A note about Bramble & Spice Backpacking Recipes: These recipes are intended for one or two night backpacking trips. I like eating real food when I’m hiking and I’m always willing to carry a little extra weight in order to eat well. Everything really does taste better in the mountains.

This makes a pretty hearty meal, so I’ve scaled back just a bit on how much dried pasta I would typically bring for two people. The chicken, pesto, and cheese are filling and we found we just didn’t need quite as much. However if you know it’s going to be a high mileage day and you typically need a lot of food, bump the pasta back up to 8 oz total.

I usually make big batches of basil pesto in the summer and then freeze them in 1 cup portions. That makes this super easy to pull together for a trip. You can use any pesto you want but I highly recommend making some fresh basil pesto. Pesto is not something you want leaking in your pack so I usually triple bag this just to be safe.

Backpacking Pesto Pasta with Chicken

Serves 2

Ingredients weight: 1 lb 8 oz

Cooking gear required: pot, two bowls, eating utensils, spice container, some sort of can opener (we have one on a multi-tool we bring)

6 oz penne pasta

1 cup pesto

1 5-oz can chicken

1 cup pecorino romano cheese, shredded

Salt and pepper

At home:

If needed, make pesto.

At camp:

Bring a pot of water to a boil and cook the pasta. While the pasta is cooking, open the can of chicken and, a good distance away from your camp, drain out the water.

When the pasta is cooked, drain as much of the water out as you can. Off heat add your pesto, chicken, and most of the cheese (save some to top at the end). Stir until it’s well combined. Season to taste with the salt and pepper. Divide into the two bowls and top with the remaining cheese.