I’m not aware if anyone else uses the term, Meal Ready to Hydrate or MRH, but it’s one that I use for freeze dried meals that are as simple as add water, wait, and eat. Kind of the way that an MRE, Meal Ready to Eat, is heat, open, eat.

This recipe uses a commercially prepared 3 bean no meat chili mix from Aldi. You could also use the Bear Creek Darn Good Chili mix or any other similar dried packaged soup mix. Other than that it uses common ingredients that you can freeze dry yourself or purchase from a freeze dried foods supplier.

It takes a solid 20+ minutes for the MRH to fully rehydrate and the use of a thermal pouch or thermos is vital or you’ll have two problems. The first is that the chili will not be hot when it’s rehydrated and ready to eat. The second is that as the liquid cools, it takes longer to rehydrate the mix. The longer it takes for the mix to rehydrate, to cooler the liquid gets. You get into this fatal spiral and will end up with cold crunchy chili.