Teriyaki Chicken and Rice
Freeze-dried chicken, instant rice, and a teriyaki sauce you mix at home in a dropper bottle.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 131
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 10 min
- cook
- 10 min
- total time
- 20 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
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Liquid fuel
- Backpacking
- Basecamp
- Canoe / raft
- Bikepacking
- Dairy free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Instant white rice | 3/4 cup | the five-minute kind, not parboiled |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried chicken | 1.5 oz | about 1/2 cup, diced |
| Dried broccoli florets | 1/3 cup | |
| Dried snap peas or green peas | 1/4 cup | |
| Soy sauce powder | 2 tbsp | or 2 tbsp liquid soy in a leakproof bottle |
| Brown sugar or honey granules | 2 tbsp | |
| Cornstarch | 1 tsp | |
| Garlic powder and ground ginger | 1/2 tsp each | |
| Red pepper flakes | 1/4 tsp | |
| Sesame oil | 2 tsp | dropper bottle |
| Sesame seeds | 1 tsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Boil 500 ml of water. Add the chicken, broccoli, and peas and let them sit off heat for five minutes to rehydrate.
- Return to a boil, stir in the rice, and pull the pot off the stove. Lid on, ten minutes.
- Stir in the sauce powder mix. The cornstarch needs about a minute of stirring to thicken as the rice cools.
- Add the sesame oil and seeds at the end. Heat kills what makes the oil worth carrying.
- Salt and pepper to taste. Soy sauce powder is already salty, so taste before adding.
The original is a meal-prep bowl: pan-fried chicken, sautéed vegetables, rice cooked separately, sauce simmered in the pan. None of that survives a stove with one pot and one burner. So the chicken and vegetables go dried and get rehydrated in the same water that cooks the rice, and the sauce becomes a dry powder you stir in at the end.
Cornstarch is the part worth keeping. Without it the sauce is salty water that sinks to the bottom of the pot; with it the whole thing coats the rice. Add it dry, with the other powders, after the rice has absorbed most of the water — dumped into a full boil it clumps. The sesame oil goes in last, off heat, because its flavor is volatile and simmering it away wastes the calories you carried.
Packing
Rice, dried chicken, and vegetables in one bag. Sauce powders, cornstarch, and spices premixed in a small second bag so you can add them after the rice is done. Sesame oil in a dropper bottle, taped shut.
Variations
- Swap the chicken for a foil pouch of tuna or a scoop of TVP.
- Ramen or thin rice noodles work instead of rice; cut the water to 400 ml.
- A packet of instant miso stirred in adds depth if your soy powder is weak.
https://mealswithmaria.site/no-more-boring-lunch-prep-with-these-chicken-teriyaki-bowls