July 6, 2017
Travelling around New Zealand for the past 15 months with my partner has given us the opportunity to explore the remote backcountry by hiking, splitboarding, mountain biking and in addition, taking careful consideration about our nutrition from the food we bring along, prepare and/ or cook for those overnight meals in the bush.
It seems lately that a majority of those who tend to venture into the backcountry spend a fair amount of time preparing and packing gear, while forgetting the additional focus on what foods to pack or meals to prepare beforehand to bring along. For myself and my partner, we keep our backcountry grub 100% natural and avoid the ever popular “Backcountry Cuisine” I seem to see if not coming out of the countless number of backpacks of fellow adventures we encounter, to sitting on the shelves in athletic outlets, and now even on the shelves of groceries stores. Food in the backcountry should be real, fun to prepare/cook, and most importantly give you the right amount of nutrients your body needs in order to preform at its best!
For most it seems after spending a long day outside adventuring by whatever means, dinnertime is where the nutrition intake should matter the most, but also where the efforts into preparing and keeping it healthy and delicious tends to go down the drain. To mix it up for those trying to find something to bring along that’s not only tasty and nutritious, is a simple, easy to prepare/ pack, and fun DIY backcountry butter chicken dish you can bring along to cook on your next overnight adventure!
Backcountry Butter Chicken
Serves: 2
Cooking time: 15-20 mins (in the field)
Cooking gear: pot, pan, liquid fuel (ex: MSR)
Prepare at Home
- 1 large onion, loosely chopped
- 1 cup chicken stock (natural from bones or organic stock)
- 2 bay leaves
- 50 g coconut butter
- 1 tbsp crushed garlic
- 1/2 tbsp crushed ginger
- 1 tbsp mashed chilli
- 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1 tbsp garam masala
To prepare the recipe base: heat the chicken stock in a medium pot and add onions, bay leaves (until soft), butter and spices. Let it simmer to a boil for 1-2 hours, and then let it cool down for an hour. Transfer the sauce to a air-tight container once cooled down and freeze until it’s time pack it in your backpack and head into the bush!
In the Backcountry
- Recipe base (ingredients above prepared at home)
- 1 cup tomato paste
- 250 ml organic UHT cream or coconut milk
- 100g coconut oil (unsalted butter option)
- 500 g chicken chopped into slices (substitute beans and/ or sliced peppers, carrots, mushrooms, kale/ chard)
- 1-2 cup(s) rice
Pan-fry the chicken slices with a few tsp of water until the majority is fully cooked. Combine the recipe base, tomato paste, cream and coconut oil/ butter before adding it to the chicken. Let it simmer for 15-20 minutes. Cook the rice (to a boil) for approximately 15 minutes.
Portion out some rice and add your butter chicken sauce on top to enjoy this amazing and nutritious dish after a long day of adventuring outside in the backcountry!
