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Chicken Gumbo with Cornbread and Cheesecake

Chicken Gumbo is not a meal unto itself, but it goes very well with freshly baked cornbread or biscuits. Fortunately, it’s easy to bake while backpacking if you use the right tools. I use the Outback Oven and provide further information about it elsewhere on this site.

At home

The tomatoes need to be peeled before drying. This is actually quite easy. drop the tomatoes into a pot of freshly boiled water and remove from heat. Leave to sit for one minute, then plunge the tomatoes into cold water and leave to sit for another minute. Now the tomatoes will be easy to peel with you fingers.

Slice the tomatoes crosswise ¼ inch thick. Lay the slices on the dehydrator tray without any of them overlapping. Set the thermostat to 145 degrees Fahrenheit and go do something else for 4–12 hours, depending on the relative humidity of the air. When done, the tomato slices will be leathery and stiff without any pockets of moisture. They’ll be softer when they’re hot, so you need to cool your sample before testing it. You don’t want to over-dry your food. Once the tomato slices have cooled, cut them up into small pieces with some scissors.

Bell peppers are often waxed and this can interfere with them reabsorbing water at cooking time. Because of this you should wash the Bell Pepper with soap and a sponge, being sure to rinse it very well. Cut the Bell Pepper into ¼ inch dice. Place a mesh screen on the dehydrator tray, as the Bell Pepper pieces will shrink enough to fall through the slats. Dry the Bell Pepper at 145 degrees Fahrenheit for the first 2 hours, then reduce the heat to 135 degrees. As with the tomatoes, the drying time of the Bell Pepper will vary from day to day. The Bell Pepper will be hard and brittle when done. Be sure to cool your samples before testing them.

Slice the Okra ¼ inch thick, discarding the stems. Steam for 3–5 minutes, then place on the dehydrator tray. Dry at 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 2 hours, then reduce the temperature to 135 degrees for the remainder of the drying time. The Okra will be tough and leathery when it’s done.

Package the Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Okra, and Onion Flakes in the same Zip-Loc bag. Put the Parboiled Rice in its own bag. In case you’re wondering what Parboiled Rice is, Uncle Ben’s Converted Rice is a well known brand. AlpineAire freeze-dried Chicken comes in 1 ounce pouches and 8 ounce cans. The cans are good for 4 meals, but they need to be repackaged in plastic pouches with a vacuum sealer. I use the FoodSaver for this purpose.

The quality of your Chicken Stock Paste is very important. Be sure to get a premium grade in which the first ingredient is Chicken Meat, rather than the ordinary stuff in which the first ingredient is salt. This can be found in 1 pound jars that make 5 gallons of broth at some, but not all, restaurant supply stores. I get mine at Smart & Final. There’s also a brand called Better Than Bullion that you can buy over the Internet or at Trader Joe’s and other gourmet food stores. Unfortunately, these products contain corn and whey protein, so if you’re allergic these foods—as some of my backpacking companions are—there really isn’t a suitable product that I can recommend.

It’s also important to use real Tabasco sauce and not just any Louisiana hot sauce. In my opinion, Tabasco has a distinctive flavor that makes it unsuitable for anything but Louisiana cuisine. However, in Louisiana cuisine it’s my first hot sauce of choice.

The Cornbread will rise faster at high altitude, so you may need to add some extra flour and water in order to dilute the baking powder in the Cornbread Mix. The instruction manual for the Outback Oven tells how much extra to add at any given altitude. The figure of 5 Tablespoons is for an altitude of 10,000 feet. This should work just fine anywhere between 8000 and 12,000 feet. You add 1 extra Tablespoon of water for every extra Tablespoon of flour.

Combine the Cornbread Mix and extra flour if needed. If the mix calls for adding eggs, use powdered eggs and add them now. You can get Wakefield powdered eggs at most backpacking stores. Be sure to get raw powdered eggs rather than freeze-dried scrambled eggs. Refer to the package label for how much egg powder and water to substitute for each fresh egg. Put the mixture in a Zip-Loc bag and include instructions for how much water to add at baking time. That would be 1/3 of what’s called for on a 1 pound box of mix + 1 Tablespoon for each Tablespoon of extra flour + the amount of water needed to reconstitute the powdered eggs. Be warned that Jiffy brand baking mixes don’t work well with powdered eggs.

It would be wise for me to give you a warning about Corn Bread Mix. Some brands are very sweet, almost like cake. If you don’t like it this way, inspect the nutritional labels on all the brands in the store, and pick the one with the least sugar.

Repackage the Powdered Milk and the Clarified Butter. The latter should go in a leak-proof Nalgene jar. Full cream instant powdered milk imported from Australia and New Zealand can be found in Indian and Pakistani grocery stores. The same goes for clarified butter, which is known as ghee in these countries. It’s important to use clarified butter, because it keeps better without refrigeration than regular butter.

In camp

The Cornbread

The Cornbread will need to cool for awhile after it’s finished baking, so we’ll discuss its preparation first. You would be well advised to practice with the Outback Oven on the stove in your kitchen at home, in order to get a feel for how it works.

Empty the Cornbread Mix into your cook pot and make a hole in the middle. Pour in the amount of water called for in the instructions you wrote for yourself. Stir with a fork until lightly blended, don’t worry about breaking up all the small clumps of flour. Pour the batter into the Outback Oven’s baking pan and place it on the stove.

Once you’ve put the Outback Oven on the stove, it will be a total of about 45 minutes before it’s time to turn off the heat. This includes pre-heating—which will take longer if it’s cold—plus about 25–30 minutes of baking time. You would be well advised to read further information about working with the Outback Oven before using it.

You can test the Cornbread for doneness by sticking a clean knife into it. If the knife comes out clean, it’s time to turn off the heat and let the Cornbread cool.

The Chicken Gumbo

Now for the preparation of the Chicken Gumbo. Put the bag of Tomatoes, Bell Pepper, Okra, and Onion Flakes in a 500 ml Nalgene Lexan jar. Put the freeze-dried Chicken in the jar too. Pour boiling water to cover into the jar and leave to soak for at least half an hour. The Lexan jar is heat resistant and water tight, so you could break out your stove during your lunch stop and have the presoaking already finished when you arrive in camp.

Put the contents of the Lexan jar in your cooking pot and add enough water to make up 6 cups. If you were able to get dry-cured Andouille Sausage, cut it up with your pocket knife and put it in the pot too. Simmer for 20 minutes to finish reconstituting the vegetables and chicken.

Salt interferes with the reabsorption of water, so we wait to add the Chicken Stock Paste until the dried ingredients are finished soaking up their water. Chicken Stock Paste tends to stick to itself, so you should put it in a cup and mash it up with a little bit of hot water from the pot at a time. Now add the diluted Chicken Stock Paste to the pot along with the Tabasco sauce. Dissolve the Cornstarch in 2 Tablespoons cold water before adding it to the pot. If you’re using Arrowroot—highly recommended if you’re allergic to corn—you can add it to the pot directly. Stir the Gumbo until it stops thickening, then cover and simmer for 5 more minutes. The Gumbo is now ready to serve.

The Cheesecake

Mix Powdered Milk with about ¾ cup water and mix well. When the milk is well blended add enough water to make up 1½ cups. Use the Clarified Butter for making the graham cracker crust. Follow the directions on the box for preparing the cheesecake, beating it with a fork instead of an electric mixer. The directions call for adding sugar to the graham cracker crumbs, but I think the crust is sweet enough without it. On most high altitude nights it will get cold enough outside to chill the cheesecake.

Total calories: 2749
Fat grams Carb grams Protein grams Fiber grams Sugar grams
91 404 102 24 211
Fat calories Carb calories Protein calories   Sugar ÷ Carbs
820 1519 410 56%
Percentage of total calories  
30% 55% 15%
Nutritional values for Chicken Gumbo with Cornbread and Cheesecake

If you want to make any changes to this menu, I suggest you download it as an Excel spreadsheet so you can keep track of changes in the nutritional values.

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