Best Backpacking Meals (By an outdoor guide!)

Looking for the best backpacking meals on the market? Dehydrated and Freeze-dried meals can be hit or miss. Luckily, I’ve laid out the best tested and true backpacking meals so you don’t have to play trial and error on the trail.

Why this blog? Hi there! My name is Maddy and I’ve worked as an outdoor guide and writer since 2018. From backpacking some of the prettiest places in North America to guiding overnight sea kayak adventures, I’ve eaten a lot of dehydrated and freeze dried meals. I’m here to help you find the best backpacking meals on the market! Notably, I went through 17 dehydrated backpacking meals throughout a 70 sea kayak trip in British Columbia, and have been chugging away at a variety of meals on backpacking trips since. Most recently, I vetted five new meals on a six day backpacking trop through the Canadian Wilderness.

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Best Dehydrated Meals for Backpackers

Choosing the right backpacking meal is pretty important. If you’re opting for dehydrated or freeze-dried, keep in mind that in rehydrating the food, you’re increasing the weight. That means if you get the “ick” for that food and don’t finish it, you’re stuck packing it back out even heavier.

Here’s a quick list of the backpacking meals I’d recommend, for who and why:

• Peak Refuel Venison Country Casserole: Best Hearty and Filling Backpacking Meal
• Peak Refuel Homestyle Chicken and Rice: Best Backpacking Meal for Gastrointestinal Distress
• Peak Refuel Chicken Alfredo Pasta: Best Backpacking Pasta Meal
• Mountain House Chicken & Dumplings: Best Bread-adjacent backpacking meal
• Mountain House Chicken Fried Rice: Best Stir Fry-Like Backpacking Meal
• Backpacker’s Pantry Shepard’s Potato Stew: It’ll do
• AlpineAire Mexican-Style Veggie Bowl: Best Burrito & Best Vegetarian Backpacking Meal
• Good 2 Go Pasta Marinara: Best Gluten-Free & Vegan Backpacking Meal

Read on for more on the best backpacking meals, plus how to cook those meals so you’re not chewing on crunchy chicken and one meal you should ABSOLUTELY avoid at all costs.

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1) Peak Refuel Venison Country Casserole: Best Hearty and Filling Backpacking Meal

If you’re looking for something delicious that you will finish eating and look forward to on your next backpacking trip, dive into the Peak Refuel Venison Country Casserole. This is creamy, the meat rehydrates fully, and it’s really satisfying and genuinely good after a long day of hiking.

How to perfectly rehydrate a dehydrated meal:

This really can’t be overstated, but follow the directions and put the right amount of water into your dehydrated meal! It says on the back how much to add! Bring your water to a boil, and pour in just under the amount suggested (about 2 oz less), let it sit for 10 minutes, then open it up and at your last two (freshly reboiled ounces) IF AND ONLY IF the meal looks like it could use more water.

Avoid opening the bag too often, give it time to set, and keep it as close to the directions as possible. I do tend to recommend going just a little light on the water — it’s easy to add hot water to help things along on the rehydration process. It’s impossible to make your soupy meal less soupy. I can’t get over how many people will complain about a dehydrated meal being too crunchy when it’s clear they didn’t actually measure!

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2) Peak Refuel Homestyle Chicken and Rice: Best Backpacking Meal for Gastrointestinal Distress

If you’re looking for something warm, filling and easy on the stomach (minus the cream), try the Peak Refuel Homestyle Chicken and Rice. My friend had this our first night on a recent Porcupine Mountains Backpacking Trip at the recommendation of a guy in REI who said his wife thinks it’s “restaurant good”.

Alanna’s review was that it is indeed restaurant good, and she doesn’t even like Chicken and Rice. Another win for Peak Refuel!

What’s the difference between dehydrated and freeze-dried backpacking food?

Freeze-drying and dehydrating are both methods to remove moisture from food (hence why we re-hydrate). Freeze-drying removes more of that moisture, making it crunchier and last a lot longer. Meanwhile dehydration still removes most of the moisture, but you’re often left with that leathery texture. Think of, say dehydrated versus freeze-dried strawberries. The freeze-dried strawberries are going to be crunchy with almost a dusty texture, while the dehydrated are likely to seem more like fruit leather.

According to Phillip Werner at Section Hiker, freeze-dried food also retains quite a bit more of it’s nutritional value and rehydrates more quickly.

Anecdotally, I think freeze-dried food tastes a lot better than dehydrated. It basically rehydrates to a meal in it’s full glory, where a lot of the time dehydrated food feels more like a sad echo of the meal it once was.

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3) Peak Refuel Chicken Alfredo Pasta: Best Backpacking Pasta Meal

If there’s just one thing I know about myself, it’s that if I’ll eat nothing else after cranking out 15 miles on an upset stomach, I will eat a chicken alfredo pasta. Of all of the chicken alfredo pastas for backpackers on the market, the Peak Refuel Chicken Alfredo Pasta is the one meal to rule them all.

It’s creamy, it’s filling, it’s delicious and most importantly it feels like eating a real meal. I have four of these and a handful of the Peak Refuel Venison Country Casserole locked and loaded for my next adventure.

Now at this point you might be thinking “dang Maddy these are all Peak Refuel?”. Yes they are! Peak Refuel makes the best backpacking meals, to the point that while other meals are palatable, I’m outside enough and on enough adventures that I’m only eating Peak Refuel. I like good food. Peak refuel is the clear winner for that.

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4) Mountain House Chicken & Dumplings: Best Bread-adjacent backpacking meal

Moving on from Peak Refuel, the Mountain House Chicken & Dumplings is a strong option for anyone looking for a meal that tastes home-cooked and has bread. The dumplings rehydrate really nicely, and this is a filling meal that is more than palatable after long miles.

Overall I would say that Mountain House’s backpacking meals are generally good, but some hit a lot better than others. For me, the Chicken and Dumplings and/or Biscuits and Gravy (also really good) are just about the only Mountain House meals I would confidently recommend to a friend.

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5) Mountain House Chicken Fried Rice: Best Stir Fry-Like Backpacking Meal

Now the Mountain House Chicken Fried Rice is good, but there are few caveats to this ranking. First, you’re going to need to like dehydrated eggs. That’s a must. If dehydrated eggs give you the ick, then this one isn’t going to hit for you. Second, you’re going to want to pack some soy sauce to sparkle this meal up.

If this is your meal for a longer day, I would also maybe pad it out with two tortillas and do a little stir fry, soy sauce burrito situation. That’s more flavorful and more filling.

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6) Backpacker’s Pantry Shepard’s Potato Stew: It’ll do

And with this recommendation we move on from the true winners to the “That’ll do in a pinch” category: This is where 90% of backpacking meals fall. If I’ve hiked all day, sure, that’s food. If I’m car camping? Absolutely not.

Now this is a relatively unpopular opinion, but I find Backpackers Pantry to be just okay. Perhaps this is because I have a bland palette. The Backpacker’s Pantry Pad Thai is consistently rated as one of the best backpacking meals on the market, but it just doesn’t do it for me.

However on a chilly early autumn evening camping, I will say that the Backpacker’s Pantry Shepard’s Potato Stew is pretty good. The first half was delicious. The second half I could have skipped.

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7) AlpineAire Mexican-Style Veggie Bowl: Best Burrito & Best Vegetarian Backpacking Meal

Now on it’s own, I consider the AlpineAire Mexican-Style Veggie Bowl to be a bit of a flop. The rehydrated corn just sits a little weird for me. However, this is the perfect meal to split with a friend and make a handful of backcountry burritos.

Bring an avocado, two tortillas a piece and even summer sausage for extra protein and enjoy! I don’t add hot sauce, but that would make this meal even better. With the add ons, there’s definietly enough burrito filling in the package for two hungry backpackers.

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8) Good 2 Go Pasta Marinara: Best Gluten-Free & Vegan Backpacking Meal

Now I could make a joke about how being the best backpacking meal that’s both vegan and gluten free sets a pretty low bar however the Good 2 Go Pasta Marinara is a pretty darn good backpacking meal that more than occasionally makes it into my rotation.

Does it have the star power of the cheesy little chicken numbers from Peak Refuel? No. What Good 2 Go Pasta Marinara has is something more humble, more down to earth, and unlikely to have you digging holes throughout your hike the next day.

This is a simple brown rice pasta, with simple tomato sauce. It’s filling, good enough to finish and while it may fall into the category of “backpacking mush” it’s a pretty non-offensive mush overall.

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9) Wild Edge: Best Cottage Brand + Best Keto Meals

While I was paddling in British Columbia, I was first introduced to Wild Edge, a keto backpacking meal company. These are really really good and filling. Strongly recommend.

Beware: this backpacking meal ruined my life:

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