White Chicken Chili, Trail Version
Freeze-dried chicken, white bean flakes, and pickled jalapeños in one pot.
- calories
- 690
- weight
- 5.5 oz
- cal / oz
- 125
- protein
- 42 g
- serves
- 1, scales
- prep
- 5 min
- cook
- 12 min
- total time
- 17 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
- Basecamp
- Car camping
- Winter / snow
- Gluten free
- Nut free
- One pot
- Pre-mix at home
- Shelf stable
- Dump and stir
Ingredients
| Freeze-dried shredded chicken | 1.5 oz | |
|---|---|---|
| Instant white bean flakes | 1/2 cup | navy or cannellini; whole dried beans will not rehydrate on a stove |
| Freeze-dried sweet corn | 1/4 cup | |
| Dried diced onion | 2 tbsp | |
| Garlic powder | 1 tsp | |
| Cumin | 1 tsp | |
| Smoked paprika | 1/2 tsp | |
| Dried oregano | 1/2 tsp | |
| Ground coriander | 1/2 tsp | |
| Chicken bouillon | 1 tsp | |
| Salt | 1/2 tsp | |
| Pickled jalapeños | 2 tbsp | drained, in a small screw-top jar; dried jalapeño flakes if you want zero liquid weight |
| Lime juice powder | 1 tsp | or a wedge of lime carried whole |
| Dried cilantro | 1 tsp | |
| Corn chips | 1 oz | crushed, in a separate bag |
| Olive oil | 1 tbsp |
Method
- Boil 600 ml of water.
- Dump the whole dry bag in and stir until the bean flakes stop clumping.
- Cut the heat, cover, and wait eight minutes. The chicken and corn take the longest.
- Stir in the jalapeños and the oil. Add water a splash at a time if it went past stew and into paste.
- Crush the corn chips over the top and eat out of the pot.
The original is a whole roasted chicken, three hours, and a dutch oven. What survives the translation is the spice load. Cumin, smoked paprika, coriander, and oregano do most of the flavor work, and they weigh nothing, so they come along at full strength.
The substitutions are the recipe. Dried beans will not cook on a canister stove without burning a whole fuel can, so bean flakes stand in and thicken the pot at the same time. Freeze-dried chicken rehydrates in the same eight minutes the corn needs. Sour cream and shredded cheese are the two things that cannot travel, so the fat comes from oil and the crunch comes from corn chips crushed in at the end.
Packing
Everything dry goes in one quart freezer bag at home, spices included. Jalapeños ride in their own small jar, chips in their own bag so they stay chips.
Variations
- A packet of shelf-stable cheese powder stirred in at the end replaces the sour cream and cheese from the kitchen version.
- Powdered coconut milk, 2 tbsp, gives it the creamy body without any dairy.
- No jalapeños? A shake of chipotle powder covers the heat, not the tang.
https://www.theseasonalhomestead.com/white-chicken-chili-from-scratch