Lemon Chicken and Rice, One Pot
A four-hour marinade turned into a five-minute steep. Soy, lemon, and ginger over instant rice.
- calories
- 610
- weight
- 6.2 oz
- cal / oz
- 98
- protein
- 33 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 350 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
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Car camping
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Instant rice | 3/4 cup dry | the parcooked kind that rehydrates off-heat |
|---|---|---|
| Foil-pouch chicken | 1 pouch, 3 oz | |
| Soy sauce powder | 2 tsp | liquid soy in a dropper bottle works too |
| Dried lemon peel | 1 tsp | |
| Citric acid or lemon juice powder | 1/2 tsp | this is the sour, the peel is only the smell |
| Ground ginger | 1/2 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Boil 350 ml of water. Stir in the rice and the dry seasoning mix, then take the pot off the stove.
- Lid on. Let it sit five minutes. Wrap the pot in a jacket if it is cold out.
- Open the chicken pouch and fold it in, liquid and all.
- Pour the oil over the top and stir. Add another splash of hot water if the rice is still chalky.
The original is a baked casserole with a four-hour marinade, which is two things a stove cannot do. The fix is to stop treating the marinade as a marinade. Soy, lemon, ginger, and pepper all rehydrate instantly, so they go in with the boiling water and season the rice from the inside as it swells. The chicken shows up already cooked.
Citric acid is doing the work that lemon juice did. Dried peel smells like lemon but is not sour, and without the acid the whole pot tastes flat and salty. The oil goes in last, off heat, because it is most of the fat and stirring it into hot rice is the only way it stays distributed.
Packing
Rice, soy powder, lemon peel, citric acid, ginger, and pepper go in one bag at home. The chicken pouch and the oil bottle ride separately.
Variations
- Ramen or instant noodles in place of the rice, with half the water.
- A packet of instant miso adds salt and body if you skip the soy powder.
- Freeze-dried chicken instead of the pouch saves three ounces and needs another 100 ml of water.
https://mealswithmaria.site/cooking-like-grandma