Salsa Chicken and Two Beans
Freeze-dried chicken, two beans, corn, and salsa powder. Taco night out of a bag.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 113
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 min
- water
- 600 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
- Gluten free
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried shredded chicken | 3 oz | canned chicken works for car camping |
|---|---|---|
| Instant black bean flakes | 3/4 cup | |
| Dried garbanzo beans, precooked and dehydrated | 1/2 cup | they rehydrate slowest, so they go in first |
| Freeze-dried corn | 1/2 cup | |
| Red salsa powder or dried salsa mix | 3 tbsp | tomato powder plus chili and cumin also works |
| Salsa verde powder or dried tomatillo and green chile | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried cilantro | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Add the garbanzos and the corn and let them sit at a low simmer for five minutes.
- Kill the heat, dump in the chicken, both salsa powders, and the salt. Stir once.
- Lid on, ten minutes. The chicken needs that whole time to come back.
- Stir in the bean flakes last. They thicken fast, so add them in two goes until the pot is stew, not soup.
- Cilantro and oil over the top. Eat straight out of the pot.
The original is a slow cooker dish, which is three things a stove pot is not: eight hours, two cans of liquid, and a fridge. The swap is powders and freeze-dried protein. Both salsas survive dehydration well because their flavor is chili, cumin, and acid rather than fresh tomato, and the red and the green really do taste different in the pot.
Order matters more than technique here. Garbanzos are the slowest thing in the bag and go in the boil. Bean flakes are the fastest and go in dead last, because they will turn the whole pot to paste if they sit. The oil is not optional — nothing else in this recipe carries any fat, and without it dinner is protein and starch with nothing holding it together.
Packing
Everything dry goes into one freezer bag except the oil, which rides in a dropper bottle. Two servings in one bag if you are splitting it; two separate bags if you are not eating together.
Variations
- Fold it into tortillas instead of eating it as stew. Two tortillas per person.
- Crushed corn chips on top add fat and something with texture.
- Car camping: swap the freeze-dried chicken for a can, and use jarred salsa in place of the powders with 250 ml less water.
https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/slow-cooker-salsa-chicken