If you are looking for an alternative to beef or venison in your dehydrated meals, try some dehydrated chicken.
When I made dehydrated meals for my boyfriend’s first trip to backpack into the mountains in Colorado, I used ground beef and ground venison. Jerky used in the meals was also made with beef or venison. I knew beef and venison would dehydrate and rehydrate fine. I was also afraid to make anything with chicken because I feared him getting salmonella if I didn’t do something right.
After some research, I learned canned chicken is a good choice for dehydrating. I was focused not only on what will dehydrate well (I assume chicken would dehydrate), but what would rehydrate well. Some foods don’t rehydrate as well as others. Canned chicken rehydrated great!
What prep needs to be done for dehydrated chicken?
- Wipe the cans before opening to remove any visible dirt or dust. You don’t want to eat that!
- Before draining the liquid, remove the lid and discard any visible fat that can be seen on or among the chicken pieces.
- Place the lid back on top of the meat and use the can lid to press against the chicken while draining. This will help to press out as much moisture as possible.
- Break up the chicken into smaller pieces with a fork. Remember that the chicken will shrink a bit when dehydrating so don’t go too small.
- Put the chicken on a fruit leather tray to dehydrate. This will keep the smaller pieces from falling through and keep any missed fat from dripping down.
Pro tip: When draining the liquid off the chicken, save it in a container to use when you need chicken broth. For the best flavored broth use a mix of 1-part water to 1-part drained broth.
What temperature should you dehydrate the chicken?
Dehydrate the canned chicken at 155-165 degrees Fahrenheit or at the highest temperature setting on your dehydrator.
If you were cooking raw chicken at home, the minimum internal temperature for the chicken should be 165 degrees Fahrenheit.
While canned chicken is less likely to contain salmonella, food safety should always be practiced when making dehydrated backpacking meals. There is nothing worse than having food poisoning while on the trail!
How long will it take to dehydrate chicken?
Dehydrate the canned chicken for 4-5 hours.
What can affect the dehydration time?
- Moisture: undrained chicken will take longer to dehydrate, so try to get as much of the liquid out of the chicken.
- Size: larger chunks will take longer to dehydrate than smaller chunks.
- Spacing: too much chicken on a fruit leather sheet will limit the air flow.
- Humidity: the higher the humidity, the longer it will take to dehydrate the chicken.
How do you know if the chicken is dried?
The canned chicken pieces should look dried out on the outside. If you have some larger pieces, break some apart to make sure the chicken is dehydrated inside.
Dehydrated chicken by the numbers
- A 12.5 ounce can of chicken will dehydrate to about 1.8 ounces, which is about 2/3 cup of dehydrated chicken.
- One can will make 2 dehydrated meals, each using 1/3 cup of the dehydrated chicken.