Jan 9, 2008

Baby Food Recipe: Pureed Chicken (slow cooker method)

I know, it sounds gross. And yet, if you're making your own baby food and you don't plan on raising a vegetarian, you're probably going to need to make Pureed Chicken. Here's my method:

Pureed Chicken

1. Add 1/2 to 2 pounds of chicken tenders or boneless skinless chicken breast to a crockpot appropriate to the amount of chicken you are cooking. (Personally, I prefer to cook 1/2 pound chicken tenders in my 1.5 quart slow cooker, but I'm sure many people have a 4 quart or larger slow cooker, which will work just fine with a larger amount of chicken.) Add enough water to completely cover the chicken and cook on high for 4 to 6 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours, until chicken is completely cooked and tender.

2. If you want the smoothest puree possible, remove the chicken from the crock to a food processor. Puree until smooth, adding as much of the cooking liquid as necessary to achieve the desired consistency. Let the puree cool completely, then transfer to ice cube trays and freeze.

3. For a textured puree (which is great for getting baby used to chewing), remove the crock from the cooker and let cool for an hour. Transfer to the refrigerator until the chicken is cold. Transfer the chicken to a food processor and puree, adding cooking liquid to achieve the desired consistency. Freeze in ice cube trays or in a large plastic container (if you didn't add much of the cooking liquid, you'll be able to "chip" the frozen chicken and put the desired amount into a bowl for serving).

Note: Tyler switched to finger foods before I started letting him have seasoned food, but you could add seasoning when cooking as long as it isn't too spicy.

2 comments:

~Babychaser~ said...

This is great! Thanks. I never really mastered the pureed meat thing with our son... but our daughter is due next month... so this fall I'll need to figure something out. Now if only I had a food processor! :)

Thanks for sharing!

Chief Family Officer said...

You could try a food mill - Amazon sells this manual mill for less than $20. This is what I would have gotten if I hadn't gotten a stainless steel one. The first review talks about grinding a pork chop so if you're not going for the smoothest puree possible, this would probably work for you.