White Chicken Chili, Pot-Sized
Freeze-dried chicken, white beans, and green chiles rebuilt for one pot and one boil.
- calories
- 620
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 113
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 2, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 15 min
- total time
- 20 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
- Canister stove
- Liquid fuel
- Alcohol / Esbit
- Backpacking
- Car camping
- Basecamp
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Basic
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried shredded chicken | 3 oz | rehydrates in about ten minutes |
|---|---|---|
| Instant refried white beans or dehydrated white bean flakes | 3/4 cup | whole canned beans are water weight you do not need |
| Freeze-dried corn | 1/3 cup | |
| Dried diced green chiles | 2 tbsp | mild; dried onion and celery flakes go in the same bag |
| Dried minced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Dried celery flakes | 1 tbsp | |
| Chicken bouillon | 2 tsp | |
| Ground cumin | 1 tsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1/2 tsp | |
| Kosher salt | 1/2 tsp | taste after the bouillon before adding |
| Sour cream powder | 3 tbsp | |
| Powdered lime or citric acid | 1/2 tsp | or carry one real lime for a short trip |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Bring 600 ml of water to a boil. Dump in everything except the sour cream powder, lime, and oil.
- Stir, cover, and let it sit off the heat for ten minutes. The chicken and corn take the longest.
- Put it back on low heat for two minutes, stirring, until the bean flakes thicken it. Add water in splashes if it goes past stew and into paste.
- Kill the heat and wait a minute. Stir in the sour cream powder off the boil so it does not curdle into strings.
- Add the lime powder and the oil last. Taste, then salt.
The original is a six-hour crockpot recipe built on canned beans, fresh chicken, and dairy stirred in at the end. None of that travels. Bean flakes replace the cans and do double duty as the thickener, freeze-dried chicken replaces the shredded breasts, and dried onion, celery, and chile stand in for the vegetables that were only there to give the broth a base.
The two things to get right are heat and order. Sour cream powder goes in after the pot is off the boil, or it separates. Acid goes in last, because lime added early cooks flat. The bean flakes keep swelling for a few minutes after you stop stirring, so leave it looser than you want it.
Packing
Everything dry except the sour cream powder goes in one quart bag. Sour cream powder and lime ride in a small separate bag so you can add them at the end. Oil in a dropper bottle.
Variations
- A spoonful of hot sauce or a pinch of cayenne covers the jalapeño the original leans on.
- Freeze-dried refried black beans in place of half the white beans makes it thicker and darker.
- Skip the chicken, double the bean flakes, and swap in vegetable bouillon for a vegetarian pot.
https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/slow-cooker-white-chicken-chili