Maple Soy Chicken and Rice
A maple-soy glaze built in the pot, poured over instant rice and pouch chicken.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 6.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 95
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 13 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
- Canoe / raft
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant rice | 1 cup dry | the 5-minute kind, not parboiled long grain |
|---|---|---|
| Foil pouch chicken | 5 oz | |
| Maple syrup | 2 tbsp | a small squeeze bottle, or maple sugar if you want it dry |
| Soy sauce | 1 tbsp | packets from a takeout drawer weigh nothing |
| Lemon juice | 2 tsp | one wedge-sized packet, or a pinch of citric acid |
| Garlic powder | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground ginger | 1/4 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Boil 400 ml of water. Stir in the rice, cover, kill the heat, and let it sit five minutes.
- Scrape the rice into your bowl or eating bag and wipe the pot out with a spoon.
- Put the syrup, soy sauce, lemon juice, garlic powder, ginger, and pepper in the empty pot over low heat. Let it bubble two or three minutes until it thickens and coats the spoon.
- Drain the chicken pouch and drop the meat in. Stir for a minute so the glaze grabs onto it.
- Pour it over the rice and add the oil.
The original is a marinated grilled chicken breast, which needs a fridge, two hours, and a grill pan. None of that packs. What actually makes the dish is the glaze: maple and soy reduced until the sugar goes sticky and the salt concentrates. That part works fine in a titanium pot over a low flame, and pouch chicken is already cooked, so it only needs to get coated.
Reducing in the empty pot after the rice is the whole trick. There is almost no liquid, so it thickens in a couple of minutes and the residue on the pot walls goes into the sauce rather than into your dishwater. Watch it — two tablespoons of syrup will scorch if you walk away. The oil goes in at the end for calories, since a chicken breast and rice on their own is a light dinner by trail standards.
Packing
Premix the garlic, ginger, and pepper into one small bag at home. Syrup and soy travel in separate leakproof bottles or packets; both will find their way out of a ziplock.
Variations
- Maple sugar and soy sauce powder make the whole glaze dry, at the cost of some gloss.
- Instant mashed potatoes take the glaze as well as rice does and cook faster.
- A handful of dried mushrooms rehydrated with the rice adds bulk without much weight.
https://morefood.org/holiday-meals-for-one-or-two