[pct-l] Dehydrated chicken breast - rehydrating with hot water

[Scott Williams]

I never diced my chicken, pork or beef, so maybe that's the issue, or maybe
it wasn't cooked till it was really tender.  If it's undercooked it will
end up like a kind of jerky and be really chewy and tough.  That's a good
thing for some uses, and not so good for others.  Because of the nature of
chicken and the ease with which it goes bad, I would only recommend drying
it after cooking it thoroughly.

But maybe it was because of dicing it.  I always shred my cooked meat
products but I leave the shreds pretty big as I want to know when I bite
into a piece of meat.  With chicken I hot smoke them over oak and apple
till falling off the bone and they are wonderful.  In a pinch I've used
precooked Costco chickens which are fall off the bone tender and they
shredded and dried really well, but with less flavor than my smoked
product.

I went cookless last summer and rehydrated all my meals for at least 2 to 4
hours.  The meat was always tender, my baked potatoes were in really big
pieces and needed 4 to 5 hours before they became like baked potatoes.  If
under soaked, they were like shoe leather.  Lint thought they were some
kind of meat or jerky they were so tough when under soaked.

Shroomer

On Sat, Mar 30, 2013 at 10:51 PM, JPL <jplynch at crosslink.net> wrote:

> where'd you get the hot water without a stove?  campfire?
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ann Marie
> Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2013 1:38 AM
> To: pct-l at backcountry.net
> Subject: [pct-l] Dehydrated chicken breast - rehydrating with hot water
>
> "I went stoveless this weekend on a little trip. It worked out so well
> I can't see ever using a stove on a hike when the weather is not cold
> ever again. I dehydrated my own food for this trip so we're not
> talking "easy" rehydrating stuff like mashed potatoes. I made
> concoctions of dehydrated sweet potatoes, carrots, kale, green and
> kalamata olives, pork tenderloin or chicken breast, golden beets. Put
> it in a peanut butter jar, added water and real Japanese miso paste,
> waited a few hours, poured a ton of olive oil in there and yum yum
> best food ever. Especially the pork. That stuff dehydrates and
> rehydrates really well and tastes great. The meats, beets and sweet
> potatoes were all cooked before dehydrating.
> "
>
> How did you dehydrate the chicken breast?
> I slow-baked the chicken, then diced it (while still juicy) and put it on
> trays to dehydrate. In camp, I added enough hot water to cover the meat
> plus.
> Then put the zip lock bag in a cozy.
> It was steaming still 10 minutes later, but the chicken was like rocks.
> We waited more minutes, still the chicken was uncomfortably chewy.
>
> I checked the leftovers in the morning, still the chicken was way too
> chewy.
> I added more water and by lunch time the dices were chewy enough but I
> would have liked them softer.
>
> So, what did I do wrong with the white chicken breast? Does it have to be
> shredded and not diced before dehydrating it?
>
> By the way, spaghetti squash and (frozen) chopped spinach rehydrate really
> well.
> So do turkey meatballs (dice them before dehydrating) from Trader Joe's.
> And a big can of crushed tomatoes from Costco.
> And Costco sells a bag of shelf-stable shredded beef that dehydrates
> and rehydrates really well.
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