Buffalo Wing Rice Bowl
Freeze-dried chicken, instant rice, and a hot sauce butter that goes on at the end.
- calories
- 760
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 12 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
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried cooked chicken | 2 oz | or one foil pouch of canned chicken, drained |
|---|---|---|
| Instant rice | 3/4 cup | the parboiled kind that rehydrates in five minutes |
| Ghee or butter powder | 2 tbsp | ghee keeps for weeks without a cooler |
| Cayenne pepper sauce | 2 tbsp | decanted into a small leakproof bottle |
| Tomato powder or ketchup packets | 2 tsp | |
| Cornstarch | 1 tsp | thickens the sauce so it clings |
| Garlic powder, paprika, salt, black pepper | 1 tsp total |
Method
- Boil 450 ml of water. Add the chicken and rice, stir once, and cover.
- Pull it off the heat and let it sit eight minutes. Freeze-dried chicken needs the full time to stop being chewy.
- While it sits, shake the hot sauce, tomato powder, and cornstarch together in the bottle with a splash of water.
- Uncover, stir the ghee into the rice, then pour in the sauce. Put it back over a low flame for one minute, stirring, until it thickens.
- Add the spice blend to taste. Eat from the pot.
The source is a tray of oven wings. Bones, an hour of dry heat, and a saucepan of butter sauce are all things a stove in the dirt cannot give you, so what carries over is the flavor logic, not the method. Buffalo sauce is three things: cayenne vinegar heat, fat to round it off, and a little tomato for sweetness. All three are available shelf-stable.
The cornstarch matters more than it looks. Without it the hot sauce runs to the bottom of the pot and the rice on top stays plain. One teaspoon and a minute of heat turns it into something that coats. Add the sauce after the rice has rehydrated, not before, because acid slows the water going in.
Packing
Rice, chicken, cornstarch, tomato powder, and spices go in one bag. Sauce and ghee travel in separate bottles, doubled in a ziplock, because both will find a way out.
Variations
- Skip the sauce entirely and eat it as a garlic-paprika chicken and rice.
- Instant mashed potatoes in place of the rice if you want it thicker and faster.
- A packet of hard cheese or a spoon of powdered ranch dressing cools the heat down.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/crispy-baked-chicken-wings