Thanksgiving Pot
Stuffing mix, chicken, and mushroom gravy in one pot. Holiday dinner at 6,000 feet.
- calories
- 720
- weight
- 6.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 111
- protein
- 38 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 2 min
- cook
- 8 min
- total time
- 10 min
- water
- 450 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
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Boxed stuffing mix | 1 1/2 cups dry | one half of a standard box, seasoning packet included |
|---|---|---|
| Freeze-dried chicken | 1/2 cup | or a 5 oz foil pouch of chicken breast |
| Cream of mushroom soup powder | 3 tbsp | instant gravy mix also works |
| Whole milk powder | 2 tbsp | stands in for the yogurt |
| Freeze-dried green beans | 1/3 cup | |
| Olive oil or butter powder | 1 tbsp | |
| Salt and pepper | to taste |
Method
- Boil 450 ml of water. Drop in the freeze-dried chicken and green beans first and give them two minutes to come back.
- Kill the heat. Stir in the soup powder and milk powder until no lumps float.
- Dump in the stuffing mix, stir once, and clamp the lid on.
- Wait five minutes off the stove. The bread cubes do the rest of the work themselves.
- Fluff it, add the oil, and season. If it is soupy, wait another minute rather than adding more stuffing.
The original was a slow cooker dish: raw chicken breast, canned soup, Greek yogurt, and canned green beans, four hours on high. None of that travels. The rework keeps the flavor logic and drops everything that needs a fridge or a wall outlet.
Stuffing mix is already dehydrated bread, which makes it the one grocery-store ingredient here that was designed for this. It rehydrates in five minutes off-heat and thickens the gravy on its own, so you never simmer and never scorch the bottom of the pot. Milk powder replaces the yogurt for the creaminess without the tang, and the fat has to be added deliberately or this comes out lean and dry.
Packing
Stuffing mix, soup powder, milk powder, and dried vegetables go in one bag. Keep the chicken separate if you are carrying a wet pouch, and drain nothing into your pot.
Variations
- A spoonful of dried cranberries stirred in at the end gets you the rest of the holiday.
- Swap the chicken for a foil pouch of turkey if you can find one.
- Instant potato flakes in place of half the stuffing thickens it faster in cold weather.
https://mealswithmaria.site/4-ingredient-slow-cooker-chicken-with-stuffing