Mountain House Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken

Good flavor, good consistency if made with 3/4ths the water suggested, high calorie content. This will be in my rotation from now on.

Returning to my project of testing freeze-dried meals at home so I don't get a bad surprise in the backcountry, I bought two packets of the Mountain House Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken, based on the fact that it is the highest calorie packet meal offered by Mountain House and it seems to be well-regarded in reviews on other sites. Mountain House seems to consistently be the least expensive brand of freeze-dried packet meals on the market, and their quality is usually pretty good.

As I have learned from making other Mountain House freeze-dried packet meals, I added less than the amount of water suggested on the packet directions. I have found that generally speaking, using the amount of water they suggest results in a very sloppy consistency. The packet says use 1 1/3 cups of boiling water (325 mL), so I used 1 cup (240 mL).

My cooking method for these meals is to dump in the water, stir well, seal the packet, and place the packet inside two nested Amazon bubble wrap mailers for insulation, fold them over to keep the heat in, allow to sit for 20 minutes, then open, stir, and eat. After 20 minutes sealed inside the doubled bubblewrap envelope, the meal is still pleasantly hot, though you could probably get away with less time—the package directions call for a total of 9 minutes, uninsulated.

With this, I would say that I could have added a splash more water, but I'd still stay a bit shy of the full 1 1/3 cups they recommend. However, the consistency as I made it was still pleasing to me. The flavor was not bad, but it wouldn't hurt to add a little extra seasoning (just probably not more salt, as I found it had plenty of salt).

Each Mountain House packet meal is generally billed as being two servings, but they are really one adult-backpacker-sized serving. In the case of the Fettuccine Alfredo with Chicken, the Nutrition Facts claim 820 calories for the entire packet, and because this is the highest of all the meals they offer, I was particularly interested in testing it.

I'm happy to say that I'm satisfied with this meal, and I will definitely order more of them. A solid 4 out of 5 rating for a meal that I would definitely recommend.

Background

First time eating this particular meal, but not my first time with Mountain House freeze-dried meals. I have a couple of other reviews of them here on Trailspace.