Cream of Chicken Base
A pot of thick chicken gravy from powder. The binder that turns rice and noodles into a casserole.
- calories
- 420
- weight
- 3 oz
- cal / oz
- 140
- protein
- 14 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 400 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| All-purpose flour | 2 tbsp | cornstarch works if you need gluten-free, use 1 tbsp |
|---|---|---|
| Powdered whole milk | 3 tbsp | coconut milk powder for dairy-free |
| Chicken bouillon powder | 2 tsp | stands in for stock |
| Butter powder or ghee | 1 tbsp | ghee keeps unrefrigerated for weeks |
| Garlic powder | 1/4 tsp | |
| Onion powder | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt and black pepper | 1/4 tsp total | or skip both and use seasoning salt |
| Freeze-dried chicken | 1/2 cup | optional, makes it a meal instead of a sauce |
Method
- Dump the whole dry bag into a dry pot. Stir it with your spoon so the flour is spread through the powder and not sitting in a lump.
- Add about 100 ml of cold or warm water and stir to a smooth paste. Do this off the flame. Lumps form here or not at all.
- Add the remaining 300 ml, then light the stove.
- Stir constantly on low heat. It will look thin for a while, then thicken over roughly a minute near the boil. Pull it off as soon as it coats the spoon.
- If you added freeze-dried chicken, let it sit covered for five minutes to rehydrate.
The original is a stovetop roux: butter, flour, stock, milk. On trail you have no butter and no fridge, so the fat and the dairy both come as powder and the stock comes as bouillon. That means the roux step disappears, which is fine, because the roux was mostly there to cook the raw taste out of flour and disperse it in fat. Powdered milk does the dispersing job well enough on its own.
The one thing that still matters is the slurry. Flour dumped into hot water seizes into lumps that never break up, so mix a small amount of cold water in first and get it smooth before any heat touches the pot. Thickening happens just below the boil, and it happens fast. Stir the whole time and take it off early — it keeps setting up after the flame is out.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one bag at home. If you carry ghee instead of butter powder, it rides in a small screw-top jar inside a second bag.
Variations
- Pour it over instant rice or ramen noodles cooked in a separate boil, or stir in a cup of instant mashed potato flakes to make it a full dinner in one pot.
- A packet of dried mushrooms soaked in the first 100 ml turns it into cream of mushroom.
- Freeze-dried peas and green beans, added with the last of the water, get you close to a green bean casserole.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/homemade-cream-of-chicken-soup