Spot's Chicken Stew from Halo

The founder of Halo Dog Food has written a book (Whole Pet Diet) and has posted (for free!) the recipe for “Spot’s Stew” in her book and on several sites on the internet and I have used this recipe for a year and ½ after my dogs started having digestive issues with purchased dog food (even though it was high quality – I was feeding Wellness).

This is the recipe as is and below it are my adds, advice and tweaks:

Spot’s Chicken Stew from Halo

• 2 ½ pounds whole chicken
• ¼ cup chopped fresh garlic
• 1 cup green peas
• 1 cup coarsely chopped carrots
• ½ cup coarsely chopped sweet potato
• ½ cup coarsely chopped zucchini
• ½ cup coarsely chopped yellow squash
• ½ cup coarsely chopped green beans
• ½ cup coarsely chopped celery
• 1 tablespoon kelp powder
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• 11 to 16 cups spring water

For dogs only: Add 8 ounces whole barley and 6 ounces rolled oats, and adjust the water content to a total of 16 cups, or enough to cover the ingredients. According to Halo veterinarian Donna Spector, cats require zero carbohydrate content in their diet, so this would be an unnecessary addition for cats.

Instructions:

Combine all of the ingredients in a 10-quart stainless-steel stockpot with enough water to cover. Bring to a boil, then turn down the heat as low as possible and simmer for two hours – the carrots should be quite soft at the end of the cooking time. Remove from the heat, let cool, and debone the chicken.

With an electric hand mixer, or using a food processor and working in batches, blend all the ingredients into a nice puree; the stew should be slightly thicker for dogs and more soupy for cats. Using zip lock bags or plastic yogurt containers, make up meal-sized portions. Refrigerate what you’ll need for three days and freeze the rest. Seek your pet’s advice (and your vet’s) on ideal meal sizes.

Click HERE for a video of the cooking process.

Serving size:

Amounts will vary depending on age, activity level, health, weight, and season, but here are some guidelines: The average adult cat will eat roughly one cup a day. Because dogs vary so much in size, consult the table below. The amount shown should be split into at least two meals daily.

Dog’s Weight                      Total Daily Portion

Up to 10 pounds                    1 to 1½ cups

11 to 20 pounds                    2 to 3 cups

21 to 40 pounds                    4 cups

For each additional 20 pounds, add two cups. Remember, pets are individuals, so let intuition and observations guide you, and always consult your vet.

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Susan's Tweaks & Advice:

I always make a double recipe since chickens are usually about 5 lbs anyway. I still use just 16 cups of water. I do not add the garlic, kelp or rosemary although I have at times added some rosemary and some of the garlic. Doubling the garlic seemed like a LOT when there is still a question about whether or not it’s okay for dogs to eat garlic. They never had any problems when I did add it though and I know some flea treatments (the consumable kind – like brewer’s yeast blends) occasionally have garlic in them.

I first cook the chicken, and once it’s mostly done I’ll put in the barley. After about 20 minutes I’ll remove the chicken (leave barley in) and set aside to cool and then put the veggies in the chicken stock to cook just until softened (mainly making sure the sweet potatoes are soft). After the veggies are done I’ll add the chicken (removed from bone and cartilage) back in, let it cool off, then process in batches in my food processer. A friend of mine uses a stick blender. Once it’s blended I put into 2 cup containers and freeze. This costs me around $15 to make, and makes about 16 – 2-cup servings. For my dogs, each 2 cup container feeds 2 dogs 3 meals (2 1/3 cup servings, 3 different mealtimes – hope that makes sense). If I bought canned food, estimating $1.50 a can, it would cost me $72 to feed this same amount and mine is much better quality!

I think the serving size is if you’re ONLY feeding this food. It still seems kind of high to me. For my 60 lb beagle/border collie mixes, I feed 1/3 cup of this homemade over 1/3 cup of dry Halo food two times a day and this has kept them at a healthy weight. They are not overly active (they’re in the house while we’re at work and outside only when we’re home). They do also get some treats (Mother Hubbard bones – tiny size, Natural Balance meat sticks, and bed time “go in your crate” Milk Bones) during the day because we use food in our training (they’re 2 years old). I also add one capsule of 1000 mg fish oil (squirted out of the capsule and onto the food) and one tablespoon of yogurt. Occasionally I’ll add pumpkin if they’re having soft stools.

I do give them a doggy vitamin each day too.

For treats, they either get frozen marrow bones (Whole Foods sells for $2.59/lb and Publix sells for $1.59 lb). Freezing them makes them last longer and less messy. Another treat I make is, I mix yogurt, bananas and peanut butter together and spoon into a large Kong and freeze for at least 3 hours. To keep the mixture from coming out of the hole in the end, I put some of their dry food in to stop up the hole, then stand the Kongs up in coffee cups and put in the freezer. They LOVE these after hot summer walks.

My guys have amazing coats, beautiful white teeth. My vet raves about how good they look.

My motivation to do this was recently losing the doggy-love-of-my-life to lymphoma. Once I adopted my new boys, I really wanted to make sure only the best things go in to them.

submitted by Susan Kellett Gue