Chicken Noodle Soup, Pack Version
Freeze-dried chicken, dried vegetables, and macaroni in one pot. Broth from bouillon, not a stockpot.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 124
- protein
- 33 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 14 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
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dry macaroni | 3/4 cup | small shapes cook fastest |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried chicken | 1/2 cup | canned chunk chicken works for car camping |
| Dried carrot | 3 tbsp | |
| Dried celery | 1 tbsp | a little goes a long way |
| Chicken bouillon | 2 cubes or 2 tsp powder | |
| Onion powder | 1 tsp | |
| Dried rosemary and dried sage | 1/2 tsp each | crush the rosemary or it stays woody |
| Black pepper | 1/2 tsp | |
| Red pepper flakes | a pinch | |
| Butter powder or olive oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | to taste | bouillon is already salty, add last |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the carrot, celery, and chicken and let them sit two minutes off the heat to start rehydrating.
- Back on the flame. Add the macaroni and the bouillon and simmer, stirring often so the pasta does not weld to the pot bottom.
- Around eight minutes in, add the herbs, pepper, onion powder, and flakes. Simmer until the pasta is soft and the liquid has gone from water to broth.
- Kill the heat, stir in the fat, and taste before adding any salt.
- Let it stand two minutes with the lid on. The carrots need that time.
The home version simmers ten cups of broth for half an hour and cooks the pasta in a second pot. Neither of those is happening on a canister stove. So the broth comes from bouillon, the vegetables come dried, and the pasta cooks in the same water it will be eaten in. That last change is the reason this works at all: the starch the pasta sheds gives the broth some body it would otherwise lack.
Water is the variable to watch. Six hundred milliliters sounds like a lot for one pot, but dried carrot and macaroni both drink hard, and you want soup at the end, not paste. If it looks thin at minute ten, leave the lid off. If it looks like a casserole, add another splash of hot water.
Packing
Everything dry except the fat goes in one bag, pasta included. Oil rides in a dropper bottle; butter powder can go in with the rest.
Variations
- Swap the macaroni for instant rice or crushed ramen to cut cook time in half.
- A foil packet of chicken instead of freeze-dried works fine and costs less, though it is wet weight.
https://mealswithmaria.site/homemade-chicken-noodle-soup-easy