Chicken and Wild Rice Stew
Dutch oven stew of chicken, mushrooms, and wild rice, thickened with a roux and powdered milk.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 9 oz
- cal / oz
- 58
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 6, scales
- prep
- 25 min
- cook
- 45 min
- total time
- 70 min
- water
- 900 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
- Dutch oven
- Campfire coals
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Needs a cooler
- Actual cooking
Ingredients
| Olive oil | 3 tbsp | |
|---|---|---|
| Bacon or country ham | 2 oz | chopped fine; shelf-stable until opened |
| Boneless chicken thighs | 6, cut in 2-inch pieces | cooler item; freeze them and let them thaw on the drive |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Button mushrooms | 4 cups, quartered | or 1 1/2 oz dried, rehydrated in the broth water |
| White wine vinegar | 1/4 cup | |
| Carrot | 1, chopped fine | |
| Onion | 1 medium, chopped fine | |
| Garlic | 3 cloves, chopped fine | |
| Bay leaf | 1 | |
| Butter | 3 tbsp | |
| All-purpose flour | 1/4 cup | |
| Powdered whole milk | 1/3 cup + 1 cup water | stands in for fresh milk |
| Bouillon | enough for 2 1/2 cups broth | paste or cubes, plus the water |
| Nutmeg | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dry mustard | 1/2 tsp | |
| Wild rice | 4 oz | |
| Dried parsley | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Cook the wild rice first in a separate pot or ahead of the trip: about 3 parts water to 1 part rice, 45 minutes, drained. Set it aside.
- Heat the Dutch oven over the stove or a bed of coals. Add the oil and the chopped bacon and render it until the fat runs.
- Salt and pepper the chicken and brown it in batches. Do not crowd it. Pull the pieces out as they color.
- Add the mushrooms and cook them hard until the water they give off has boiled away and they start to brown.
- Pour in the vinegar and scrape the bottom of the pot clean. Add carrot, onion, garlic, and the bay leaf. Cook until the onion goes soft.
- Push everything aside, melt the butter, and stir the flour into it. Cook that paste for a minute so it stops tasting like flour.
- Whisk the powdered milk into 1 cup of water and pour it in slowly, then the 2 1/2 cups of bouillon broth. Add the nutmeg and dry mustard.
- Return the chicken, cover, and hold it at a low simmer for 30 to 40 minutes. Over a fire, that means coals on the lid and only a few underneath.
- Stir in the cooked rice and the parsley. Fish out the bay leaf. Let it sit off the heat five minutes to thicken.
This is a casserole taken apart and rebuilt in one pot. The roux and milk do the work a can of soup usually does, and the wild rice is the reason it eats like dinner instead of gravy — it holds its chew even after sitting in liquid.
The camp changes are small. Fresh milk becomes powdered milk mixed with water, and broth comes from bouillon rather than a carton. Cook the rice at home and carry it cold if you want to cut 45 minutes off camp time; otherwise start it before you touch anything else. The chicken is the only thing that truly needs the cooler, so freeze it solid and pack it deep.
Packing
Bag the flour, powdered milk, bouillon, nutmeg, mustard, and parsley together as one dry kit. Rice goes cooked and chilled, or dry with its own cook time budgeted. Chicken travels frozen at the bottom of the cooler.
Variations
- Dried mushrooms and their soaking liquid replace the fresh ones and save cooler space.
- Skip the roux and thicken with 3 tbsp of instant potato flakes at the end if you would rather not carry flour and butter.
- Two foil pouches of chicken stirred in at the end turns this into a no-cooler version.
https://www.lodgecastiron.com/blogs/recipe/chicken-and-mushroom-stew-with-wild-rice