You will read a lot about how you should vary your meals and foods on the trail because you will get tired of always eating the same old thing, even if you could eat that same old thing every day at home. I probably have a rotation of 5-6 meals I take on long trips right now, apart from the ones I carry on weekend trips when I take more fresh ingredients.
The truth is that this recipe here is one of my favorites and when packing I will take more of this one than any other because I really could eat this one every day. It’s that good.
#almondbutter #chicken #coconutcream #garlic #ginger #coriander #cumin #fishsauce #sesameoil #coconutaminos #rice #veggies #cilantro
This recipe is adapted from one in the Primal BluePrint Cookbook by Mark Sisson at Mark’s Daily Apple. His is one of the first blogs that I followed when looking for recipes in line with how I wanted to fuel my body. He also has a lot of great information on nutrition so you can make your own healthy decisions about what you want to eat.
I make this sauce not only to eat with chicken but it’s also a great dip for veggies, too.
You will have already noticed from previous recipes I cook with a lot of garlic and ginger. It just adds so much flavor (and often heat) to a lot of different meals. Because I buy it in bulk and want to have it handy when I need it, I have started preparing it in batches and storing it in the freezer.
I fill ice cube trays with diced ginger and garlic and keep in an airtight jar! Now, I just drop one or two of these cubes into recipes and it makes cooking a snap. One cube is about 1 Tb when compressed.
For this batch of sauce I added sesame oil before I dehydrated it because I love the flavor at home. Normally you want to limit your oils when dehydrating but because I store my meals in the fridge and hike in week long sections generally, I won’t be worrying about the oil going bad in these meals.
However, when preparing for my longer trips requiring resupply, I leave it out because I know the meals would be sitting in my resupply packages without refrigeration. I will still add olive oil to these when I make them on trail for extra calories.
For the chicken*, I prepare it similar to how I do in Eat Your Veggies, but add some additional spices before dehydrating. Cumin, coriander, and coconut aminos give the chicken a savory flavor.
I blend the chicken, spices and aminos together and let stand for about 10 minutes before spreading it out thinly on a jelly roll tray for the dehydrator.
You know chicken is done dehydrating when it is completely dry, brittle and has no white in the center. I will even toss it in the food processor to break up the pieces and dry for a little longer.
No meat for you? Mushrooms, nuts, hemp hearts or tofu will work just as well. Please, please, please don’t use TVP (textured vegetable protein). Not only does it often contain MSG, it really is more a highly processed waste product than something edible.
The food industry made it up when they had to figure out what to do with all the leftover by-product from soybean oil production. You can read more in this post on TVP.
Doesn’t that look better than textured vegetable protein??
For the sauce, simply put all the sauce ingredients in a food processor and blend until smooth. You can swap more coconut aminos for the fish sauce and it will still taste great (for vegan).
Spread out on to a tray as thin as you can and put in the dehydrator on the meat setting and let dry for at least a day. When it starts to crack and lift from tray, break it up and let it dry until crumbly. You can then put it in the food processor to make a powder.
When completely dry…
From here, you can assemble the chicken and sauce with vegetables that I talk about in Eat Your Veggies, dried cilantro, mushrooms and almond slivers.
Cilantro takes but a few hours to dry…
Add your choice of carbohydrate like instant rice, rice stick or dried sweet potatoes like I describe in my Sweet Potato Rice and Mash post.
I will often vary my carbohydrates but use this same sauce throughout a backpacking trip. Toss in a few olive oil packets from Minimus.biz and you have a delicious dinner at the end of your hiking day.
I usually eat this with the no cook method, adding water to cover on a snack break I might take a few hours before I expect to eat dinner. On shorter trips, I will take along fresh cilantro and green onions to add after it soaks. Yum!
If using hot water, an insulated food bag like this is VERY handy for helping cook your food faster. You can pick one up at places like this or make your own like in this tutorial.
For another great chicken dinner (Winner, winner, chicken dinner!), check out my Thai Basil Chicken meal, too. If you enjoyed this recipe, head over to my Hiking and Backpacking Paleo Index for over 75 tasty treats to take on your next outdoor adventure.
For more information about how to dehydrate properly and safely, please visit my Dehydrating 101 page!
Editor’s note: since posting this recipe, I have started to swap out rice and rice noodles from my meals in order to include more vegetables or reduce my carbohydrate intake when necessary. My Trail Meal Bases: 5 Grain Free Swaps has all the details!
*For some reason I was looking at the Costco chicken label again this week (6/6/2017) and noticed it had modified food starch. I have started buying this brand now.
Almond Ginger Chicken Satay
Prep Time
15 minutes
Total Time
39 minutes
Course: Dinner, Main Dish
Cuisine: Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Nightshade Free, Paleo, Whole Food
Servings: 6 servings
Ingredients
Chicken
- 1 can cooked chicken
- 2 tablespoon coconut aminos
- 1 tablespoon ground cumin
- 2 teaspoons ground coriander
Satay Sauce
- 1 cup almond butter
- 1/2 cup full fat coconut cream
- 2 clove minced garlic
- 4 teaspoons grated fresh ginger
- 3 tablespoons fish sauce
- 2 tablespoons sesame oil
- 2 teaspoons coconut aminos
Vegetables
- dried mushrooms
- dried carrots
- dried cabbage
- dried cilantro
- dehydrated broccoli or cauliflower
Starches
- instant rice (optional)
- dehydrated sweet potatoes (optional)
Instructions
- For the chicken, add the can of chicken to a small bowl with the aminos, cumin and coriander and let marinate for 10 minutes.
- Let out on a lined dehydrator tray and dry 11-12 hours on the meat setting (155-165 degrees) until brittle and no white in the middle.
- Break the chicken up in the food processor and dry for another 2-3 hours.
- For the sauce, add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend well.
- Lay out on a lined dehydrator tray in a thin layer (use two trays if needed) and dry 24 hours on the meat setting until completely dry.
- You can flip part way through when dry enough to pick up and break up into smaller pieces to facilitate drying. Yes, you can dehydrate this the same time as the chicken.
- To assemble a meal, add 1/4 cup chicken, 1/3 cup sauce crumbles, and dried vegetables to a small bag (I usually do about 1/2 total). If you want to add a starch, add 1/4 cup to 1/2 cup depending on your needs.
- At camp, pour hot water over the mixture to cover and let soak 10-15 minutes. Enjoy!
- Store your chicken and satay sauce in airtight glass jars in the refrigerator and it will last longer, 6-8 months. Assembled meals can be vacuum sealed and stored in the freezer for longer.
Notes
If you want this recipe to last longer without refrigeration on the trail, you will need to add fat/oil at camp instead of having it in your original recipe. Substitute low fat coconut milk and leave out the sesame oil. When assembling, add 2 tablespoons of dehydrated coconut milk. On trail, add your sesame oil from a packet or other small container.
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