Chicken baby food
Easily turn chicken breast into healthy, nutrient rich, chicken baby food. This simple and tasty chicken puree for babies is a great start for introducing solids to your feeding routine.
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Equipment
- Saucepan: Any kind of saucepan will be fine for this recipe. You'll just want to make sure it's large enough to hold the amount of chicken you're boiling with enough water to cover the chicken.
- Kitchen knife/tongs: These tools are used for shredding the chicken after it's cooked. A good, sharp knife and tongs are especially handy for this recipe because the chicken will be too hot to pick up or shred with your hands. A fork will also work in place of tongs.
- Blender or food processor: You'll want a high quality blender to get the baby food mashed up thoroughly. You don't want any extra chunks or hard to chew pieces in the chicken puree.
- Baby food jars: Glass jars are excellent for serving. You can portion out your chicken meat right after blending and store it in your fridge for short term meals.
Ingredients
- Chicken
- Broth
Instructions
- Boil the chicken
- In a medium saucepan over medium heat, bring the raw chicken to a boil and cook for about 15 -20 minutes, until the chicken is no longer pink. Be careful to not overcook the chicken or it will become rubbery and more difficult to chew. Transfer the cooked chicken to a medium sized bowl or cutting board, and do not pour out the broth.
- Check chicken's temperature
- Using a meat thermometer, check the chicken’s internal temperature. Chicken must be cooked to at least 165° F to ensure that it's safe to eat. If the temperature is any less than that in the center of the thickest piece, return the chicken to the saucepan and continue to cook meat until a safe temperature is reached.
- Shred the chicken
- Using a sharp knife and tongs, shred the chicken breast into bite sized pieces of about ¼” thickness. If you don't have tongs, use a fork to help with shredding.
- Place chicken in the blender, add the broth and puree
- Place the shredded chicken into a blender or food processor and add 1/4 cup of the broth from the saucepan. When you boil chicken, some of the nutrients are drawn out into the water. Adding some of the broth back in helps preserve some of those vitamins and minerals.
- Blend chicken for about 3 minutes, or until smooth. Pulse slowly to evenly break up the larger pieces, then gradually increase speed. If the chicken appears to be too dry or has a grainy texture, more liquid can help. Add an additional 2 tablespoons of broth and continue blending until a smooth consistency is reached.
- Transfer for serving and storage
- At this point you can move the pureed chicken to bowls for serving and storage. Make sure the chicken has cooled to a safe to touch temperature before feeding it to your baby.
Notes
How to store chicken baby food
Chicken can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days in the fridge and 1 to 2 months in the freezer. Using freezer-safe storage containers makes it easy to cook in bulk and save food that's being stored long term.
Chicken can be stored in an airtight container for up to 2 days in the fridge and 1 to 2 months in the freezer. Using freezer-safe storage containers makes it easy to cook in bulk and save food that's being stored long term.