Of all the things that Baby Dash likes to eat, chicken is by far his favorite. He loves it mixed with sweet potato, carrot, or poi (that my local Japanese market flys in from Hawaii every Thursday). Now that Dash can feed himself (feed meaning every second attempt makes it in or near his mouth), he turns his nose up at the really smooth purees, so I keep it relatively chunky/pasty.
I've always made baby food for all of my kids and I've never bought any special babyfood making equipment fancier than a $10 hand-crank baby food mill* (which I mostly use to grind up restaurant food when we're out to eat). This chicken is whizzed up in a mini Cuisinart food processor which I use all the time for other things.
This chicken is not plain. We don't eat plain food in this family, and the quickest way I know to adapt a baby's taste to the wide variety of flavors that his family enjoys eating is to put those flavors (minus salt and sugar) into his food. So his chicken is "seasoned" as I would season a roast chicken. (We've had good luck with most foods—so far he's only reacted to eating cheeses so we avoid that for now.) Don't be afraid of experimenting with different aromatics or herbs when making baby food! It makes it more fun to cook, I think!
BABY DASH'S FAVORITE CHICKEN BABY FOOD
- Two leg+thing chicken pieces (or two drumsticks and two thighs)
- Water
- 1 small clove garlic
- 1 piece of onion (as big or small as you like)
- 1 stalk celery
- 1 carrot
Place the chicken in a pot and cover with cold water. Add garlic, onion, celery, carrot. Bring to a boil and then reduce to a simmer for about 20-25 minutes, or until chicken is cooked though and no longer pink. Remove chicken from pot, but save broth and veggies.
When chicken is cool enough to handle, remove meat and skin from bones and lightly chop. Discard bones. Please meat and skin in food processor along with a little broth (as needed) and grind until you reached a chunky puree. (Or add more broth and continue processing for baby that likes a smoother puree.) If desired you can also toss the veggies in to the chicken before grinding, perhaps omitting the garlic and onion if you think your baby is sensitive to it.
Makes enough to fill about 8 ice-cube-sized containers.
*Don't get the Anabel Karmel one—it's crap. Get the KidCo one. It's much better quality. (It's the same one my mom used when she made her baby food.)
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