Coco Curry Rice with Chicken
Instant rice, coconut milk powder, and freeze-dried chicken in one pot. Built around a stove that can hold a real simmer.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 14 min
- water
- 500 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
- Canoe / raft
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant rice | 1 cup | the precooked kind that rehydrates in ten minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried chicken | 1.5 oz | |
| Coconut milk powder | 1/4 cup | check the label if you need it dairy-free; some brands add caseinate |
| Curry powder | 2 tsp | |
| Dried minced onion | 1 tbsp | |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp | |
| Dried pineapple | 2 tbsp | chopped small, optional |
| Olive or coconut oil | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Bring 500 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the chicken, onion, and bouillon and let it sit at a low boil for three minutes so the meat starts taking on water.
- Add the rice and pineapple. Stir once, cover, and pull the pot off the heat.
- Wait ten minutes. If the stove is running hot and you want it faster, keep it on the lowest flame you can hold and stir every minute so the bottom does not scorch.
- Stir in the coconut milk powder and curry off the heat. Adding it to boiling water makes it seize into lumps.
- Pour the oil over the top, season, and eat out of the pot.
Coconut milk powder is the whole reason this works without a cooler. It carries fat and body the way canned coconut milk does at a tenth of the weight, and it keeps indefinitely. The catch is that it clumps in boiling water, so it goes in at the end, once the pot is off the flame.
A hot stove is a liability here, not an advantage. Rice and coconut both scorch, and a four-kilowatt burner will weld a black ring to your pot in under a minute. Boil hard, then kill the heat and let residual temperature do the rehydrating. The freeze-dried chicken needs the head start because it takes longer to soften than the rice does.
Packing
Rice, chicken, onion, bouillon, and pineapple go in one bag at home. Coconut powder and curry go in a second small bag, because they go in last. Oil rides in a leakproof bottle.
Variations
- Swap the chicken for freeze-dried pork and skip the bouillon.
- Dried mango instead of pineapple, and a squeeze of lime powder at the end.
- Double the coconut powder and cut the water to 400 ml for a thicker, heavier bowl.
https://blog.monrechaud.com/rechaud-gaz-primus-power-cook