Dehydrating foil pouch meats

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.

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

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.

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 http://www.bauly.com has meatballs. They are pretty good but definitely need a sauce to jazz up their flavor.

http://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.