Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef for Lunch

a hearty bowl of Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef with a dehydrated parsley garnishToday we went out for a much-needed day hike and brought along some freeze dried Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef for a warm-you-up-inside lunch. It’s a sunny, but cold, mid-February weekend with temperatures hovering around 35 °F / 1 °C.

We really like the large selection of Mountain House freeze dried food offerings. It’s all good stuff and we have been eating them for many years.

Besides doing stuff outside meals, Mountain House freeze dried food is an excellent choice to supplement your emergency food supply. FEMA, in their Food and Water in an Emergency publication, say you should strive to maintain a two-week supply of food and water for each family member. And we agree! Don’t forget about your pets.

Freeze dried food is very light weight and offers a long shelf life, measured in years. Even more, Mountain House offers a 30-year taste guarantee.

Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef freeze dried food
Today on our February hike we’re having a satisfying bowl of Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef. We’re going to warm things up and kick up the spice level a notch or two with homemade crushed chipotle peppers. Freeze dried real easy to do and real easy to spice up how you like it.

Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef Review

There are many versions of the ever-popular chili mac that we have cooked up and eaten over the years in my own indoor kitchen and outdoor grill.

Back in the day, when working for Uncle Sam, we didn’t have a lot of extra cash, so making a pot of chili mac was an easy to make and an inexpensive meal.

Just like cold pizza, leftover chili mac tasted best taken straight from the fridge with an added splash or three of hot sauce.

When I first ran across this Mountain House version of Chili Mac with Beef many years ago, I tossed it in the shopping cart without a second thought. I was sure this is going to be some seriously good eats!

Recently, Mountain House has refreshed their product packaging, and even tweaked the recipe just a bit. We’ll share what we noticed about those changes. No worries, it’s still the same great taste.

Old-Style Product Packaging

We still have a good number of what we’re calling the “original” or “old-style” Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef freeze dried food pouches.

These are the specifications taken from the old-style packaging from our remaining supply:
width: 8 inches / 20.3 centimeters
height: 9 ½ inches / 24.1 centimeters
bottom: expands into a food pouch bowl and has a bit of wisdom or campfire talking points printed on the bottom
servings: about 2.5
serving size: 54 grams dry mix
makes: about two and a half cup servings as prepared

The old-style Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef front label shows the package weight as 4.80 ounces (136 grams).

Our digital kitchen food scale shows the unopened package weight as 5.7 ounces (163 grams) averaged over what remains of our old-style Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef freeze dried food pouches.

New-Style Product Packaging

Our measurements of the new-style product packaging:
width: 8 1/4 inches / 21 centimeters
height 8 1/8 inches / 20.7 centimeters
weight of the empty freeze dried food pouch: 18 grams
weight of the oxygen absorber: 5 grams
total weight of the freeze dried mac and cheese with beef dry mix: 110 grams

The Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef nutrition label:
servings: 2
serving size: 54 grams dry mix
makes: two 1 1/4 cup servings as prepared

These new-style Mountain House freeze dried food pouches are plastic coated mylar.

The Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef front label shows the package weight as 3.8 ounces (108 grams).

Our digital kitchen food scale shows the unopened package weight as 4.7 ounces (133 grams) and averaged over our supply of the new-style packaged Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef freeze dried food pouches.

Few big box stores offer even a limited selection of Mountain House freeze dried food products. For last minute needs or purchasing for long term storage, consider other options that offer a greater shopping selection. Recently, we picked up a large assortment of Mountain House meals, including a couple of the these freeze dried chili mac offerings for just under $9.00 each with free Amazon Prime shipping.

Click here to see the latest Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef pricing and customer reviews here on Amazon.

The Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef product page shows well over 2000 of mostly 5-star customer reviews. This is evidence of a popular product that customers are happy with and they buy time and time again. Myself included.

You’ll see that Mountain House does offer Chili Mac with Beef in a #10 can. The #10 can label says there are 10 1/4 cup servings. I read that as five hungry-people servings.

Freeze Dried Food Pouch Differences

Both the old-style and new-style Mountain House freeze dried food pouch product packaging requires you to remove, or tear off, a significant amount of the pouch at the tear notch. About 2 1/2 inches / 6.3 centimeters, or 4 grams of the package weight.

Just below the tear notch, is another 1/2 inch / 1.2 centimeters, to the zipper seal. In our opinion, Mountain House could better to optimize packaging and reduce waste.

You might notice that Mountain House now includes recycling information on every product they sell. Instead of tossing these freeze dried food pouches in the trash, you can mail them, with a pre-paid postage, to TerraCycle.com. Way to go Mountain House! Check out the Mountain House TerraCycling program here.

These new-style packages also feature rounded corners. Mountain House must have read one of my suggestions? Finally, those squared off pointy corners are now a thing of the past.

Mountain House also continues to entertain us by printing outdoor wisdom one liners on the bottom of each food pouch. Some of have made for lively conversation around the night time fire.

With this new style package, Mountain House went from a 2.5 serving pouch to 2 servings. In our opinion, we would prefer that extra half serving.

Mountain House also cleaned up the recipe ingredients. Gone are the soy, colorings, and other additives. More and more folks are reading those food labels researching what they eat.

Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef Preparation

Start by removing the top portion of the freeze dried food pouch at the tear notch. Next, remove that oxygen absorber packet. The oxygen absorber packet will likely be visible.

inside of the just opened freeze dried chili mac with beef food pouch
Inside of the just opened freeze dried chili mac with beef food pouch. Don’t forget to remove that oxygen absorber.

Then, gently pull open the bottom of the pouch to form a bowl.

The Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef in the new-style packaging calls for 12 ounces / 355 milliliters of boiling water added to the 2 serving pouch. We think this is just the right amount of water.

The old-style recipe called for adding 16 ounces / 473 milliliters of boiling water for 2.5 servings. In our opinion, that was just too much water and made for soupy chili mac. If you still have some, dial it back to 14 ounces / 414 milliliters.

Okay, here is where the recipes differ somewhat. Basically, both of the recipes say to mix in the boiling water and seal, giving the freeze dried chili mac with beef some time to hydrate. Next, open the pouch, stir, seal, and give it more time before enjoying.

However, in practice, our experience has been the macaroni has not had a chance to fully absorb the water and the sauce mix. The macaroni was a not quite the al dente we like and it needed a few more minutes of hydration.

Here is Our Recipe

So, this is our recommendation, use the 5-5-5 method.

First, at the tear notch, carefully tear off the top part of the pouch, try to get a straight tear. Remove the oxygen absorber. Then, open out the bottom of the freeze dried food pouch to create a bowl.

Second, measure out the water into your camping mug or pan, add any desired spices. Cover and bring to a boil.

boiling water in our camping mug with added crushed chipotle peppers
We’re boiling up 12 ounces / 355 milliliters of water in our camping mug. We have added some homemade chipotle peppers we have crushed for some added spice. Adding the crushed chipotle pepper to the water as it boils hydrates them in no time.

Third, carefully pour the boiling water into the freeze dried food pouch, mix and stir, seal, then let the freeze dried chili mac rest five minutes to hydrate.

freeze dried chili mac after five minutes of hydration
We have been hydrating the freeze dried chili mac with beef for five minutes. With ten minutes to go, we soak up the February sunshine, relax and watch the wildlife.

Next, after the five minutes have elapsed, open, mix and stir, then reseal for another five minutes of resting.

Finally, open, mix, stir and reseal, giving the freeze dried chili mac a final five minutes to hydrate.

To recap, we stirred, mixed, and mixed again over the 15 minutes of hydration. Plenty of time for any added spices to blend and flavorize our freeze dried chili mac.

So after 15 minutes, give it a taste and see if it’s how you like it. Maybe it needs another five or so minutes?

Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef Taste and Texture

The Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef is tasty good right out of the food pouch.

There are bits and pieces of beef, kidney beans, and macaroni, all swimming in a tomato sauce.

However, like most every prepackaged meal you might purchase, it’s a blank canvas. Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef included. It’s not spicy the way we like it, but not quite bland either. It’s probably a consumer preference as it allows for individual upgrades.

Finally, this is one freeze dried food pouch that most definitely has a place in the freeze dried food pantry. Like most freeze dried food entrées, you can easily take this up a notch or three by adding your preferred spice selections.

a hearty bowl of Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef with a dehydrated parsley garnish
A hearty bowl of Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef. We sprinkled over some crushed red pepper flakes, like you might get with takeout pizza. We also sprinkled some crushed dehydrated parsley for a garnish. Yum!

Freeze Dried Food Hacks

As part of our Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef review, we have a few tips how to kick this freeze dried meal up a notch or two.

Consider adding crushed chipotle peppers to the water as you bring it to a boil. Chipotle peppers are easy to make at home and easy to pack along. Just add one or two chipotle peppers to a small zip-top bag and you’re all set. Check out our post here on homemade chipotle peppers.

Optionally, or in addition to the chipotle peppers, consider adding crushed red pepper flakes. Those take-out pizza places offer single serving size packets.

Both thyme and basil pair very well with freeze dried chili mac with beef. Add a teaspoon or so of each of these dried spices to the water as you bring it to a boil.

And hot sauce pairs well with nearly everything, including freeze dried chili mac with beef. A popular fast-food chicken restaurant offers hot sauce condiment packets.

In addition, those fast-food chop sticks make excellent stirring utensils and can multi-task as a lid-lifter for your camping mug cooking setup.

an assortment of essential freeze dried food condiments to amp up the flavor
An assortment of essential freeze dried food condiments to amp up the flavor a bit. Hot sauce packets, crushed red pepper flakes packets, grated hard cheese packets. They are light weight and portable, have a long shelf life, and there is no reason not to carry some extra flavor.

Also consider using a cozy in cooler weather to help insulate the freeze dried food pouch as the hot water hydrates. Those Amazon bubble lined plastic packaging can be repurposed to make great a cozy. They are nearly weightless and can be rolled down tight to minimize bulk.

The Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef has well over 2000 of mostly 5-star customer reviews. Moreover, this is evidence of a good product that customers are happy with and buy time and time again. Click here to see the current pricing and latest customer reviews here on Amazon.

First Time – Practice at Home

First time, practice at home use the very same gear that you might use in the field or out on the trail.

We would recommend that you first make one or two of these at home. In short, try them out first, just like you would with a new piece of gear.

Also use the very same equipment you might use while hiking, camping, or found in your emergency kit. There is no better way to see how it all works together, or not, then to practice at home. Practice using the very same gear you might need to rely on, work out any shortcomings or issues you make note of.

Take notes so you don’t forget, and decide what works best for you. Describe what you thought of the results. And, what would you want to try out next? Once you have it all figured out, transfer your notes to something more portable that you can take with you.

Rite In The Rain Weatherproof Tactical Field Kit: MultiCam CORDURA Fabric Cover, 4 5/8" x 7 1/4" Tan Tactical Notebook, Weatherproof Pen (No. 980M-KIT)
Our ultra-handy, take-everywhere, Rite in the Rain field notebook, we also have added a Fisher Space Pen, another waterproof notepad, and some ordinary paper for taking draft field notes or what-not.


This is what we use for the final set of notes once we have our process dialed in, we’ll record our instructions, preferred amounts of water, and what other spices we like mixed in. The notebook is water resistant. How cool is that! Check it out here on Amazon.


Click here to see the latest Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef pricing and customer reviews here on Amazon.

Shelf Life

Mountain House freeze dried meals pouches have an advertised shelf life of 30 years. That “best by” date located on the back of the new style pouch just beneath the preparation instructions. However, Mountain House says that this freeze dried food doesn’t really “go bad” after this best by date.

The long shelf life makes freeze dried food a great option to stock pile the pantry.


With all this in mind, click here to see all the Mountain House freeze dried food products available on Amazon and not your local big box store.

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