Chili is one of those dishes that is easy to prep, but requires a long simmering time. This extended cooking makes it taste even better after it's dehydrated!

Seriously, I think the taste of dehydrated turkey chili is better than when it's freshly made. There must be some flavor development during the drying process that increases the delciousness. In addition, when you're rehydrating it you can control how thick or runny you prefer your chili. Personally, I love a thick pasty chili that will stick to my spoon and my gut, so I rehydrate with significantly less water. Trying to reach that consistency while making regular (non-trail) chili requires additional simmering time on the stove which often ends up in burnt chili because it's hard to get the water content low enough for it to be thick.

But if you prefer a little runnier chili, just add more water. There's something for everyone.

You could certainly use the traditional choice of ground beef, but I'll go ahead and be a blasphemer, "turkey chili is better (for dehydrating)." 

That's right, turkey makes a better chili here because 99% lean ground turkey is very easy to find. Try finding 99% lean ground beef, I'm not sure it even exists. This plays a very important role in drying our food for the trail because we want as little fat content as possible to prevent spoilage. Not only that, ground turkey rehydrates significantly better than ground beef. In fact, this chili rehydrates back to the same exact texture as if it was fresh made. If I had any understanding of food science this would be the part where I talk about how the protein structure of turkey allows for better rehydration, but I have no clue, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

One of the great things about this meal is that you can make multiple large servings all at once and dehydrate it all at once. There's very little additional work to add more servings, it scales incredibly well. Although the Food Network recipe says it makes 5 servings, I think you can expect it to yield 2 incredibly large servings, or 3-4 reasonably sized servings; the best part of making your own meals is you get to choose the weight, calories, and serving size!