This is a delicious, healthy DIY chicken salad for dogs, that you will also love!
This recipe was inspired by one that I found on my friend Jessica’s blog (youdidwhatwithyourweiner.com) by way of my friend Felissa’s blog (twolittlecavaliers.com). I changed a few things and made a larger batch. I was extremely skeptical about a chicken salad using yogurt as a dressing, but boy is it delicious!
DIY Chicken Salad for Dogs
Ingredients:
- 2-3 boneless chicken breasts
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 avocado
- 3/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt
- 1/2 red bell pepper
- 1/2 shredded carrot
- 1/4 cup cilantro
- 1/4 cup parsley
- 1/2 cup celery
- pinch of garlic salt
- dash of lemon juice
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 400°.
- Coat a glass dish with cooking spray.
- Brush olive oil over each chicken breast. Place about an inch apart in the dish and cook for about 30 minutes.
- Let the chicken cool for about five minutes.
- To make the dressing: In a separate bowl, mash up avocado (make sure you are ONLY using the flesh, as the other parts can be toxic to dogs). Mix in yogurt, cilantro, parsley, lemon juice and garlic salt. Stir until creamy.
- Chop up the chicken and put it in a separate bowl.
- Add the bell pepper, celery and carrots. Toss and stir.
- Pour the dressing over the chicken mixture.
- Stir all together and serve immediately.
This chicken salad is much healthier than one that uses mayo in the recipe. Like I mentioned earlier, make sure you only use the avocado flesh in your recipe, as the pit and skin can be toxic for dogs to ingest.
I was skeptical about using a vanilla yogurt in the dressing for this chicken salad but it was absolutely phenomenal. You can also choose to use lime juice instead of lemon and you can buy pre-cooked/pre-packaged chicken pieces. I prefer to be as fresh as I can when cooking meals so I chose to cook the chicken myself. It’s also cheaper!
Much to my surprise, ALL of my dogs enjoyed this meal. They devoured it, actually. And so did I. This is definitely going on my regular recipe list and it’s also an easy recipe to in a big batch for parties and barbecues.
For an extremely easy frozen dog treat for the summer, check out my DIY blueberry frozen yogurt dog treat recipe!
That sounds fantastic!
It sounds yummy! So you used vanilla yogurt instead of plain?
Vanilla was the most plain I could find. Nothing at the store said “plain” or unflavored or anything.
Oh this is clever, I like that there’s no noodles or anything like that. My girls will not eat any fruit or vegetable – Matilda used to, but it seems like when she saw that Cow wouldn’t eat them, she went on strike for meat-only, too. I think I can trick them into eating their veggies with this recipe.
I went out on a limb to try it. I honestly wasn’t sure if my dogs would like it, but all 3 of them scarfed it down! And I really enjoyed it too. It’s super delicious!
Just so you know. Avocados are regarded as an unsafe food for dogs. While the put and skin are the more dangerous component of the avocado. The flesh also contains the toxic ingredient.
That is actually untrue. In fact, avocados are used in many pet foods. The pit and the skin are indeed the dangerous part. But thanks for looking out 🙂
Avocado is toxic for dogs.
It is not. The PIT of an avocado is toxic.
Persin is concentrated in the avocado’s leaves, skin and pit, but is also present in the fruit/flesh. I would never feed avocado to a dog even though in small quantities I’m sure most dogs can tolerate it with no reaction, but read up on Persin – it can cause vomiting and diarrhea in dogs.
All dogs are different, and in large quantities I’m sure it can cause some issues, yes. I recommend anyone contact their vets with specific concerns or questions.
Wonderful ideas for our fur babies.. Thank you!!!! Can’t wait to try them out on Baby & Cosmo 🥰