Passage-Prep Salsa Chicken
Shelf-stable chicken braised in salsa and smoked paprika, built for a boat galley or a car camp stove.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 11 oz
- cal / oz
- 47
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 25 min
- total time
- 30 min
- water
- none
- 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
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- Basecamp
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Grab and go
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Canned chicken | 3 cans, 12.5 oz each | drained; canned holds where fresh thighs cannot |
|---|---|---|
| Jarred salsa | 1 cup | any heat level, thicker is better |
| Bouillon | 1 cube | chicken, crushed |
| Smoked paprika | 2 tsp | |
| Cumin | 1 tsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Onion powder | 1 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Instant rice | 2 cups dry | or corn tortillas, packed flat |
Method
- Heat the oil in the pot. Add the smoked paprika, cumin, garlic powder, and onion powder and stir for thirty seconds until they smell toasted. Do not let them go dark.
- Add the drained chicken and break it up with a spoon. Let it sit against the hot pot for two minutes to pick up some color.
- Pour in the salsa and crumble in the bouillon. Stir, cover, and hold at a bare simmer for fifteen minutes.
- Uncover and cook another five to eight minutes, stirring, until the liquid pulls back into a sauce that clings to the meat.
- Cook the instant rice separately, or spoon the chicken straight onto tortillas.
The source version braises seasoned chicken thighs. Thighs need a fridge, so this uses canned chicken instead and moves the work to the spices. Blooming smoked paprika and cumin in oil before anything else is what makes a jar of ordinary salsa taste like it has been on the heat for hours. Skip that step and you have warm salsa on chicken.
The uncovered finish matters more than the simmer. Canned chicken and jarred salsa both carry a lot of water, and if you stop while it is still loose you end up eating soup with a fork. Cook it down until the sauce coats the meat. Make a double batch on a night with fuel to spare; it is the same pot and the same twenty-five minutes, and cold leftovers go into tortillas without any cooking at all.
Packing
Premeasure the four spices into one small bag or a film canister. The salsa jar is the heavy item; a pouch of salsa saves weight and glass.
Variations
- Add a drained can of black beans and a can of corn in step three for a thicker, cheaper stretch.
- Add a cup of water and extra bouillon at the end to turn it into a soup.
- Leftovers reheat straight from the pot the next morning with tortillas.
https://svsabado.com/offshore-passage-meal-prep-5-make-ahead-boat-meals-that-save-time-at-sea