While this new meal from Mountain House wasn’t quite released in time to make our full backpacking mac & cheese roundup in Issue 51, it seemed almost a necessity to test out this new meal given the recent release of our previous article. This take on the dish from Mountain House definitely shakes things up however, as a mac & cheese with freeze-dried chicken and Buffalo wing sauce now added. While most everyone likes mac & cheese and I’ll personally go for some Buffalo chicken most days of the week, does it all work together?

If you're a fan of both Buffalo wings as well as mac & cheese, the Buffalo Chicken Mac & Cheese meal from Mountain House might be worth a try.

Mountain House Buffalo-Style Chicken Mac & Cheese

But first, nutritionally each Mountain House Buffalo-Style Chicken Mac & Cheese pouch contains an about average 580 calories with a fairly rounded nutritional profile with 36 grams of protein. The meal is ready in 9 minutes after adding 1 2/3 cups of boiling water to the bag, and has a 30 year shelf life. Based on a wheat pasta and cheddar cheese sauce, the meal also adds butter and of course Buffalo wing sauce…with some carrots and celery thrown in way down the list. More on that later. At about $11, the meal is starting to get on the steep side price wise when it comes to the freeze-dried meal market.

Once the wait is over, I have some mixed feelings about this meal. The consistency is more like a very hearty soup than a mac and cheese, and there really is no texture to this meal, with both the photo of the made meal for this article and the eating experience itself needing just something more. However, first impressions aren’t always everything. Taste wise the meal is good and is interesting – one of those meals that you might not want to eat too often, or eat too much of at once, but that’s still good in moderation.

The heat level of the Buffalo sauce and added spices is there but should be tolerable by just about anyone, and makes this meal a perfect fit for chilly rainy day backpacking. In fact, adding even just a bit more heat would be wise if you’re a fan of spicy foods like me. The addition of chicken is also a nice touch and adds a missing component that could take a mac & cheese from a side dish to more of a whole meal, but I wish it was provided not necessarily in more quantity, but in larger more noticeable chunks. This meal needs texture any way it could get it. The chicken level however is good and Mountain House has kept it just below the level at which you might start to call this meal a casserole. I really wish there was more quantity of the carrots and celery. What’s provided is good, and if there was more – it would add the texture and crunch this meal really needs and probably just about complete the dish.

Overall, the meal is a good and interesting mix-things-up meal from Mountain House.

Final Thoughts

All said though, this meal is I’d say the best freeze-dried mac & cheese based meal I’ve had so far, and one that I might not reach for first when packing for a trip, but one that I will plan to throw in to mix things up every now and then and especially with a chilly forecast where a meal like this would really hit the spot. You can pick up the new Mountain House Buffalo-Style Chicken Mac & Cheese meal here at REI Co-op as well as here at Amazon.com. For additional ideas for mac & cheese on the trail, see our backpacking mac & cheese article.

Editor's Note: This review originally appeared in Issue 53 of TrailGroove Magazine. You can read the original article here.