Okay so we all know the drill- get a food sealer, buy whole chicken and learn to take it apart yourself, use the bones for delicious stock. I’ve been doing this for a few years now but now that I have a dog I’ve upped the ante a bit.
So first of all, I love dissecting whole chicken and I get a lot of personal satisfaction out of the process. I also love making homemade treats for my dog because I know the ingredients, and it feels extra special to give him something I made with my bare hands. Also the stuff sold in stores to fill kongs with just seems... the grossest. So to anyone who is going to say, “but but but don’t you know how much your TIME is worth??” Yes I do, and it’s okay to “waste your time” by someone else’s standards if you feel good about it!
Okay so here it goes: after I take apart the chicken and the parts I want to actually cook in the future, I basically scrape off every last bit of meat and put it in a separate bowl. I mean, I’m scraping this carcass down to literally the bare bones. I try not to include fat, so this bowl of scraps is like 90% meat and 10% fat. I am also extremely careful not to have any little bones left by using gloves and constantly squeezing the bits of meat to be sure. I throw the bones, a bunch of carrots, celery, and onion into a crockpot outside (I do the stock process outside at least on hot days. My husband thanks me for it). I take the bowl of scraps and cook it on the stove and set it aside to cool. Meanwhile, I throw chunks of sweet potato in the microwave and get them to mashable quality. When my garden zucchinis were too many to eat, I would cook up the extras for this process as well.
So to recap, I’ve got stock going, a separate bowl of cooked little chicken pieces, sweet potatoes ready to be mashed, and other veggies that I’ve got around that are safe for dogs. Cook the vegetables, but you don’t want too much water, so you may have to strain with cheesecloth.
I blend the chicken pieces and I once again, check by squeezing/stirring around by hand to make sure I didn’t miss a piece of bone. Once the stock is done, I strain, toss the onions, celery, and bones in the trash (I never know if the cooked onion is a good idea to compost since it’s been cooked with meat), but I KEEP the boiled carrots. I blend the carrots, sweet potato and other veggies. I also check the fridge for any dog-safe leftovers, like more chicken or veggies. I then mix together the chicken and vegetables, add enough peanut butter that it will keep my dog happy but not an unhealthy amount (and please make sure and double-check the peanut butter you use is safe for dogs!).
I scoop this mixture into ziplock bags (like a cup or so per bag), squeeze out air and store in the freezer flat. When I want to prep a treat for my dog I take it out for like 30 minutes to defrost, cut a corner in the ziplock and squeeze into the kong. I then freeze the Kong until it’s solid (usually I fill in the morning and my dog gets his treat at night). It takes my dog 20-30 minutes to get through the kong, and it’s messy but we have a special blanket he knows he needs to eat his treats on and we just wash that regularly.
TLDR: Thoroughly clean that chicken carcass. Blend with dog-safe veggies and a bit of peanut butter. Freeze mixture in kong. Dog is busy. Dog-parents are happy. Life of chicken has nourished whole family for many meals.
September 26, 2020 at 08:03PM
