Menu #15 Mexican Chicken Stew

[RockyRaab]

I eat my MREs in date order, and was surprised to see that the one I bought last week was older than the rest of my stash - but only by one day. It was an Ameriqual MRE dated 3065. No pictures this time because my camera batteries were flat and I was afloat a long way from the dock. Darn.

Anywho...#15 comes with SanteFe Rice and Beans as a side dish, cheese-filled pretzel logs, jalapeno cheese, crackers, drink mix, M&Ms, plus the usual FRH. bev bag, acc pack, and spoon. Ameriqual packs all the bagged items inside a sturdy sealed bag, and then seals that inside the tan MRE bag. Whew! I had the pretzels as a between-casts snack. (Fish slime on one's fingers makes them taste a bit odd, but not unpleasantly so...) and decided to have the entree, orange drink mix, and M&Ms for lunch.

I found the Mexican Style Chicken Stew to be the usual slightly bland but tasty fare we expect from an MRE. I added a packet of hot sauce I had along (the MRE comes with ground red pepper) and that improved things a lot. The stew featured good chunks of chicken, corn, and green peppers in an orangish-colored "enchilada" sauce.

Back at home that night, I was on my own for supper, so I heated up the Santa Fe Rice and Beans (dated 2126, btw - ten months older than the pack date) and mixed in some chicken I had in the fridge. This dish also had a orangish "enchilada" type sauce and seemed to merely substitute beans for the corn kernels in the entree. Again, okay but better with a few drops of hot sauce added.

I saved the jalapeno cheese (that stuff is like gold!) and crackers for another time but still got almost two full meals out of one MRE. Well, a meal and a half, maybe; I had to add those chicken chunks to my supper and I made a salad as well. Still, it's a lot of food.

Some MREs are lunch-and-a snack and some are full supper-sized. Meal #15 is one of the latter. It's also one that I'd enjoy again.

[Norton]

Rocky
I also like this entree and picked up several for camping meals. Same as you I found mine had a slightly tangy, very mild Mexican taste. So I mixed the Bland Santa-Fe rice with the Mexican Chicken stew and added the Jalapeno cheese pack, plus some Tabasco. In the end I had a good tasting and filling shore meal.
My next try with it I added the black bean side and lots of 'Texas Pete', then crackers. That was closer to the Chicken chili I was hoping for. This meal when heated and combined with other sides is a great asset for outdoor eating. I would not like to draw this for a Breakfast meal . But it is great for a afternoon or night time meal, when you have time to properly prepare it

[RockyRaab]

I agree. If I had had a bowl large enough to hold it all, I'd have done the same. But in my kayak, with only the MRE pouches? Nope.

[Norton]

Rocky I went on a overnight river trip in the rain. This same meal looked like a good selection for the type of day I was having.
I mixed it with Mexican Rice and Mexican Corn. With American Corn Bread as the side.
The Mexican corn had an American Patio brand TV dinner type taste, very heavy with Cummin spice
The Rice was about the same.. Like American Uncle Ben's Retort pouch style rice.
The combination was very good and I am sure Natwick would approve.

[housil]

That looked great, I & Mrs Housil had MREs yesterday too. She had her "Country Captain Chicken" with that Mexican Rice instead the mashed potato that comes with it too.

[Failsafe77]

I just had this one today. I also tend to eat my MREs in date order, however when the dates are too close to call, I eat them based on ones I'm most likely to hate first.
I feared the worst with this one as I'm not a big fan of Mexican food. Mine was the 2014 menu however so I didn't get Santa Fe rice but wet pack fruits instead (pears in heavy syrup). Aside from that I think its identical to the 2013 version. I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised with this entrée! The chicken was in nice size chunks and very tender (obviously due to swimming in liquid for months). I liked the flavor quite a bit, I added about 1/4 of the red pepper packet and it gave it the perfect amount of heat and flavor. This went from something that made me cringe to an entrée I would buy again as a single.

Also a side note: This was my first time tasting the vegetable crackers. While the flavor is very subtle, I don't see how people can say they taste exactly the same as the reg. crackers. They are way better in my humble opinion and go better with the cheese spread. Not trying to go all gourmet on you guys but you see what I mean.

[rattattoo]

If I had had a bowl large enough to hold it all, I'd have done the same. But in my kayak, with only the MRE pouches? Nope.

Interestingly enough, my son-in-law, the former Marine Capt, was visiting last weekend and mentioned this very thing.
He was talking about reaching the end of his rope after a couple of weeks in the field on a steady diet of MREs. No matter how decent a ration he drew, all he wanted to do was getting the eating over with as quick as possible.
His solution was to take the heavy vinyl bag that contains the full meal ration, cut it off partway down, and then fold the top edges outward to make a double-thickness bowl. He could then mix up as many ration parts into a swill as he might want... meals, sides, bread/crackers, spreads... all this just went in the BIG bowl and got shoveled down to get it over with.