Chicken Cacciatore Quinoa
Quinoa, freeze-dried chicken, and tomato powder. A slow-cooker dinner squeezed into one pot and twelve minutes.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 124
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 14 min
- total time
- 16 min
- water
- 600 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Quinoa | 1/2 cup | rinse and dry it at home or it tastes like soap |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried chicken breast | 1.5 oz | the diced kind rehydrates in the pot |
| Tomato powder | 3 tbsp | stands in for the can of paste |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 tsp | |
| Dried bell pepper and onion | 1/3 cup | the frozen strips do not travel |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1 tsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | to taste | |
| Grated parmesan | 2 tbsp | the shelf-stable green-can kind |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Dump in everything except the parmesan and the oil.
- Stir once, drop the flame as low as it goes, and cover. Twelve minutes.
- Kill the heat and let it sit covered another five. The quinoa finishes on residual heat and you save fuel.
- Stir in the oil and the parmesan. Add salt until the tomato tastes like sauce instead of powder.
Cacciatore is a braise, which is the one thing a backpacking stove is bad at. The workaround is to stop braising and start absorbing: quinoa takes on the tomato, bouillon, and oregano while it cooks, so the sauce ends up inside the grain instead of pooled around it. Twelve minutes covered plus a five-minute rest gets there on less fuel than a real simmer.
The wine, the fresh peppers, and the can of paste all became dry goods. Tomato powder is the important one — it does the job of the can at a fraction of the weight, and it thickens as the quinoa swells. Parmesan and olive oil go in off the heat, where they add fat and salt without splitting.
Packing
Quinoa, dried vegetables, tomato powder, bouillon, and spices go in one bag at home. Chicken stays in its own bag so you can see if the seal failed. Parmesan and oil ride separately.
Variations
- A splash of balsamic from a dropper bottle replaces the white wine acid the original leaned on.
- Dried mushrooms bulk it out for maybe half an ounce.
- Swap the chicken for a foil pouch of tuna and add it at the end, off the heat.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/slow-cooker-quinoa-chicken-cacciatore