Chicken & Dumplings is an easy to make grocery store backpacking meal recipe that’s ultimate comfort food, both at home and out on trail. This hearty, creamy chicken soup is loaded with dumplings and can be cooked in just one pot. On those really cold nights, THIS is the soup I crave the most!

Mountain House makes a pre-packaged backpacking meal version of Chicken & Dumplings that costs $12.00 at REI. Here’s how I make my own version at home for $2.80 per serving.

Original recipe is from The Novice Chef

Grocery Store Backpacking Meal Recipe: Chicken & Dumplings

Ingredients

6 tbsp butter
1 cup diced yellow onion
1 cup matchstick carrots
1 cup diced celery
4 cloves minced garlic
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 (12 ounce) can evaporated milk (or half and half)
1 (32 ounce) quart chicken stock
4 cups shredded cooked chicken (I use a rotisserie chicken from Costco)
1 tbsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried thyme
Salt to taste

Cooking Instructions

In a Dutch Oven, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onion, carrots and celery. Cook for 5 minutes, until vegetables have softened. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute.

Add flour and stir to combine. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Slowly add the evaporated milk and chicken stock, stirring to combine. To prevent burning and lumps, make sure you continue to stir.

Bring to a boil and add chicken, thyme, black pepper and salt. Lowe the heat and let soup simmer, uncovered while you make the dumplings.

To Make the Dumplings

In a medium sized bowl, whisk to combine the flour, baking powder, pepper, salt and thyme. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour the milk and butter into the center of it.

Using a wooden spoon or rubber spatula, stir together until a dough ball forms. If the dough seems to dry, you can add an extra tbsp of milk.

Using a small sized cookie scoop (or a tbsp spoon), scoop dough and drop directly into the simmering soup. Place them around the pot, not all in the same place. Once all the dumplings have been added, gently press them down so the soup runs over just the top of them.

Place the lid on the pot and lower the heat to a low simmer. You don’t want the bottom of the soup to burn but want the soup to still be simmering at a low bubble to cook the dumplings.

Cook dumplings for 15 minutes with the pot lid on. Gently stir the soup/dumplings and cut one dumpling in half to make sure they have cooked all the way through. Halfway through the cook time, open the lid and press the dumplings back down under the broth and break up any dumplings that may be sticking together.

Once the dumplings are cooked through, serve hot.

Freeze-Drying Instructions

On a freeze dryer tray, line one serving (2 cups) of Chicken & Dumplings leftovers into a thin layer and spread it evenly over the tray.

I like to do one serving per tray, which makes one serving, 2 cups of food. This makes it super easy to package up the meal after the freeze-drying process into a single serving size package without having to measure the food.

Load the trays into the freeze dryer, start the batch and wait anywhere from 20 to 24 hours for the batch to be complete.

After the batch has been completed, remove food trays from the freeze dryer and package up each meal into a single serving bag.

Vacuum seal each bag to help preserve freshness and prevent spoilage and then store in a dark, cool place.

Weight Before Freeze Drying: 10 ounces
Weight After Freeze Drying: 5 ounces

Rehydrating in the Backcountry

  • Transfer the food into a food safe container that can withstand boiling water like a mylar bag, Stasher bag or a quart-sized Ziploc Freezer bag
  • Boil water
  • Add just enough boiling water to cover the food inside the bag. I don’t have exact measurements. I usually just eyeball this for each meal. When adding water, less is more to avoid the meal getting too soupy.
  • Stir and close the bag
  • Add food bag into an insulated food pouch or food cozy
  • Let food rehydrate for 10-12 minutes
  • Remove from the insulated food pouch (or food cozy) and stir
  • Serve and enjoy!

Serving Size: 2 cups
471 Calories per Serving
41 Grams of Protein
Cost Per Serving: $2.80
Makes 5 Servings

Grocery Store Backpacking Food | Cheap & Easy DIY Freeze-Dried Backpacking Meal Ideas

Learn how to make your own backpacking meals with some of other favorite grocery store backpacking meal recipes:

Beef Stroganoff
Biscuits & Gravy (with Homemade Biscuits)
Chili & Cornbread
Beef Stew
Hamburger Pie
Chicken Fajitas & Guacamole
Corned Beef & Cabbage

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