dehydrating chicken

[beachbunny]

i did'nt feel like hijacking the retort thread. does anyone have advice on dehydrating chicken? thanks

[Halloween]

I've had the best success buying canned chicken breast chunks, mashing them with a fork then dehydrating.

[daddytwosticks]

I've had the best success buying canned chicken breast chunks, mashing them with a fork then dehydrating.
Agree. Never tried it, but others have said dehydrated regular chicken turns into jerky, basically. :)

[FarmerChef]

Dehydrating chicken is easy and you can do it a few different ways:

Easiest - Buy ground chicken or turkey and cook in a pan. If there is excess oil in the pan (unlikely due to the low fat content) drain the fat and rinse the meat. Place on your dehydrator trays using parchment paper or tray liners to keep the pieces from falling through the slots in the tray. When they're hard yet crumbly their done.
Not as easy - Buy chicken breast and cut into tiny pieces (warning: tedious). Cook and then dehydrate as for ground chicken. The problem is that it will not rehydrate fully and you'll wind up with a little toughness in the middle of the pieces. Still, it can be nice in a bowl of soup or something else.

I liked Halloween's canned chicken chunks idea. That will produce flakes similar to tuna which shouldn't have the tough-part-in-the-middle problem of cut up chicken breast. Honestly, we just use ground chicken for 100% of our chicken recipes because it's just so darn easy and rehydrates perfectly.

Consider also spicing your meat as you cook it to add extra flavor (like when you make taco meat). It will stick to the meat as it dehydrates and give you an extra flavor boost on the trail.

[Pringles]

Cook your chicken in a pressure cooker. After its been pressure cooked, you can cut it into small pieces or shred it fairly easily. At that point it's much like the canned chicken that you buy. Then you dry it.

[Drybones]

A little off topic, but, I dehydrated some canned salmon yesterday. I taste tested a small piece after a couple of hours to see how it was drying and had trouble not eating the whole batch, crisp and tasty, much better than the salmon you buy in the pouch.

[Blissful]

I've dehydrated a lot of canned chicken. Works great in dishes with a little advanced soak and boil time of a few extra minutes.

[Wise Old Owl]

Dehydrating Chicken copied off the internet....

http://www.backpackingchef.com/images/pressure-cooker.jpg
The secret to dehydrating chicken so that it turns out tender is to pressure cook it first. Pressure cooking chicken tenderizes and intensifies its flavor better than any other cooking method.
Before I discovered pressure cooked chicken, I tried poaching chicken breasts in chicken broth in a pot. I cut the cooked chicken into strips and dried it for eight hours at 145 degrees. When I rehydrated the chicken it was very tough.


http://www.backpackingchef.com/images/dehydrating-chicken.jpgDrying Canned Chicken:
Canned chicken is pressure cooked! I have dried several brands including Swanson, Target, Hormel, and Tyson. They all turn out very tender when rehydrated.
I also dehydrated a couple of brands of pouched chicken which is also pressure cooked. The pouched chicken turned out more tender than my home cooked chicken, but was a little chewier than the canned chicken.
A 12.5 ounce can yields 7 ounces of chicken after you drain the liquid. For best results, pull chunks apart into smaller strips and spread out on your dehydrator tray.
Dry at 145 degrees for approximately eight hours. When dry, a 12.5 ounce can yields a little less than a cup and will weigh 1.5 to 2 ounces.
Store dehydrated chicken in the freezer until you are ready to use it or pack for a trip. Chicken meat is more fibrous than beef, so bacteria can grow more easily in the open spaces. For that reason, I wouldn’t store it for more than a month outside of the freezer.
PasnThru’s experiment with broasted chicken purchased from a restaurant.


http://www.backpackingchef.com/images/pasnthru-dehydrating-chicken.jpg
Broasting is pressure cooking with oil. The photo shows dried breast meat on left and thigh meat on right with the rehydrated meat in the foreground. PasnThru was pleased with the results. Because the meat is cooked under pressure, much less oil enters the meat compared to open frying. Fast food restaurants publish nutritional information on their websites. I noticed that Kentucky Fried Chicken uses mono sodium glutamate in their chicken which is troublesome for lots of folks. There was no msg in any of the canned chicken that I tried, but they were all high in sodium. You will get rid of some of the sodium when you drain the liquid off.
Thanks PasnThru!
Steaming Chicken - Another Option for Dehydrating Chicken

Jeff the Chef of Issaquah, WA writes:


Buy a large chicken, not extra large, so as not to get a fatty bird.
Skin and trim all the fat.
Cut it in half and steam for one hour until falling apart.
Remove bones and pull meat apart into small pieces.
Hit with seasoning salt or a little soy sauce if for Asian dish.
Dehydrate at 145° - 155° until dry (time varies with dehydrator model)

Yield: 15-20 ¼ cup portions for the price of two cans!
Jeff says, "Steamed chicken has excellent flavor and less fat than canned chicken. The fat drips off the bird during steaming and can be helped along by pouring hot water over the bird. I do this with turkey and duck also."
Thanks Jeff the Chef!

[Grinder]

The first time I dehydrated chicken it was tough and stringy as reported by others.

Then next time, I pressure cooked boneless skinless breasts a long time (don't remember exact time, but like 1.5 times recommended) Then I shredded it with a food processor and dried it. That batch was pretty good in noodles and sauce sides. It rehydrated well.

[FarmerChef]

I'll have to give the pressure cooking method a try. My previous attempts with just regular pan cooking or baking resulted in chewy centers. Also germane to this discussion is flavor. I noticed that both chicken chunks and ground chicken tend to loose a lot of their flavor through the dehydration process due to fat loss (which has most of the flavor). I should point out here that I raise meat chickens (the other half of my trail name) and they have stronger "chicken" flavor compared to a generic big box chicken. Still, I find myself adding bouillon to my recipes to add back in chicken flavor.

Does pressure cooking have any enhancing effect on flavor?

[beachbunny]

thanks folks. the consensus looks like i've got to cook it first. i make alot of deer jerky and i just sit it in the marinade then dehydrate. thanks again from the beach

[Pedaling Fool]

Yes, pre or post cooking seems to be the concencus, at least in all the dehydrating books I've read, but I don't. I simply marinate the chicken over night then dehydrate, no cooking, but a lot of salt, in addition to other stuff.

[Atlee]

I found dehydrated chicken on ebay. There are many sellers some have freeze dried too. I bought this one when it rehydrated it turned into a hamburger and rehydrated super fast. It was really low sodium and worked perfect to make our own quick cook backpacking meals. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=350571519718&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT

[Wise Old Owl]

Yes, pre or post cooking seems to be the concencus, at least in all the dehydrating books I've read, but I don't. I simply marinate the chicken over night then dehydrate, no cooking, but a lot of salt, in addition to other stuff.

Over time - Kikkoman low sodium provides enough salt to taste... part of the marinade that is so important. As the meat dries - the acid provided by Kikkoman prevents molding from kicking in a month later. You do not need to add salt.

The real issue about dried foods - is the lack of fresh cooked aroma the steam that brings the flavor to the nose. Imagine a wine without a "smell" or sweetness of fresh baked bread. The steam or water molecules bring the oils and carbon to the nose to signal the flavors.

Salt alone is not enough to put flavor back in.... other ingredients need to enhance flavors.

[Pedaling Fool]

But salt is my sugar :)

[BigRing]

I brine chicken breasts first and then stew them until cooked. shred them with a fork while warm, and dehydrate. I do soak the dehydrated chicken in a freezer bag with a little hot water, placed in a cozy before adding to the dish I am preparing.....MMMMMmmmmmmm!

[Wise Old Owl]

Great Idea might as well slow cook in a pot all day... add some BBQ sauce too.

[Water Rat]

I apologize if there have been more recent threads on this topic that I probably overlooked... I figured the topic of this thread was pretty close to my current question.

I am toying with the idea of dehydrating a small batch of canned/pouch chicken for an upcoming trip. I don't have a dehydrator,so I was thinking about doing the dehydration with my oven. Yes, there is basic information online regarding this method. I was just wondering if anyone has personally done any chicken dehydration this way. Any helpful tips on chicken dehydration in the oven?

It sounds like canned is the way to go because I can use a fork to "flake" the chicken, so no moist chicken cube centers
Internet says 4-5 hours drying time - does that sound about right, or has anyone discovered that "magic" amount of time where the chicken is dry, but not shoe leather?
If you cut your chicken into flakes, did it rehydrate pretty fast with FBC method?

I am obviously new to this and thought I would dip my toes into the waters of dehydration, before running out to buy a dehydrator.

Thanks in advance!

Water Rat

[Pedaling Fool]

My advice is potentially dangerous, but it has always worked for me. I don't pre/post cook my chicken, simply put it in the dehydrator raw and allow to dehydrate. However, I do add copious amounts of salt to the marinade and allow it to marinate overnight.

I've eaten my chicken jerky that was about a year old and I never refrigerate, nor do I vacuum seal. I simply put it in plain ziplock baggies and keep it dry and away from light, especially sunlight.

When you're on a long-distance hiking trip you should not worry too much about taste in your food, meaning there is little point in making an elaborate batch of marinade, the marinade is just to add the salt to help keep it. However, when I make jerky where I'm not making large portions for a LD hike, then I'm more elaborate on the marinade for the purposes of making it taste better.

[atraildreamer]

I have pressure cooked both chicken and beef prior to drying the meat into jerky. The chicken came out pretty well, but the beef crumbled into meat flakes more suitable for adding to a trail recipe than using as jerky. The high pressure and temperature breaks down the structure of the meat, more so with beef than chicken.

The high temperature and pressure of pressure cooking prior to dehydrating should kill any nasties that are lurking in the meat.

Most dehydrating guides recommend heating the meat to 165 degrees F., (70 degrees C.), after dehydrating, to kill any bacteria in the meat.

[SeaNymph]

I have spent days dehydrating everything. I made a chicken jerky that was wonderful....better than beef. I also boiled chicken with spices and veggies and dehydrated it for stews and soups. I made chicken and rice and dehydrated that as well.

The recipe for the chicken jerky was simple to make and only had to marinate for 20 minutes. Chicken and rice took overnight to get dry. Tested it out yesterday before getting on the trail on Saturday. http://www.backpackingchef.com/best-backpacking-recipes.htmlThe Hiking Gourmet is a good site as well.

Homemade or canned? It is up to you but I enjoy the flavor of my chicken and I love cooking.

[lonehiker]

I was a bit skeptical about dehydrating chicken myself. But, recently tried dehydrating canned chicken. I probably over-dried it, but was pleasantly surprised with the results. It dried into tiny little chunks of whatever you would call it but rehydrated into little chicken bites. I FBC so I allowed it to rehydrate in the meal for about 30 minutes. Will be doing this more.