2013 Long Range Patrol Ration- Menu #9, Rice & Chicken, Mexican Style

[BTemple]

Gotta give Drew78 here on MREinfo.com a big shout-out for this LRP. I helped him out with a purchase on EBay Canada and he sent me along 2LRP's as a way of saying thank you. Drew is a great guy and can't say enough good things about him.

I had previously written up this review about a week ago, but just as I was about to submit it, my 5 month old son decided to mess with my mouse and closed out my browser window.... and I didn't have the mental fortitude to go back and re-create the whole thing all over again at that exact moment. Haha

So here we have a Menu 9 LRP, Mexican Style Rice & Chicken. This is the first LRP I have ever had a chance to try out and I was quite excited (the other LRP Drew78 sent me was the Spaghetti & Meat Sauce) as I had seen many good things about the Mountain House freeze-dried entrees found inside.

First off, here we have allllllll of the components, and this one is chock-full of stuff. We've got the main entree, osmotic sliced cranberries, shortbread cookies, smoked almonds, chocolate banana nut dessert bar, cherry beverage powder and an accessory packet.

First step was of course getting the main entree started. I learned from Stickyfingaz's mistakes and was VERY careful when opening the packet, I didn't need my entire table covered in rice and other debris. Hahaha.
I put in a lot less water than the package called for, as I always find that the prescribed amount of water makes things way too soupy for my liking.

With the entree finally heated through, here we have everything all laid out on the tray. First of all, I was very happy with all of the sides/snacks that this LRP came with. The shortbread cookies were in hard shape, but that certainly doesn't detract from their taste. Nice and buttery and sweet. The sliced cranberries were just a little bit dry, but otherwise no complaints. Not too tart and not ruined by adding some sort of artificial taste or extra sweeteners.
The smoked almonds are an item that I always love to have, and these were no exception. Perfectly fresh, great smoked flavour,just wish there were more. Haha
Lastly, for the snacks, we come to the odd item. I've said on several occasions that I'm not a fan of the chocolate banana but muffin top, namely due to it being strangely moist and dry all at the same time. The dessert bar version still has the same exact taste, but does cut out some degree of the moisture, and somehow adds a slight texture difference, as if fine sand had been thrown into the recipe as well. While I didn't love it, I did like the dessert bar MUCH more than it's muffin top brethren.

For the beverage mix I will simply say that I usually don't like cherry flavoured food or candy or drinks of any kind, and I was pleasantly surprised that this drink mix was pretty good for my palate.

Lastly, we have the entree itself. There was an absolutely MASSIVE amount of food that slid out of that pouch. It had a great smell, and looked like it was full of olives and beans and peppers and corn, but it did seem to be a little lacking when it comes to chicken. I found it very hard to find actual chunks of chicken, and could get no real taste of it either. All in all I was surprised that an entree with so much promise could be so amazingly bland! My brain couldn't quite make sense of it... this think SHOULD have been bursting with flavour. I decided to add some tabasco to see if that could salvage things, but it just seemed to be the only flavour you could then pick out. This was easily the low-point of the ration.

All in all, aside from the bland entree, this LRP was fantastic. If this were an entree in a standard MRE, some tortillas and cheese spread would have went a long way in making this entree a whole lot better.

Thanks for stopping by, hope you all have a good one!

[freedash22]

Great review and nice pictures! Thanks for sharing.

Overall, I think LRPs are special and rare. I have one and I am struggling to resist not eating it. As for the meals themselves, I think they should bring back freeze-dried fruit chunks, apple ciders and include more chocolate-coated oatmeal bars, just as they were back in the 90s and early 2000s.

[parafireboy]

Great review and pics, thanks for sharing!

You're definitely right about not adding the full water amount specified, I do the same thing, then it doesn't become a soup.

[BTemple]

Great review and nice pictures! Thanks for sharing.

Overall, I think LRPs are special and rare. I have one and I am struggling to resist not eating it. As for the meals themselves, I think they should bring back freeze-dried fruit chunks, apple ciders and include more chocolate-coated oatmeal bars, just as they were back in the 90s and early 2000s.

I certainly wouldn't have a problem with more chocolate covered cookies and apple ciders!

[BTemple]

Great review and pics, thanks for sharing!

You're definitely right about not adding the full water amount specified, I do the same thing, then it doesn't become a soup.

And no matter what country the freeze-dried food comes from, I always add less water than prescribed and it works out great.

[alohakid]

Great review and pics, thanks for sharing!

You're definitely right about not adding the full water amount specified, I do the same thing, then it doesn't become a soup.

And no matter what country the freeze-dried food comes from, I always add less water than prescribed and it works out great.

BTemple - Thanks for the informative review... question: was the entree spicy?

mahalo

[BTemple]

Great review and pics, thanks for sharing!

You're definitely right about not adding the full water amount specified, I do the same thing, then it doesn't become a soup.

And no matter what country the freeze-dried food comes from, I always add less water than prescribed and it works out great.

BTemple - Thanks for the informative review... question: was the entree spicy?

mahalo

If you didn't put the Tabasco sauce on it the entree has almost no spice whatsoever. It was amazingly bland considering its ingredients. A little black pepper would have worked well I think.

[alohakid]

And no matter what country the freeze-dried food comes from, I always add less water than prescribed and it works out great.

BTemple - Thanks for the informative review... question: was the entree spicy?

mahalo

If you didn't put the Tabasco sauce on it the entree has almost no spice whatsoever. It was amazingly bland considering its ingredients. A little black pepper would have worked well I think.

I assumed it was spicy which was the reason for not getting it... possibly, salt, black pepper and garlic powder may help the dish.

mahalo