Homemade Dog Food With Chicken, Rice, Carrots & Peas

Share your love of cooking with your favorite pooch by whipping up a batch of homemade chicken stew with rice, carrots and peas -- no preservatives, artificial ingredients or artificial flavors. Once your dog gets a taste of it, don’t be surprised if he begs you to make it always. Triple or double your recipe if you need to make it in larger quantities.

You will need a spoon, a large stock pot with a lid, measuring cups and spoons, a potato peeler, a knife and a cutting board. Ingredients include olive oil, 1 pound of chicken, two sweet potatoes, pasta, dry lentils, fresh or frozen green beans, corn and peas, uncooked brown rice, chicken broth, fresh or dried parsley, yellow cornmeal and some water.

Use the cutting board and knife to trim visible fat from the chicken. Dice the chicken into 1-inch cubes and set the meat aside. Use the knife or potato peeler to peel the sweet potatoes; rinse them and cut them into 1-inch cubes. Because your pet can get food poisoning just like humans can, don’t cut the vegetables on the same cutting board you cut the chicken on. Use two separate cutting boards or wash the cutting board with hot soapy water before cutting the sweet potatoes.

Place 1 tablespoon of olive oil in the stockpot on the stove with the heat at medium-high. Add the diced chicken and stir occasionally until well-browned on all sides. Once the chicken is browned, add the diced sweet potatoes, 1 cup of uncooked pasta, 1/2-cup of any type of dry lentils, 1 cup chopped of fresh or frozen green beans, 1 cup of fresh or frozen corn, 1 cup of fresh or frozen peas, 1/2-cup of uncooked brown rice, 8 cups of reduced- or no-sodium chicken broth and either 1/2 cup of chopped fresh parsley or 2 2/3 tablespoons of dried parsley flakes. Bring the stew to a rolling boil. Place the lid on the stockpot, reduce the heat and simmer for 90 minutes. If the chicken, sweet potatoes and pasta aren’t soft and cooked thoroughly, simmer the stew for another hour. Mix 2 tablespoons of water and 1 tablespoon of cornmeal together until a paste forms, then stir the paste into the stew to thicken it. Bring the stew back up to a rolling boil and cook for three to four minutes. Remove the stew from heat and allow it to completely cool before serving.

It takes about 20 minutes to assemble the stew ingredients before cooking to make approximately 10 cups of food. The number of servings you get out this recipe depends on the size of your dog, the number of dogs you’re feeding and whether your pet's diet includes more than this homemade kibble. Store the stew in the refrigerator for no more than one week or in the freezer for up to three months.

Add 1 to 2 more cups of chicken broth if you want a thinner stew. If you don’t want your dog to eat cornmeal, use 1 tablespoon of ground flaxseed to thicken the stew instead. You can pour the finished stew into an ice cube tray and freeze it. Pop out as many cubes of stew as you need for one meal and heat it on the stovetop or in the microwave; but be careful that it’s not too hot when you serve it. If you plan on feeding only homemade stew to your pet, he will need supplements to balance his diet. Check with your veterinarian for supplement recommendations based on his size, breed, age and health.