot sauce and ketchup over the top and stir once.
- Lid on for two minutes so the breadcrumbs finish drinking. Eat straight from the pot.
Meatballs need an oven, an egg, and a thermometer, so none of that survives the trip. What actually makes the dish work is the buffalo sauce and the breadcrumb-and-milk panade, and both travel fine. Freeze-dried chicken rehydrates in the same water that softens the crumbs, and the crumbs thicken it into something you eat with a spoon instead of drink.
The fat matters more than it looks. Hot sauce is mostly vinegar and salt; ghee is what keeps it from tasting thin and sharp. Ketchup is doing the same job it does in the original — sugar and body to round off the vinegar — and one packet is enough. Add the breadcrumbs slowly, because you can always thicken further and you cannot un-thicken without another boil.
Packing
Breadcrumbs, milk powder, and the spices go in one bag; chicken in another so it stays dry and rehydrates evenly. Ghee, hot sauce, and ketchup ride in the food bag's leak-proof corner.
Variations
- Freeze-dried ground turkey works the same way and is often cheaper.
- Gluten-free breadcrumbs make the whole thing gluten-free.
- Butter powder instead of ghee cuts the leak risk at the cost of some richness.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/buffalo-chicken-meatballs