Lemon Chicken Couscous with Olives: DIY Backpacking Meal

This just-add-water backpacking meal draws inspiration from one of my favorite dinner recipes to cook at home: NYTimes Chicken Tagine with Preserved Lemons and Olives. The sweet yet tart jammy-ness of the preserved lemons combined with the salty brine of the Castelvetrano olives melds into a rich, saucy chicken stew that adds both flavor and texture to a bed of ordinary couscous.

Modified for the backcountry, of course, the slow cooked caramelization of the chicken and lemon rind doesn’t exactly happen the same way, but this recipe still captures the best flavor components of the original dish while utilizing a simplified list of ingredients that are relatively straightforward to source online. Best of all, this recipe – like every backpacking recipe you’ll find on RoadTrip Addict – is entirely customizable to suit your backpacking party’s individual needs: without the chicken you have an aromatic vegetarian lemon and olive couscous; omit the olives to cut down on the sodium; or rev up the protein by 15g with a packet of low sodium chicken bone broth powder and boost the calories with additional olive oil packets.

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This is one recipe where it’s worth the effort to procure the proper ingredients. Kalamata or Queen olives are a bit easier to find, but the mild, buttery texture of Castelvetrano olives (the best olives in my opinion) provide a balance to the dish, whereas the sharper acridity and borderline bitterness of black olives or Spanish olives can get in the way. Castelvetrano olives are a green Italian olive from Sicily, often referred to as a ‘butter olive.’

Also take note that dried lemons and freeze-dried lemons have distinctly different flavors. Dried lemons are noticeably more sour and bitter while freeze dried lemons have fresher, more citrusy flavor notes. This backpacking recipe works best with freeze-dried lemons.

Finally, make the lemon powder by pulverizing a few freeze dried lemon slices. This will give you a more genuine flavor compared to substituting crystallized lemon oil powers, like True Lemon.

• 1/2 cup Moroccon or golden style couscous
• 1/2 cup freeze dried chicken
• 1-2 freeze-dried lemon slices, quartered or wedged, seeds removed
• 2 Tbsp freeze-dried lemon powder (see note above)
• 1 packet mild, green olives
• 1 packet olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation Instructions: Measure out all the ingredients and add to re-sealable mylar boil bag. Store the bag of Castelvetrano olives and olive oil packet separately. Add an oxygen-absorber if you don’t plan to use this meal right away, if you’re traveling through a humid location, or out of an abundance of caution. Otherwise it’s one less thing to pack in, and one less piece of trash to pack out. Don’t forget to label your bag with the rehydration instructions!

Serving instructions: 1 cup boiling water. Wait approximately 5 minutes, then add in the bag of olives and olive oil and stir. Continue rehydrating for another 5 minutes. Enjoy!

 

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Have you tried our backpacking Lemon Chicken Couscous recipe? Let us know how we did and share your suggestions with fellow hikers. We love to hear about all the places this recipe has been enjoyed!