A big hearty bowl of chicken stew fills bellies and warms people up on cold evenings when on adventures. This recipe is prepped in 1 pot and serves a family of 4, with minimal cleanup. No raw meat, no cutting vegetables. Just simmer and serve! This is a revisit of an old one pot recipe we did years ago, but made for a bigger group.
Chicken Stew And Dumplings
- 2 cups biscuit mix (Bisquick or similar)
- 2 Tbsp dry milk
- 2 tsp dried parsley
In a Food Vac Bag:
- 1½ cups freeze-dried sliced chicken
- ½ cup diced dried vegetable mix
- ¼ cup diced dried onion
- ¼ cup diced dried potatoes
- 1 tsp dried parsley
- 1 tsp dried garlic
- 8 tsp or 8 packets low sodium chicken bouillon
- ½ tsp dried thyme
At home:
Mark “add 2/3 cup water” on the biscuit mix bag, and seal tightly.
In camp:
Open the vegetable bag, add the 1½ cups cool water and let soak for 10 to 15 minutes.
Add 8 cups water and the vegetable bag to your pot (a 3 Liter pot works best). Bring to a boil, lower the flame a bit on your stove and keep simmering.
Meanwhile, mix up the biscuit mix in its bag with the 2/3 cup water called for, push out any air, seal the bag and knead till mixed, or use a spoon to mix.
Snip a corner on the bag and start squeezing out dumplings into the hot stew, or using the spoon to drop in gently.
Let them simmer on the stew, with lid on for 5 minutes or till the dumplings are steamed and done.

When prepping recipes using freeze-dried ingredients (versus dehydrated) you want to ensure the bag is well sealed. Particularly with freeze-dried meat. If you are making the meal to use that weekend, a plastic bag will work great. If longer, I highly suggest using a FoodVac sealer and precut quart size bags.
For long-term storage of this meal, seal the chicken separately from the vegetables. For short-term, it is fine to seal it with the dehydrated vegetables.
FTC Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links that give us commissions on products purchased. These items are what we used in the recipes. This includes both Amazon and Thrive Life.
~Sarah