Moroccan Chicken - Backpacking

In this post we are going to take the Moroccan chicken recipe from my previous post and modify it for backpacking.  The main modification I'm going to make is dehydrating the chicken.  A 12.5 oz can of chicken weighs about 15 oz.  After you drain the water out, the remaining chicken weighs about 7.5 oz.  After you dehydrate it, it weighs about 2.5 oz.  That is a difference of 12.5 oz.  For 2 cans, we are talking about a 1.5 pound weight savings.  

A food dehydrator is ideal for this task, but it can be done in a regular oven.  Most ovens will only go as low as 170 degrees.  165 is the ideal temperature for dehydrating meat.  Close enough.  Put a cookie cooling rack on top of a baking sheet and then put parchment paper on top of the cookie cooling rack.  Use canned cooked chicken and cut it into small pieces.  Large pieces can "case harden" which is where the outside looks nice and dry, but it is still wet inside.   Leave it in the oven at 170 for about 8 hours.  

Once it is dry, fold the parchment paper in half and use that to pour the chicken bits into a Ziploc baggie.  If dehydrated properly, this should keep for a long time, but best to this just before your trek, so as not to push your luck.  

To rehydrate the chicken, add water in amount equal to twice the weight of the chicken.  If you have 5 ounces of chicken, add 10 oz of water / 1.25 cups.  Squeeze all the air out of the bag and give it about 2 hours to rehydrate prior to making dinner.  

Another modification you can make is substituting 2 packets of TrueLemon crystals for the 2 tsp of lemon juice.  This is not entirely necessary, because the weight savings is negligible, and lemon juice is too acidic to spoil.  

Lastly, you want to repackage all of your ingredients into resealable plastic bags, which will shed a few ounces.  

I recommend using a pot cozy, like the one in a previous post to prepare this meal.  This is also not crucial, as the couscous will cook in 5 min with or without the cozy, but it will keep your meal warm and may help with completely rehydrating the chicken.

This recipe has a total of 2601 calories.  That's 3 people at 867 cal each.


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