Camp Stuffing from the Bag
Dried bread cubes, broth powder, and a foil packet of turkey. Thanksgiving dinner that fits in a stove pot.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 6 oz
- cal / oz
- 120
- protein
- 30 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 11 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
- Liquid fuel
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried bread cubes or unseasoned stuffing mix | 2 cups | stale bread cut small and oven-dried at home works |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken or turkey bouillon | 2 tsp | |
| Dried onion flakes | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried celery | 1 tbsp | celery flakes from the spice aisle are fine |
| Poultry seasoning, sage-heavy | 1 tsp | |
| Foil-packet turkey or chicken | 5 oz | already fully cooked in the pouch |
| Butter powder or olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried cranberries | 2 tbsp | |
| Black pepper | to taste |
Method
- Boil 400 ml of water. Stir in the bouillon, onion, celery, poultry seasoning, and butter powder or oil.
- Kill the heat. Dump in the bread cubes and cranberries and stir once to wet everything evenly.
- Lid on, ten minutes off the flame. The bread finishes on residual heat, which is why it does not scorch.
- Fork in the turkey packet, drain liquid and all. Pepper it, then eat straight from the pot.
The USDA is blunt about stuffing a bird: it slows the roast and gives bacteria a warm place to sit while the center crawls toward 165 F. That advice makes the trail version easy, because the safe method and the packable method are the same method. Cook the stuffing on its own, and cook the meat on its own. Here the meat arrives already cooked and sealed in a retort pouch, so the only thing that needs heat is the bread.
Dried bread cubes are the whole trick. They weigh almost nothing, they rehydrate off residual heat with the stove already shut down, and they hold fat well, so the butter powder or oil ends up in the food instead of pooling at the bottom of the pot. Sage does the heavy lifting on flavor; without it this reads as wet bread. Add the meat last so it warms through rather than shredding into mush.
Packing
Bread cubes, bouillon, dried vegetables, seasoning, butter powder, and cranberries all ride in one quart bag. The meat pouch travels on its own so a split seam does not wet the bread.
Variations
- Skip the meat pouch and use a scoop of textured vegetable protein rehydrated with the broth.
- A handful of crushed crackers instead of bread cubes gets you the same thing with less bulk.
- Extra broth and a longer sit turns it into more of a savory porridge, which is easier to eat in the cold.
https://morefood.org/how-to-cook-turkey-stuffing-safely