Chili is one of our favorite complete meals to freeze dry. It's warm, filling, easy to freeze dry, a snap to rehydrate, can be put together in limitless combinations, and tastes absolutely delicious!
We like to make and FD meals that are protein-rich, lower-carb, lower-sugar so we choose to leave out the beans in the various batches that we make.
We also try to limit the amount of tomatoes, onions, and garlic since they tend to be higher in carbs, and instead use a larger quantity of meat so that the meal as a whole is lower-carb compared to regular chili recipes.
This batch is made with majority meat - ground beef and ground pork - so it's both filling and full of flavor. This will also be a great FD meal to travel with - lightweight and hearty for times when you're on the go!
FD Tip: One of the reasons this Chili is so easy to Freeze Dry and then later Rehydrate is that the ground beef and ground pork were chopped into very small pieces. This will allow it to rehydrate virtually instantly.
We use a special Meat & Potato Masher Tool to chop it fine while browning the meat. We also love our two Silicone Spoonulas - they make stirring and spooning out our chili so much easier than our other spatulas. They are flexible and allow you to stir and scoop the chili around all the edges of the pot. We also like to keep this Stainless Steel Chopper - Scraper near our cutting board since it makes scooping up chopped veggies quick and easy. When you're making a large pot of chili, having the right kitchen tools just makes your FD Life so much easier!
Photo Below shows the two trays of Chili after freeze drying. You can see how the chili shrank away from the edges of the trays as the moisture was removed.
You can also see how the color of the Chili became lighter after freeze drying. The flavor is also more concentrated and it's feather-light which makes it perfect for air travel or backpacking when every ounce counts!
We have a Small Metal Spatula that we use to gently break the Chili up into pieces that will fit well into a mylar bag. We use our Food Funnel and Adjustable-Height Stand to fill our bags or jars. It's like having an extra set of hands and makes things more efficient - especially if you're packaging up your FD foods by yourself. If you need something bigger then check out this Larger Food Funnel.
We have a Small HR Pro FD and each tray easily holds 3 cups of chili. This means that we can package up each tray into a mylar bag and each get a generous 1.5 cup serving of delicious chili.
We like to use solid, zip-top, sealable mylar bags with OAs for our longer-term storage meals. We like to use vacuum-sealed jars with OAs for our shorter-term snacking foods or for anything that needs a temporary holding area before being re-packaged in some other way. For example, we store a variety of treats in jars and then re-pack into zip bags when assembling care packages or boxes to be mailed to Family & Friends during the holidays. If you need some high quality Mylar Bags (especially MRE-Style ones) or Slow-Acting Oxygen Absorbers then be sure to use our helpful links. We are happy to share any tools or accessories that make your Freeze Dried Life Easier!
We use our Custom-Built FD Log App to capture important notes and data on all of our batches. Later, we can refer back to see how long a prior batch took of a certain food item which helps us to plan ahead for running another batch. We can also see if we used any custom settings to achieve desired results and simply use them again. Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to!
If you'd like to learn how to custom-build your own FD Log App to track your batches and inventory using your cell phone or tablet, click here to learn more about our online tutorial!
We hope you found this to be Interesting, Informative, and Inspires you to freeze dry some Chili of your own very soon!
If you haven't already, be sure to check out our prior post on Freeze Drying Our Homemade Peanut Butter!
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