AlpineAire Foods  Kung Pao Grilled Chicken - 2 Servings

I bought this for a backpacking trip in October and it was by far the worst freeze dried meal I picked. It was super salty, called for an insane amount of water (2 cups!) so it was very soupy, and had this off putting rank smell once cooked.

I am used to backpacking food, which is not always tasty however this was exceptionally bad. The amount of salt in the meal was overwhelming and it also seemed over spiced.

I did not enjoy this meal at all. It lacked flavor and was only spicy. The saving grace was it provided much needed calories after a day of backpacking.

I picked up the Alpine Aire Kung Pao Grilled Chicken while testing freeze-dried meals for a kayak camping trip later this year. After choking down a serving of this one, it’s safe to say it won’t be coming with me. First impressions weren’t great. Freshly prepared, it looked more like a bowl of spicy chicken soup than a rice meal. After sitting for a while, it thickened up and became somewhat more appetizing to look at, but appearances can only take a meal so far. The real problem was the taste. Somehow Alpine Aire managed to create a meal that’s both painfully spicy and astonishingly bland at the same time. The heat hits hard and keeps coming, but there’s almost nothing behind it. No depth, no richness, no balance—just spice for the sake of spice. Calling it Kung Pao feels generous. In an attempt to salvage it, I added roughly four tablespoons of peanut butter powder, hoping to tame the heat and add some much-needed flavor. It barely made a dent. The meal remained overwhelmingly spicy and stubbornly flavorless. When I’m miles from the nearest road, tired from paddling all day, I want a meal that’s something to look forward to. This wasn’t it. There are too many good freeze-dried options on the market to waste pack space on one that punishes your mouth while boring your taste buds. Unless your ideal camp dinner is a bowl of heat with all the culinary excitement of damp cardboard, I’d skip the Alpine Aire Kung Pao Grilled Chicken.

Really tasty with a solid level of spice. It's nice to try something different than the Mountain house meals. It would have been 5 stars if there was more chicken but the rice was perfectly cooks and peanuts crunchy. I would for sure get this again.

Hopefully this was just a one-off; the ziplock seal wouldn’t budge after tearing off the top. Upon gripping the sides of the bag to try to pull them apart, side ripped open. No more resealable bag in which to pour boiling water. I salvaged the meal by using a climbing partner’s used bag from another meal. Still couldn’t get the ziplock to separate no matter how hard I pulled. It was glued shut.

Title says it all. My 10 year old selected this to share on a camping trip. As a lover of authentic Sichuan cuisine, I found it to be incredibly spicy in an over seasoned sort of way. My daughter mentioned a few times that the rice was cooked all the way, but she eat something with a random crunch. She couldn’t pinpoint the taste and I thought maybe it was the peanuts.

I was surprised at how flavorful the meal was. It had been a while since I’ve had a backpacking meal and wasn’t expecting as much flavor as this had. As long as you follow the instructions on the packet, it’ll be fully rehydrated and pretty close to being like a regular meal and not something that was dehydrated for backpacking. If you like spicy meals, give this a shot.

Great tasting backpacking meal. I personally would like a little more spiciness, but I get that you have to sell it to more people. My only real issue is that they call it two servings at 660 calories. That is one serving backpacking long days. Nobody is sharing this after 12 hours of hiking

. . . and it's a good thing. While this meal isn't *bad*, it also isn't at all good. In fact, it's just South of mediocre. The flavor is extremely bland and it's like eating a gravy-laden packet of ramen. I'll finish my pack of 12, but I'm not excited about it.