Homemade cat food
Chicken & Butternut Squash Gentle Stew
A soft, spoonable stew of poached chicken and sweet steamed butternut squash — warming, easy to digest and gentle on a fussy or recovering tummy.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 40 min
- Makes
- About 4 small portions
🧺 Ingredients
- 120 g boneless, skinless chicken thigh or breast
- 2 tbsp butternut squash, peeled and diced small
- About 150 ml plain water (no stock cubes)
- 1 tsp of the cooking water, to loosen
👩🍳 Method
- Add the chicken and diced squash to a small pan and just cover with plain water.
- Bring to a gentle simmer and cook for about 20 minutes until the chicken is cooked right through and the squash is fork-soft.
- Lift everything out, let it cool, then shred the chicken finely and mash the squash.
- Stir in a teaspoon or two of the cooking water to make a soft, stew-like texture.
- Serve a small spoonful at room temperature and refrigerate the rest for up to three days.
Nutrition: Lean chicken supplies the highly digestible animal protein and taurine cats depend on, while a little butternut squash adds moisture, gentle fibre and beta-carotene, making this an easy-on-the-stomach comfort dish for fussy or convalescing cats.
📝 Notes
Keep it completely plain — no onion, garlic, salt or stock, which are not safe for cats. This is a treat or a tempting topper for a cat that is off its food, not a replacement for a complete, balanced diet.
⚕️ Before you cook for your cat
- Homemade food must be balanced. Cats need taurine, and deficiency causes heart and eye disease.
- Treat recipes are supplements to a complete diet, not a replacement for it.
- Check any new ingredient against the toxic-foods list, and ask your vet before switching diets.