Sweet Chili Chicken Skillet
Pouch chicken, a sweet chili glaze thickened with cornstarch, and rice. Twenty minutes on a grate.
- calories
- 520
- weight
- 7 oz
- cal / oz
- 74
- protein
- 32 g
- serves
- 4, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 20 min
- total time
- 25 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
- Campfire coals
- Grill grate
- Canister stove
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Canned or pouched chicken breast | 4 pouches, about 7 oz each | drain the liquid off before it hits the pan |
|---|---|---|
| Instant white rice | 3 cups dry | |
| Olive oil | 2 tbsp | |
| Garlic | 3 cloves, minced | or 1 tsp granulated |
| Italian seasoning | 2 tsp | oregano, basil, and parsley if you are mixing your own |
| Paprika | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | 1/2 tsp each | |
| Thai sweet chili sauce | 3/4 cup | decant into a leakproof bottle |
| Bouillon | 1 cube or 1 tsp | stands in for the chicken broth |
| Honey | 1 tbsp | |
| Soy sauce | 1 tbsp | |
| White vinegar | 1 tsp | |
| Lime juice | 1 tbsp | the shelf-stable squeeze bottle is fine |
| Cornstarch | 1 tbsp | |
| Sesame seeds | 1 tbsp | |
| Dried cilantro | 1 tsp | optional, and no substitute for fresh |
Method
- Build the sauce first, in a cup or a bottle: sweet chili sauce, honey, soy sauce, vinegar, lime juice, cornstarch, and 1/2 cup water with the bouillon dissolved in it. Shake or stir until no cornstarch lumps remain.
- Boil 3 cups of water in the pot, stir in the instant rice, cover, and pull it off the heat. Leave it alone while you cook.
- Set the skillet over coals, not flames. Heat the oil, then add the garlic and cook it about thirty seconds, until it smells like something.
- Add the drained chicken along with the Italian seasoning, paprika, salt, and pepper. Stir and press it flat for four or five minutes so the edges brown. Pouch chicken is already cooked, so you are only after color.
- Pour the sauce over the chicken and stir. It will go from thin to glossy in two or three minutes. Take it off before it turns to paste.
- Fluff the rice, spoon the chicken over it, and scatter the sesame seeds and cilantro on top.
The original is fresh chicken breast in a cast iron skillet, which works fine at a car campsite with a cooler and less fine without one. Pouched chicken removes the cold chain and the food-safety math both. It is already cooked, so the skillet time is about browning the outside and reducing the sauce, not about getting the middle to temperature.
Cornstarch is the part worth getting right. Sweet chili sauce alone runs off the chicken and pools at the bottom of the pan. A tablespoon of starch mixed into the cold liquid before it goes anywhere near heat turns that runoff into a coating that stays put. Mix it dry into hot sauce and you get lumps you cannot stir out. Rice cooks off the heat while the skillet works, so this is one burner and one pot of hot water.
Packing
Premix the dry seasonings in one small bag. Sauce liquids go in a single leakproof bottle mixed at home, cornstarch and all, and get shaken again at camp. Rice in its own bag, chicken pouches wherever they fit.
Variations
- Add a handful of dried bell pepper or green beans to the rice pot so they rehydrate with it.
- Swap the chicken for two foil pouches of salmon and cut the cook time in half.
- Sriracha or red pepper flakes if the sweet chili sauce is too tame on its own.
https://campfirefoodie.com/sweet-chili-chicken-skillet