Trail Food Recipe: Thai Peanut Chicken with Rice Noodles

Another staple in the repertoire. I like this one because it comes out very close to what you might cook at home. Use good, thin noodles so it isn't crunchy!

INGREDIENTS:

56 g Rice Noodles

3/4 cup Freeze Dried Chicken

2 Tbsp PB Peanut Powder

3 Tbsp Chopped Roasted Peanuts

2 tsp Chicken Bouillon

1/4 tsp Garlic Powder

1/4 tsp Ground Ginger

1/2 tsp Dried Cilantro (optional)

1/8 tsp Red Pepper Flakes or Dried Jalapeno

1/2 tsp Soy Sauce Powder

1/4 tsp Salt and Pepper

*2 Tbsp Olive Oil (Always added when preparing on the trail, not when packaging.)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Combine the ingredients (excluding olive oil) in a meal pouch or prep bowl, crushing noodles so they incorporate better and take up less space.

2. Remove as much air as possible and seal.

PREPARATION:

1. Add 1 1/2 cups boiling water and 2 Tbsp olive oil to the meal pouch.

2. Let sit in a meal cozy or other insulated container for approximately 9 minutes.

3. Stir well and dig in.

A Word or Two About the Ingredients

The use of the chopped peanuts and peanut powder is what really gives the peanut flavor punch here. But beware! A lot of the peanut powders have added sugar and other less than great ingredients.

This PBfit peanut powder is just 100% peanuts. Nice and clean and makes for a perfect ingredient in trail food, but really anything else you might use PB2, like smoothies or baking.

It's always surprising to me how often you can find a powdered version of sauces. Look for the simplest form you can find, but it's hard to avoid maltodextrin, unfortunately. But at least when you're using them in a trail meal, you aren't using a lot of it.

I found this Spice Enthusiast brand on Amazon and it's pretty good. They have a nice selection of simple powders and mixed spices, including Worcestershire sauce powder, which is great too.

When a recipe calls for garlic powder, onion powder, ground ginger or peppers, I will often substitute the powder for a dried, minced form. I think they taste closer to fresh and are fairly easy to get. My favorites for these are Litehouse (way to go, IDAHO!)

and Penzey's. While you can get dried peppers a lot of places, Penzey's has a nice selection of quick hydrating bell peppers, jalapenos, and other hot peppers. They are great in trail chilis, stews and more.

Let me know what you think!

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