Street Corn Tortellini with Chicken
Dried tortellini, freeze-dried corn and chicken, and a cheese sauce built from powder and a mayo packet.
- calories
- 760
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 138
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 min
- water
- 700 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
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Canoe / raft
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Dried cheese tortellini | 6 oz | the shelf-stable dry kind, not refrigerated |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried chicken | 2 oz | canned or pouched, rehydrates in the pot |
| Freeze-dried or dehydrated corn | 1 cup | |
| Cheese sauce powder | 1/3 cup | stands in for the cream cheese |
| Powdered whole milk | 2 tbsp | |
| Mayonnaise packets | 2 | shelf-stable, and most of the fat in the bowl |
| Chili powder | 1 1/2 tsp | plus a pinch held back for the top |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste | |
| Grated parmesan or dried cotija | 2 tbsp | the hard, sandy stuff in the shaker |
| Lime powder or a squeeze packet | 1 tsp | |
| Dried cilantro | 1 tsp | optional |
Method
- Bring 700 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the corn and the chicken first and let them sit for two minutes to start opening up.
- Add the tortellini. Boil 7 to 9 minutes, stirring often so nothing welds to the bottom.
- Pull it off the stove. Do not drain. The starchy water is the base of the sauce.
- Sprinkle in the cheese powder and milk powder a little at a time, stirring, then the chili powder, garlic powder, lime, salt, and pepper.
- Squeeze in the mayo packets and stir until the sauce turns glossy and coats the pasta. Lid on for two minutes if the corn still has bite.
- Top with the cheese, the cilantro, and the last pinch of chili powder.
Slow-cooker casseroles do not travel, but this one comes apart cleanly into things that do. Chicken, corn, cream cheese, and yogurt all have dry equivalents, and the tortellini already exists in a shelf-stable form. The one real change is method: instead of building a sauce separately and folding pasta into it, everything cooks in the same pot and the pasta water does the thickening.
Hold onto that water. Cheese powder and milk powder need starch and heat to turn into sauce rather than grit, and draining the pot leaves you with dry pasta and a lump of powder. The mayo goes in last and off the heat — it is the fat that pulls the whole thing together, and it splits if you boil it.
Packing
Cheese powder, milk powder, and all the spices go in one small bag; tortellini in another; corn and chicken in a third. Mayo packets ride in a side pocket so a burst one does not soak the dry bags.
Variations
- A pouch of instant refried beans thickens it and adds protein if you skip the chicken.
- Crushed corn chips on top give it the texture the fresh version gets from the cob.
https://mealswithmaria.site/slow-cooker-mexican-street-corn-chicken-casserole