Today at the Best Freeze Dried Food Guide website we’re doing a Mountain House Pad Thai review.
Mountain House freeze-dried food is a game-changer for anyone who loves the outdoors, traveling, or wants to be prepared for emergencies. It’s a lightweight and compact option that can provide hot and nutritious meals in just a few minutes, no matter where you are.
And one of the tasty offerings in the world of freeze-dried meals is Mountain House’s Pad Thai with Chicken. In this review, I’ll share my firsthand experience with this meal and help you decide if it’s worth adding to your camping or emergency preparedness kit.
So, what makes freeze-dried food so special? First and foremost, it’s incredibly lightweight and compact. This makes it easy to pack and carry on multi-day backpacking trips or camping excursions where every ounce counts. But just because it’s lightweight doesn’t mean it’s lacking in nutrition or flavor. In fact, many freeze-dried meals are surprisingly tasty and filling, thanks to their high protein and nutrient content.
Another advantage of freeze-dried food is its long shelf life. Unlike fresh or even canned food, freeze-dried meals can last for years without spoiling. This makes them an ideal choice for emergency preparedness kits, where you want to have non-perishable food options on hand in case of power outages, natural disasters, or other emergencies.
But let’s get back to the main event: Mountain House’s Pad Thai with Chicken. The rice noodles, chicken, garlic, carrots, and bell peppers are all blended together in a deliciously sweet and savory sauce.
Preparing the meal is also incredibly easy. All you need is some boiling water and a few minutes of patience while it rehydrates. Once it’s ready, you simply stir it up and enjoy.
Of course, no meal is perfect, and there are a few drawbacks to consider. For one, freeze-dried meals can be more expensive than other options, particularly if you’re used to cooking from scratch or buying ingredients in bulk.
Overall, I think Mountain House’s Pad Thai with Chicken is an excellent option for anyone who wants a delicious and convenient meal on the go. Whether you’re backpacking through the wilderness, traveling cross country, or preparing for an emergency, this freeze-dried meal is sure to satisfy your taste buds.
Contents
- Mountain House Pad Thai Review
- Technical Details
- Ingredients
- Nutrition Facts
- Mountain House Pad Thai Pros and Cons
- Pros
- Cons
- Amazon Customer Review Quotes
- Keep a Supply of Freeze Dried Meals on Hand
- Wrapping it all Up
Mountain House Pad Thai Review
The first thing we should talk about is the taste and texture. If it doesn’t taste good, we really don’t care about anything else.
Made according to the package directions, it certainly does taste almost like the Pad Thai from the local eatery, it just doesn’t have fresh crushed peanuts. If you want it to taste exactly like Pad Thai, add some chopped peanuts. It’s not bland, it’s not soupy. It’s darned tasty.
The package directions call for adding 1 1/3 cups of boiling water. I think this is spot on.
We depart from the package directions for hydration times. Longer is better. While the preparation instructions say it’s ready in 9 minutes, our method takes a little bit longer but has better results.
Here’s what we do.
- Step 1, Carefully add the 1 1/3 cups (11 fl oz / 325mL) boiling water to the pouch. Thoroughly stir, all the way to the bottom and at the of the pouch. Then close the zipper seal and wait 5 minutes.
- Step 2, Open the pouch, give everything a good stir, getting all the way down to the bottom and ends of the pouch. Then close the zipper seal and wait another 5 minutes.
- Step 3. Now we’re at the 10-minute mark. Open the pouch, give everything a good stir, then close the zipper seal again and wait another 5 minutes.
- Step 4. If you’re starving, open up the pouch and dig in. Otherwise, let it go for another couple of minutes so everything can evenly hydrate. Your patience will be rewarded.
It’s a tradeoff between how well you reconstitute it and how hot you want it to be (temperature, not spice). Giving it a full 20 minutes really gets the water absorbed into the noodles and chicken all the way. The longer you can wait, the better it will taste.
Technical Details
For those of us who want to know all the technical details and specifications. These are our out-of-the-box measurements, as recorded on our inexpensive battery-powered digital kitchen scale.
- The unopened 2-serving pouch weighs 133 grams
- Dry mix weight, 110 grams
- Oxygen absorber packet weight, 5 grams
- Empty pouch weight, 18 grams
Other important details.
- Two servings per pouch
- Unopened shelf life of 30 years from the date of manufacture
- Gluten-free, no artificial preservatives, artificial flavors, or artificial colors
- Durable, easy-to-open pouch with a zipper seal
- Product packaging is recyclable
Ingredients
Well, the Mountain House Pad Thai with Chicken freeze dried meal has all of the ingredients you would expect to find.
Rice noodles, chicken, a bit of sugar, garlic, red bell peppers, oyster sauce, carrots, green beans, tamari soy sauce, toasted sesame oil tamarind extract, sambal oelek sauce, green onions, and fish sauce. Yes, there are a few others I didn’t list.
The Mountain House Pad Thai product package says this meal has no artificial preservatives, no artificial flavors, no artificial colors, and is gluten-free.
To back that up, the ingredients list shows that there are no artificial colors, artificial flavors, or preservatives; none are listed. In the United States, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) requires food manufacturers to list ingredients on their product labels, with a few exceptions for very small packages or products with only one ingredient. The ingredient list must be printed in descending order by weight, with the ingredient present in the greatest amount listed first.
Nutrition Facts
The Nutrition Facts label says a serving size is 1 1/4 cups or 55 grams of dry mix. Well, we’re not going to eat half a pouch and save the rest for later. More on that in a bit.
Each pouch has 490 calories, with 14 grams of fat, almost no cholesterol, 40 milligrams, 1120 milligrams of sodium, 70 grams of carbohydrate, and 20 grams of protein. The label also shows there is some calcium, iron, and potassium.
It’s also super easy to prepare using 1 1/3 cups of boiling water.
We picked up this particular meal in December 2022, and we’re eating it in April 2023. It still had almost 30 years of shelf life remaining.
That said, we’re looking at 490 calories, with 14 grams of fat, almost no cholesterol, 40 milligrams, 1120 milligrams of sodium, 70 grams of carbohydrate, and 20 grams of protein. The label also shows there is some calcium, iron, and potassium.
A bit about the sodium content. The Nutrition Facts label says this container has 1120 mg. In a Mountain House response to a question concerning sodium, they replied, saying at one time, there was a low-sodium line of freeze dried food offerings. However, due to low sales, they discontinued the entire product line. So is this too much sodium? Only you can decide.
I’ll say that nutrition needs vary from person to person and are dependent on activity. So this single 2-serving pouch might be fine as an entire meal for some folks. Each time I have had one of these, I felt the quantity of food wasn’t enough, in other words, I was still hungry.
I always recommend trying these at home first before going out into the field. In part, so you can determine if the portion size is adequate. Imagine you finished a long hike, or you are in an emergency situation and expending a lot of energy. If you were trying this one for the very first time, well you might be looking around for something more to eat.
Pad Thai in a restaurant usually has crushed peanuts. So bring some with you to help round this out. Optionally, add in some home-dehydrated veggies, rice, or maybe a neutral-flavored oil like avocado oil, to bulk this up a bit and add more calories.
Mountain House Pad Thai Pros and Cons
Let’s take a look at some pros and cons noted in our Mountain House Pad Thai review.
The price point might be an issue for some folks, so this is neither a pro nor a con. These days, food is not cheap. Consider if you took the time first to prepare the meal from quality ingredients, and then freeze dry and package it into a sturdy pouch that also doubles as a cooking vessel. It’s a bargain, in my opinion.
When we purchased this Mountain House Adventure Meal from Amazon, the price was $10.95 in December 2022. As we update our review, there are well over 900 customer reviews, with an average rating of 4.6. Check it out here. Over 90% of the reviews are 4 and 5 stars. So this is a popular product that folks are happy with, likely with many repeat customers like me!
On November 21, 2024, I checked the Mountain House store on Amazon to get updated pricing for the Mountain House Pad Thai with Chicken. It's in stock and available for purchase. It sure is a popular item. There are over 900 customer reviews, with an average rating of 4.6 stars out of 5. Check it out here.
Pros
- Great Pad Thai taste
- 30-year shelf life
- Highly customizable, adding extras such as peanuts, homemade dehydrated veggies, rice, hot sauce, chili flakes, or other spices
- Easy and fast to prepare
- The bottom of the pouch expands into a bowl
- Depending on your activity level, this meal may not fill you up. You’ll need to try a few and decide for yourself
- The Mountain House Nutrition Label shows that a serving size is 1 1/4 cups of dry mix, but does not show what the as-prepared serving size might be
Cons
Of course, no meal is perfect, and there are a few drawbacks to consider. At first glance, freeze dried meals appear to be more expensive than other options, particularly if you’re used to cooking from scratch or buying ingredients in bulk. Read our trade-off analysis here. Freeze dried meal options are a bargain when you consider real world options.
Okay, maybe the last con, isn’t really a con? If prepared according to the instructions, how much Pad Thai is in that pouch?
Neither pro nor con, the bottom panel of the Adventure Meal pouch has bits of wit and wisdom printed on them, check it out
Amazon Customer Review Quotes
With nearly 1000 global reviews and an average rating of 4.6 out of 5 stars, Mountain House Pad Thai is highly regarded by customers. Over 90% of the reviews are 4 or 5 stars, indicating widespread satisfaction. Reviewer comments include phrases like “Tasty,” “Very Tasty,” and “Yum Yum Yum,” emphasizing the positive flavor experience.
While there are some differing opinions on the taste, with some finding it bland and others not, the overall consensus is positive. Similarly, the spiciness level is subjective, with varying opinions among reviewers.
One reviewer acknowledges that freeze-dried food cannot match fresh dishes but mentions that Mountain House Pad Thai comes reasonably close, particularly in situations where convenience, cold weather, hunger, and limited resources are factors. They even claim it’s better than any other freeze-dried food they’ve had.
To me, when the majority of product reviews are 4 and 5 stars in the 90% range, it’s proof positive that what I am considering is socially vetted. The exact percentage of Amazon customers who leave product reviews can vary widely depending on the product category, customer demographics, and other factors. The exact percentage of Amazon customers who leave customer reviews is not publicly available information. Amazon does not disclose the specific number or percentage of customers who write reviews for products.
Pick up one or two today and give it a taste test. Its convenience and long shelf life make it a practical choice for various situations, whether you’re camping, hiking, planning for a prolonged power outage, or simply in need of a quick and satisfying meal.
Final Thoughts on our Mountain House Pad Thai Review
Would I buy them again? Yes, I would, and I have many times over.
The Mountain House Pad Thai with Chicken has exceeded my expectations for taste and texture. It might not taste exactly like a Pad Thai found in your favorite restaurant, but it’s pretty darned tasty.
Keep a Supply of Freeze Dried Meals on Hand
Consider keeping a supply of freeze dried food and snacks on hand. Besides making for some easy-to-make camping food, freeze-dried food is one option for building an emergency food supply that is shelf-stable, easy to prepare, and has a long shelf life.
One of the critical components of emergency preparedness is having a reliable and sufficient food supply. Having a well-stocked emergency pantry is always a good idea. In the event of a natural disaster or other emergency situation, having a supply of freeze-dried foods can help ensure that you have access to nutritious food when other food sources may be unavailable.
It’s also important to regularly rotate through all of your food supplies to ensure that you use them before they expire.
Buy a few to try out before committing to a bigger purchase to stock up. It’s a good investment. Testing out different freeze-dried foods before committing to a larger purchase is a smart idea to ensure that you like the taste and quality of the food.
Overall, having a well-stocked emergency pantry, including freeze-dried foods, is a wise investment in your and your family’s safety and well-being in the event of an emergency.
Wrapping it all Up
So wrapping it all up. The Mountain House Pad Thai with Chicken freeze dried Adventure Meal is a keeper. It has great flavor and there are plenty of options to bulk it up.
The unopened pouch weighs in at 4.7 ounces and has a shelf life of 30 years from the date of manufacture. The Mountain House meals are ideal for camping, hiking, traveling, emergency preparedness, or getting home late meal options.
Once opened, Mountain House recommends using the dry contents within one week for best results and taste.
The nutrition facts label shows that a serving size is 1 1/4 cups of dry mix. There are 2 servings in the pouch. The package does not show what a serving size is as prepared. Seems like a no-brainer to include this information.
Be sure to check out our list of Mountain House freeze dried meals available on Amazon, where we track the daily price and product availability so you don't have to. We also link to our comprehensive Mountain House freeze dried meal reviews. We track the same for Peak Refuel freeze dried meals on Amazon, don't forget to check it out before you go.