Mountain House Chicken Fried Rice with Vegetables

Not restaurant quality, but not bad. A decent size for a mid-hike meal or a breakfast.

I picked this up because I LOVE fried rice. Now, I know better than to believe that this could equal a restaurant offering, but I did rather like the look of it.

Preparation:
Pretty standard stuff. Cup and a half of boiling water. 9 minutes with a stir in the middle. I accidentally gave it 10 minutes, and it honestly could have done with maybe another extra minute or so as some of the rice was just a little gritty. Not a problem, more of a niggle really.

Nutrition:
This is decent stuff.  600 calories in the whole package, with a solid balance of fat (19g), carbs (82g), and protein (26g).  Sodium is reasonable; 200mg (67% rda) for the whole package. It wasn't noticeably salty tasting, and this felt about right for a moderately hot and sweaty day. It does contain egg, a noticeable amount of egg, and therefore a pretty big whack of cholesterol (1600mg, 78% rda); but this is a lot less than most freeze-dried egg-based backpacking breakfasts.

Taste and Satiety:
Now for the important bit.

This isn't restaurant-style fried rice. It lacks that wonderful oily texture and flavor—and that's not surprising. This is a freeze-dried meal that needs to be rehydrated, after all. So it ends up being just a little...damp. This is not bad in any way; it's just not *really* fried rice. It was a little mild as well. No real real flavor-pop, nothing standing out. So in future, I think I might try adding a little sesame and canola oil after rehydration, and maybe a pinch of chili flake before adding the water.

Vegetables were present, pleasant, and modestly flavoful. Chicken rehydrated well and tasted good.  It says mushrooms on the package, but I couldn't detect any.  And it had rather more egg than I would have expected, but that was fine.
In fact, that load of egg gave me an idea.

See, this meal is not particularly large. It would not suffice for me for the end of a big miles, heavy load day. It's fine for the middle a day hike, but not I think for end of day. But all that egg.... This could probably make a decent breakfast. It wouldn't bog you down and it's got plenty of energy. It's no bacon mashed potato, but it might do the trick. With a few minor additions.

Background

Joshua has been hiking, backpacking, and car-camping for more than four decades. He is based primarily in the Pacific Northwest, but has hiked throughout the US, with forays into Hawaii and New Zealand.