Chicken Diane, Trail Version
Freeze-dried chicken and mushrooms in a mustard cream sauce, rebuilt out of powder.
- calories
- 640
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 116
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 22 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
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried chicken | 1.5 oz | replaces the thigh meat; rehydrates in about 8 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Dried sliced mushrooms | 1/2 cup | button or cremini, whatever is cheap in bulk |
| Dried shallot or onion flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Powdered heavy cream | 3 tbsp | heavy cream powder, not milk powder, for the fat |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 tsp | |
| Dijon mustard | 1 tbsp | single-serve packets travel flat |
| Worcestershire sauce | 1 tsp | in a small dropper bottle |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Citric acid or a lemon juice packet | 1/4 tsp | stands in for the fresh lemon |
| Dried parsley | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Instant potato flakes | 1/3 cup | optional, to serve under it |
Method
- Add the chicken, mushrooms, shallot, bouillon, and 450 ml of water to the pot. Bring it to a boil, then cut the flame to the lowest it will hold.
- Simmer eight minutes with the lid on. The mushrooms take longer than the chicken, so judge by them.
- Kill the heat. Let it sit two minutes so the pot stops scorching, then whisk in the cream powder with the spoon. Adding it off the boil keeps it from breaking.
- Stir in the mustard, Worcestershire, olive oil, citric acid, and parsley. Salt and pepper at the end, after the bouillon has had its say.
- If you want it thicker, rain in potato flakes a spoonful at a time until it coats the spoon.
The original is a skillet dish built on browning: butter, seared thighs, fond scraped up with brandy. None of that survives a canister stove and one titanium pot, so this version skips the browning entirely and rebuilds the sauce from the parts that actually matter. Those are mustard, Worcestershire, acid, and fat. Bouillon covers the pan drippings well enough at 9,000 feet.
Heavy cream powder is the piece worth carrying. Regular milk powder makes a thin, chalky sauce; the cream powder has enough fat to hold the mustard in suspension and gives the dish its calories. Add it off the heat. Boiled hard, it separates into grease and grit, and there is no fixing that in the field.
Packing
Chicken, mushrooms, shallot, bouillon, cream powder, citric acid, and parsley all go in one bag. Mustard packets, the oil, and the Worcestershire dropper ride in a separate ziplock, because all three will find a way out.
Variations
- A splash of brandy from a flask, added before the water, gets you closer to the original.
- Swap the potato flakes for instant rice cooked separately if you want a real plate of food.
- Dried thyme instead of parsley makes it read less like a diner special.
https://mealswithmaria.site/chicken-diane-recipe