Honey Garlic Chicken and Rice
Freeze-dried chicken, instant rice, and a sauce packet you mix at home. Takeout math, one pot.
- calories
- 690
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 125
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 15 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Bikepacking
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried chicken | 1.5 oz | replaces the raw thighs; rehydrates in about 8 minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Instant rice | 3/4 cup | the parboiled kind that cooks off heat |
| Honey | 2 tbsp | carried in a small squeeze tube |
| Soy sauce powder | 1 tbsp | or 2 tbsp liquid soy in a leakproof bottle |
| Granulated garlic | 1 tsp | |
| Tomato powder | 1 tbsp | stands in for the ketchup |
| Sriracha | 1 tsp | packets from a takeout counter, or chili flakes |
| Cornstarch | 1 tsp | |
| Oil | 1 tbsp | optional, for calories |
Method
- Boil 500 ml of water. Drop in the chicken and let it sit off heat for 5 minutes to soften.
- Return to a boil, stir in the rice, cover, and pull it off the flame. Wait 8 minutes.
- Meanwhile shake the sauce powders with 3 tbsp of cold water in a bottle so the cornstarch does not clump.
- Uncover, pour the sauce and honey over the rice, and put it back on low heat. Stir for a minute until it goes glossy and thick.
- Add the sriracha and oil off heat. Stir and eat.
The original is an Instant Pot dinner built on raw thighs and a cornstarch slurry. Neither travels, so the meat becomes freeze-dried chicken and the sauce becomes a powder you mix at home. The cornstarch still earns its place: without it the honey and soy just run to the bottom of the pot and the rice tastes like plain rice with a wet spot.
Slurry the starch in cold water before it meets heat. Dumped in dry it seizes into lumps that never dissolve. The chicken needs its own soak ahead of the rice — freeze-dried meat rehydrates slower than grain, and if you cook them together you get done rice and chewy chicken.
Packing
Sauce powders — soy, garlic, tomato, cornstarch — go in one small bag. Honey in a squeeze tube, chicken and rice in a second bag. Keep the cornstarch bag dry or it turns to concrete.
Variations
- Swap the chicken for a foil pouch of chicken or a can of tuna; add it at step 4 instead.
- Coconut aminos in place of the soy powder makes it gluten-free.
- A handful of dried peas and carrots in with the rice adds bulk for no real weight.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/instant-pot-honey-garlic-chicken-recipe