I used to do it in the oven on lowest setting and open and stir it up hourly. But I got a cheapo dehydrator (as shown in the video) and it works sooooo much better. It makes the whole process really easy.

Ah sure I see what you’re saying. And you can definitely bring all the ingredients separate (you bring cans of tomatoes and tomato paste and wet foods? Bringing whole tomaotes in your backpack is something I’ve never heard of, thats heavy, wet messy, and also more inportantly not shelf stable. And canned shelf stable tomatoes are soo heavy and lots of trash to carry out) and cook everything and add dehydrated meat into it, but that’s a ton more work out in nature and burns way more fuel than just prepping at home and then heating up water for almost instant chili on trail. When I’m in nature I want to spend my time enjoying nature not lugging around cans and a can opener, spending an hour plus prepping and cooking a meal. Dehydrated meals take about 15min to rehydrate and you get the quality food that you had a whole real kitchen to prepare.

Do you bring a cooler? I don’t understand what you mean by chili keeping well? You cannot put chili in a ziplock bag, put it in your backpack, and eat it four days later, it will go bad. You also cannot bring a cooler on a through hike. Anything besides car glamping you’re going to have to dehydrate chili if you want to bring it, or pay exorbitant prices for a brand pre-made like mountain house or peak refuel.

How am I camping? Last trip was a 5 day through the BWCA, before that was a 7 day backpacking through the tetons, prior to that it was a 5 day canyoneering in southeast Utah (don’t even get me started on trying to keep a cooler cold in utah even when we did have a night near the car). Dehydrated foods are shelf stable! That’s the draw. Super lightweight and shelf stable. Just add hot water!

You’re buying and bringing pre-cooked beans that have been dehydrated or just dry beans? Instant rice (which has been cooked and dehydrated) or just regular rice you have to cook for a long time? Dry beans have to be soaked for hours and then cooked for like half an hour unless you have a pressure cooker right?

If you cook everything and dehydrate it you can just add hot water and the food soaks up the hot water and you can eat it, like making instant ramen noodles except whatever meal you want. You can do this with purchased instant rice and instant beans, and then dehydrate the chicken and tomatoes and onions and everything else separate, I just find it’s cheaper for ingredients to buy regular rice and beans and cook everything together and dehydrate it together, plus then the flavors get cooked into the beans and rice much better.

Admittedly, beans and rice is more of a starter entry meal into dehydrating because it’s hard to mess it up. But more complex meals like a dehydrated chili or dehydrated chicken curry, you can’t just “take on every camping trip” especially if you are sleeping far from your vehicle.