Southwest Chicken Wraps, Trail Version
Foil-pouch chicken, bean flakes, and tortillas. No stove, no cooler, ten minutes of soaking.
- calories
- 790
- weight
- 10.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 75
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 0 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 180 ml cold
- cost
- $$
Calorie and protein figures are my own estimates, good enough for planning a food bag and not meant as precise nutrition data.
- Lunch
- Dinner
- No cook
- Backpacking
- Day hike
- Bikepacking
- Canoe / raft
- Nut free
- Eat in the bag
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Flour tortillas | 4 burrito size | the shelf-stable kind, not refrigerated |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken in a foil pouch | 2 pouches, 5 oz each | stands in for rotisserie chicken |
| Instant refried black bean flakes | 1 cup | |
| Sour cream powder | 3 tbsp | or powdered Greek yogurt |
| Salsa, shelf-stable pouch | 1/2 cup | or 2 tbsp dried salsa mix |
| Freeze-dried guacamole powder | 3 tbsp | |
| Freeze-dried tomato and cabbage flakes | 1/3 cup | cabbage holds crunch where lettuce turns to slime |
| Lime powder | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | a pinch |
Method
- Put the bean flakes in a freezer bag with 120 ml of cold water. Seal, squeeze, and set it aside for ten minutes.
- In a second bag or a mug, stir the guacamole powder with 40 ml of cold water until it thickens. Do the sour cream powder the same way with about 20 ml.
- Tip the tomato and cabbage flakes into the salsa pouch and let them drink for five minutes.
- Open the chicken pouches and drain the liquid off. Break the chicken up with a spoon.
- Lay out a tortilla. Beans first, then chicken, then salsa with the vegetables, then guacamole and sour cream. Dust with lime powder and salt.
- Fold the bottom up, then roll it tight. Eat over the bag.
The original is a hot-weather kitchen recipe: rotisserie chicken, sour cream, fresh avocado, iceberg lettuce. Every one of those is a refrigerator problem, so all of them got replaced. Foil-pouch chicken carries the same protein at room temperature. Sour cream and guacamole come back from powder with a little cold water. Lettuce is the one thing with no honest substitute, so freeze-dried cabbage takes its place for texture.
The bean flakes are the reason this works without a stove. They rehydrate in cold water in about ten minutes and set up thick enough to hold a wrap together, which keeps the salsa from soaking through the tortilla on the way to your mouth. Drain the chicken pouch before it goes in, or the whole thing runs.
Packing
Bean flakes, sour cream powder, guacamole powder, vegetable flakes, and lime powder each get their own small bag, all inside one gallon bag with the tortillas. Tortillas go in flat against your back panel or they come out as chips.
Variations
- Swap the tortillas for corn tostadas and eat it as a stack. Heavier per calorie but gluten-free.
- A packet of hot sauce does most of what the salsa does at a tenth of the weight.
- Cold-soak the beans in the morning and carry them for a lunch stop with no waiting.
https://mealswithmaria.site/dinner-ideas-for-hot-weather