I need some foil pouch meats for my Freezer Bag recipes but don't want to carry the weight. Can I dehydrate any of these successfully?

Chicken
shrimp
salmon

The short answer is yes.

Keep a window open and use a fan when drying salmon... stinks to high heaven. So does shrimp. You have to watch shrimp like a hawk because if you over-dry it... it won't come back all that well. Chicken dries and rehydrates like a charm, however you'll need to rehydrate with boiling water and give it a good half hour or more.

Edited by Laurie_Ann on 04/05/2011 12:16:29 MDT.

I do canned chicken all the time. You might save some money by buying canned vs the pouches, fwiw.


ETA: Link. http://www.onepanwonders.com/chicken.htm

Edited by dicentra on 04/05/2011 12:17:15 MDT.

Save money if you can by buying the massive cans at Costco and shred, then dry!

I tried dehydrating canned chicken a few months ago. I shredded it into small pieces and used my Excalliber dehydrator on the meat setting (155F I believe). It dried easily, however, I could not get it to rehydrate. I put it in my pot with water and boiled them both. Then, I let it sit in a cozy for 30 minutes. No luck....still crunchy. What am I doing wrong??

Hey Stephen,

I just had the exact same experience. Dehydrated some canned chicken from costco and found it very difficult to rehydrate. Finally, I resorted to boiling some water in morn/afternoon and allowing it to rehydrate the entire day while I hiked. Kinda of defeated the weight savings. Maybe over dehydrated??

Could be on that. I haven't found too much issues when I dry it but IMO I prefer it out of the pouch.

Freeze dried meat really is stellar in this case - if you want as light as you can get it and have it rehydrate in 5 minutes.....

I did a comparison between dehydrating canned chicken and fresh lean ground beef vs. the Packit Gourmet freeze-dried chicken and ground beef. I found they were the same price, and that didn't include the electricity for cooking the ground beef and for dehydrating both. Obviously, I'm getting the freeze-dried this year and saving a lot of work.

If you already have the foil pouches, save them for short (2-3 day) trips.

I'm guessing I over-dried it.

@Sarah - how do you dehydrate your canned chicken?

@Mary - How is the chicken from pack it gourmet the same price as canned chicken? It's 9.99 for what amounts to 1 and 1/2 cup of chicken vs the same amount canned for only a few dollars. When bought in bulk from costco or sam's club, canned chicken is a pretty good deal.

Sarah,

nvm. I found the section on your site where you talk about this. I believe I dried mine for 8 hours. I will try 5-6 hours and see how it comes out. I'd like to get this right so I can make a bunch of easy 1 pot meals to send ahead for my thru hike next year.

MaryD, I found the same thing in 2009 when I was making meals to drop to a couple friends who were thru-hiking. Using FD meat ended up being cheaper and a stable choice. It also allowed them to rehydrate with cool water as well quickly :-)

Stephen, my calculations used the large size Packit Gourmet FD meat container (16 oz. chicken, 24 oz. hamburger), not the small. I was also comparing to the highest quality canned chicken (Winco prices) and to extra-extra lean ground beef. I have a lot of meals to prepare and using the FD meat will save me a LOT of time and electricity. Sarah, thanks--I'm glad I didn't calculate wrong!

Home dehydrated chicken does come out pretty crunchy. I suggest running it through the blender or food processor after dehydrating.

Edited by hikinggranny on 04/05/2011 21:58:17 MDT.

You two pretty much have me sold on the freeze dried chicken. I've got the ground beef down to my own little science, and I like cooking whole meals then dehydrating it all together. I wouldn't be able to do that with the freeze dried meat, but I can work around that for the chicken.

I have no experience with anything freeze dried (except eating it), so is there anything specific I need to do for packing? Can I just throw it in a bag with the rest of my dried ingredients and vacuum seal it?

What I found worked best is I tucked the meat in its own bag. Then sprinkle in right before making - this way the meat stays freshest (not absorbing moisture in). But for weekend trips don't worry, just add into the bag with everything else!

Someday I am going to try the FD meatballs....lol!

Meatballs....now there's an idea

Bauly Specialty Foods www.bauly.com has meatballs. They are pretty good but definitely need a sauce to jazz up their flavor.

www.beprepared.com is a very good resource for cans of harder to find freeze-dried meat btw :-) Based out of Utah.

OK, guess I'll buy the freeze dried meats and save my retort pouch meats for weekend trips.

I did read somewhere here that dehydrated turkey rehydrates well.

Thanks for the insight everyone.