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Those of my furrends who know me really well know that I am an advocate for rescue with southern California Pomeranian Rescue.  There are few things sadder than hearing about one of my rescues or furrends going to Rainbow Bridge for a reason that could have and should have been prevented, in the form of treats.  With so much regulation over the quality of the food supply in the United States, few of us realize that we might be eating treats that are imported from another country where the standards of quality and wholesomeness  are different.  What is worse, a lot of the tainted imported treats are not stopped and continue to be stocked on store shelves everywhere, even though the drumbeat is getting louder against purchasing imported product especially from China.  Our pawrents scan the product packaging to find the source of the ingredients, and even that can be challenging.  just finding an image of the flag is not necessarily the solution. The product might be packaged in the US, but made of imported ingredients.

I decided to grab the chicken by its neck and learn to make my own chicken jerky.  It took a long time but it was very simple.  The ingredients are chicken breasts and vegetable oil.  The tools you will need are a cutting board, a colander to rinse and drain the chicken, a sharp knife, and some cookie sheets.

Mommy bought about 4 lbs of chicken breast for me, already boned, so I wouldn’t have to do that part myself.  First, start preheating your oven to 200F.  Next, rinse the chicken well, drain, and pat dry with paper towels.

Coat the cookie sheets with vegetable oil.  4 lbs of chicken will fill up 2 cookie sheets.  place a chicken breast on the cutting board and trim off fat and skin, then slice it with the grain approximately 1/8″ to 1/4″ thick.  Chickens are slippery birds so get a good grip on that knife to avoid accidents, and keep your paws away from the blade.

Place your sliced chicken strips on the oiled cookie sheets, and bake in oven approximately 3 hrs.  Jerky is supposed to be dry and chewy like this:

When done,  remove from oven and allow to cool.   You can transfer them to wire racks if you like, but mommy just sets the cookie sheets on top of our gas range grates so air can get under them and help them to cool.

They can then be cut into smaller pieces and stored in the refrigerator up to three weeks. They won’t last that long, though. here are some of us doing our best version of “Sit” to get some of this wonderful and safe chicken jerky treat!

This is Minnie:

This is Rocky:

Buddy and Pepper:

Eu:

And Dexter:

Here are a couple of resources on facebook to help you research for information about pet treats from China:  Veterinary practice news and animal parents against Pet treats and Food Made In China.   happy cooking and let me know if you try to make your own chicken jerky!

Here’s the recipe in case you want to add it to your recipe book!

Bella