Mountain House Noodles & Chicken

Bottom line up front: This type of food is a great choice for an emergency food supply, especially for sheltering in place or evacuating by vehicle. The #10 cans have a 25-year shelf life, so you can buy them and not worry about rotating your stock for a couple of decades. The biggest downside is that once opened, they need to be used up right away.SHELF LIFE - The #10 cans have a 25-year shelf life (unopened). The biggest downside to #10 cans versus individual pouches is that the 25-year shelf life turns into a 1-week shelf life once they've been opened. Since each can has enough for 10 servings, you'll be eating the same thing for several meals unless you're cooking for a group.TASTE - In my experience, Mountain House food is really tasty. Let me caveat this review by saying that although I've eaten other Mountain House freeze-dried food, I haven't had occasion to open the ones in the #10 cans (see my review of the "Mountain House 72-Hour Emergency Meal Kit"). That having been said, the Mountain House food I have tried has been very, very good tasting -- not just good compared to other survival foods, but good period. I have no reason to expect that these would be any different.WEIGHT/CONVENIENCE - As steel cans, they're reasonably durable and reasonably lightweight (not backpacking light, but you don't have to be a weightlifter to move a large box of them). They do take up a bit of volume, but since the overwhelming majority of long-term emergency scenarios involve sheltering in place or evacuating by vehicle, I wouldn't let that be a deal breaker (personnally, I have a stock of individual pouches just in case I have to leave on foot, but most of my food is in these cans).CALORIES - The problem with most freeze-dried emergency food is that a so-called "serving" has too few calories to meet an adult's energy requirements (2500 a day for men; 2000 a day for women -- more with heavy exertion), so you end up consuming more than you planned. These are no different. So even though a typical can ostensibly contains 10 1-cup servings, you really need to eat two servings per meal to get enough calories to survive -- perhaps more. Plan your purchase accordingly.

Mountain House used to be the pinnacle of freeze dried backpacking meals. But this status went to their heads.The AUDACITY to simultaneously raise their price and decrease portion size is beyond my ability to articulate.It used to be worthwhile to buy these in bulk, because the price was okay for what you got, the food was good, and you got to have something to eat. But now it's just hard to justify buying this anymore.I've been trying other brands and found Backpacker's Pantry to be a tasty and affordable alternative.But this price hike has made me consider dehydrating my own meals going forward.

It's not a cheap meal. Don't think this is a way to cheap out your lunches cuz it is like $8 $9 deep in your pocket. I tried taking a few packs of these during cherry blossom at DC for a week. Each morning before I head out of the hotel room, I'd have to boil water and fill my thermos to bring out. At lunch, I'd sit at the cafeteria of a Smithsonian museum and assemble my lunch: pouring hot water into the freeze dried packet and wait 10 min, while every 8th graders stare at me like I am as weird AF. Once you get passed all that, here's your reward: a hot bag of chicken noodle soup that's ok blend, but has a lot of noodle and chicken pieces. The chicken tasted like chicken breast that was overcooked. The noodles tasted like noodles that were overcooked. At the end of the meal, I was full and satisfied knowing I didn't spend 40min walking back and forth of the National Mall to eat lunch.

My husband and son do a lot of remote long weekend camping where you only eat what you take. No restaurants/stores around. They eat all their fresh food first and then plan to eat these freeze dried meals last, since they keep so long and won’t attract bears. They are light weight, and everything is enclosed in the bag, you just add boiling water and wait for the food to rehydrate. I was there to accompany them for their last excursion. I tried this flavor/meal for myself. They devoured it.. no complaints from them, but then again, they are campers that are happy they can make a meal for themselves by just boiling water. I myself, thought it was ok. Not something I would want to eat on a regular basis, but camping, it works. It was just a pouch of chunky mush.. But did taste like chicken and noodles. It did taste a tad salty for me, not my boys. but I suppose someone who has possibly been hiking all day, may need that. I will definitely be buying this again as they liked it, and it’s a meal they can make for themselves on the last day of camping. Overall very impressed with many of their freeze dried meals.

While the Noodles & Chicken isn't Mountain House's best flavor, it's still pretty tasty. It starts with a typical chicken bouillon base that develops more complex flavor as the seasonings blend. The 2.5 cups being 2.5 servings is a little silly -- a 4.7 oz package is essentially one large meal. Personally, I prefer the Mountain House meals with a red sauces (e.g. lasagna, spaghetti, chili mac, etc) and cream sauces (e.g. stroganoff), which are all much better than could be expected from a freeze-dried meal, but the others (e.g. noodles & chicken, chicken & rice, etc.) are still solid and provide some variety when buying Classic or Essential buckets.

Purchased this Mountain House product to try for camping as well as to have some emergency food since it lasts a long time.Had it for about a month when the perfect situation came up to test this out, there was a prolonged blackout in our area. Two cups of boiling water was perfect, and it cooked up nicely in the bag. The taste was not bad for the first couple of bites, but to me, was a bit salty and flavor was one-note. I suppose for camping or emergency food, it would do for me, but no one else in my family liked the taste.Have a bunch more Mountain House freeze dried food to test out when we have our next camp out (was supposed to be this month but was cancelled)

Always I prefer buy #10 cans , more food so more day for survive situation, but now with this Corona virus all sold out 😥👍