Baby, it's hot outside. Even here in Seattle, where we've been oh-so semi-patiently waiting for summer to finally get here, we're supposed to see temps in the 90's over the next couple of days. Woo hoo!
While we humans like to cool off with icy treats like sorbet, iced coffee, and oh, say, a glass or two of rummy lemonade, our canine friends wouldn't mind a cooling treat now and then, too. And after featuring many many chop-licking goodies that they were only able to admire from afar, I figured it was time to whip up something for them. Lord knows Angelyne and Lizzie think it was high time they get some love.
Poor deprived doggies.
Chickenpops are, paws down, the favorite summertime treat of my poochies. They're essentially a bland chicken broth with a few bits of chicken, frozen into big ice chunks. It takes my girls several minutes of pure concentration to get through one. You never know if a pooch is going to get overenthusiastic with all that yumminess, so please please always keep a close eye on your dog while he's enjoying his!
Here's the recipe! Oh, and my apologies for the photos on this one. I think there is no way to make boiling chicken look good.
Chickenpops
Makes about 20, depending on size
Ingredients
- 12 cups water
- 2 - 3 pieces of uncooked chicken - legs, thighs, breasts, whatever you want
Directions
- Place the water and chicken into a large pot, and bring to a boil over high heat.
- Lower temperature to medium and continue to simmer.
- Let simmer for 30 - 40 minutes, until the meat is cooked through (I judge by when it starts to fall off the bone, and there's no more pink).
- Remove broth and chicken from heat.
- Remove the chicken from the pot, and set aside to cool.
- Allow the broth to cool to room temperature. You can speed up this process by adding a few ice cubes and/or setting the pan in ice water after you've let it cool for a bit (some pans can warp by cooling down too fast, so please keep your particular brand in mind).
- Pour into Dixie cups, clean recycled soup cans, old yogurt containers, recycled plastic cups - whatever you have that will make a chickenpop big enough for your dog to enjoy. Note - when we use Dixie cups, we usually give the pop to the dogs cup and all. They just tear it off and spit it out and it's all good. When we use any other type of container, we pop the chickenpop out before serving. This year we're doing the latter and reusing the containers - trying to create less waste and all.
- Pull pieces of chicken meat off of the cooked pieces and plop a few into each cup. Of course, leave the bones behind. Chicken bones bad!
- Freeze completely. Then, just pull one out each time Fifi looks like she'd like a cool frosty treat! I usually let them sit out for a bit first (though that does prolong the dog's agony). One - they're easier to pop out of the container. Two - I have a fear of their tongue getting stuck to really really frozen ice, though I have no idea if that could actually happen.
- Enjoy, doggies! It's finally your turn.
