Chicken Alfredo Trail Pasta
Freeze-dried chicken, powdered cream sauce, and dried mushrooms in one pot.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 4.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 30 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 7 min
- total time
- 9 min
- water
- 420 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
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried diced chicken | 1 cup | goes in first, it needs the longest |
|---|---|---|
| Quick-cook egg noodles or small pasta | 1 1/2 cups dry | anything that cooks in under 6 minutes |
| Powdered alfredo sauce mix | 1 packet, about 1.5 oz | |
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | makes the sauce read as cream instead of paste |
| Dried sliced mushrooms | 1/4 cup | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Grated hard parmesan | 2 tbsp | the shelf-stable shaker kind |
| Olive oil or ghee | 1 tbsp | |
| Black pepper and salt | to taste |
Method
- Boil about 420 ml of water.
- Drop in the chicken and mushrooms. Hold a boil for one minute so they start taking on water.
- Add the pasta. Keep it at a low boil for 4 minutes, stirring so nothing welds to the bottom.
- Cut the heat. Sprinkle in the sauce mix, milk powder, and garlic powder a little at a time, stirring between additions.
- Stir in the parmesan and oil. Lid on for two minutes, then eat. It thickens as it sits.
Store-bought alfredo pouches solve this with one boil, but you can build the same thing from grocery-shelf parts for less money and more food. The order matters more than the ingredients: chicken and mushrooms need water and time, pasta needs less, and the sauce needs no heat at all. Dumping everything in at once gives you crunchy chicken in a scorched sauce.
The milk powder is the piece most people skip. Packet alfredo mix on its own thins out into something gluey; the extra dairy fat and the tablespoon of oil give it enough body to coat the noodles. Add the powders off the heat and slowly, or they clump and no amount of stirring fixes it.
Packing
Pasta, sauce mix, milk powder, garlic, and parmesan premix into one bag. Chicken and mushrooms ride in a second bag since they go in first. Oil in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- A foil packet of chicken instead of freeze-dried works if you add it at the end.
- Dried spinach or a handful of dried peas goes in with the mushrooms.
- Swap the pasta for instant rice and start the rice with the chicken.
https://www.battlbox.com/products/right-on-trek-2-person-meals-chicken-alfredo