Sweet Potato, Chicken, and Bacon Soup
Dried sweet potato and pouch chicken rebuilt into a thick, smoky soup in one pot.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5 oz
- cal / oz
- 124
- protein
- 34 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 3 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 15 min
- water
- 500 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
- Campfire coals
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Sweet potato flakes or dried sweet potato dices | 3/4 cup | flakes rehydrate in a minute, dices take ten |
|---|---|---|
| Chicken soup base | 1 1/2 tsp | paste base in a small screw-top jar, or bouillon powder |
| Pouch chicken | 3 oz | a 5 oz pouch splits across two dinners |
| Real bacon bits | 2 tbsp | the shelf-stable cooked kind, not imitation |
| Dried leek or onion flakes | 2 tbsp | |
| Ground sage | 1/4 tsp | |
| Onion powder | 1/4 tsp | |
| Black pepper | 1/4 tsp | |
| Salt | to taste | the base is already salty, add at the end |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Bring 500 ml of water to a boil. Drop in the leek flakes, soup base, sage, onion powder, and pepper.
- Simmer the leeks four minutes. They are the slowest thing in the pot and they stay rubbery if you rush them.
- Stir in the sweet potato a little at a time so it does not clump. Flakes thicken almost instantly; dices need eight to ten minutes at a low simmer.
- Kill the heat. Add the chicken, bacon bits, and oil. Cover and wait two minutes.
- Stir, taste, salt. If it has gone to paste, thin it with a splash of hot water.
The original is a home kitchen job: whole sweet potatoes boiled forty-five minutes, then mashed. That is a lot of fuel for something a dehydrator already did. Dried sweet potato flakes hit the same texture in a minute of simmering, and they carry the mash step with them.
Bacon grease is what made the source version taste like more than squash, so the olive oil replaces it and the cooked bacon bits carry the smoke. Add the chicken and bacon off the heat. Boiling pouch chicken turns it stringy, and the bacon loses its bite the longer it sits in liquid.
Packing
Sweet potato, soup base, leek flakes, and all the spices go in one bag at home. Bacon bits ride in their own small bag so they stay crisp until they hit the pot. Chicken pouch and oil bottle pack separately.
Variations
- Instant mashed potato flakes stand in for half the sweet potato and cut the sweetness.
- A pouch of turkey works the same way and shows up cheap after Thanksgiving.
- Skip the chicken and bacon and it becomes a sage-and-leek sweet potato soup that still eats like dinner.
https://www.thisisnotdietfood.com/sweet-potato-chicken-bacon-soup