How to Make Chicken and Rice for Dogs (Recipe and Steps)

Boil boneless, skinless chicken breast in plain water until it is cooked all the way through, cook plain white rice separately in water, shred the chicken, and mix the two together at roughly one part chicken to two parts rice. Nothing else goes in: no salt, no oil, no butter, no broth cubes, no onion, no garlic, no seasoning of any kind. Serve it cooled, in small portions, and spread across the day rather than in one large meal.

That is the whole recipe. The rest of this page covers the parts owners actually get stuck on: which rice to use, how to do it in an Instant Pot, slow cooker or crockpot, what you can safely add in, and how to get your dog back onto normal food afterwards.

Chicken and rice is a short term bland diet, not a complete and balanced food, and it is never a substitute for having a veterinarian find out why your dog is sick in the first place.

The basic boiled recipe, step by step

You need two ingredients and a pot of water. That is the point of a bland diet: fewer variables for an irritated gut to deal with.

What you need

• Boneless, skinless chicken breast, trimmed of visible fat
• Plain long grain white rice
• Water

Method

1. Put the chicken breasts in a pot and cover them with cold water by an inch or two. Do not salt the water.
2. Bring it to a gentle boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook until the chicken is white all the way through with no pink in the centre and the juices run clear. The USDA safe internal temperature for poultry is 165 degrees Fahrenheit, and a meat thermometer is the only way to know for certain.
3. While the chicken simmers, cook the rice separately: one part rice to two parts water, brought to a boil, then covered and simmered until the water is absorbed and the grains are soft. Cook it slightly past the point you would eat it yourself. Softer is easier on a sore stomach.
4. Lift the chicken out, let it cool, then shred it by hand or chop it into small pieces. Check for any stray cartilage.
5. Combine roughly one part shredded chicken to two parts cooked rice. Some veterinarians suggest a different ratio depending on the dog, so confirm the proportions with yours.
6. Let the mixture cool to room temperature before serving. Hot food on a nauseous stomach rarely ends well.

The cooking water left in the pot is plain chicken broth with nothing added. A small amount spooned over the mix can encourage a dog who is not interested in food, as long as it has been skimmed of fat and never contains onion, garlic, bouillon or salt.

Feeding amounts and how many days to continue are decisions for your veterinarian, not for a recipe page. They depend on your dog's weight, body condition, age and what is actually wrong. Call the clinic and ask.

Choosing the rice: white, brown or something else

The short answer to white or brown: use white. Brown rice keeps its bran and germ, which means more fibre and a tougher grain to break down. That fibre is useful in a healthy dog's everyday food and counterproductive when the goal is to give the digestive tract as little work as possible.

Rice type	Suitable for a bland diet?	Why
Long grain white	Best choice	Low fibre, cooks soft, easy to digest
Jasmine or basmati (white)	Fine	White rice with a different aroma, same digestibility
Instant or minute white rice	Usable in a pinch	Very soft, convenient, lower in nutrients than regular white
Brown rice	Not ideal short term	Higher fibre and a tougher hull, more digestive work
Wild rice	Avoid	Not true rice, chewy, high fibre
Seasoned rice mixes	Never	Contain salt, onion or garlic powder and oils

Rinse the rice before cooking to wash off loose starch, and cook it in plain water only. No bouillon, no stock cubes, no butter stirred through at the end.

Instant Pot, slow cooker and stovetop compared

All three produce the same food. Pick the one that fits your kitchen and your day.

Method	How it works	Notes
Stovetop boiling	Simmer chicken in plain water, cook rice in a separate pot, shred and combine	Fastest hands-on method, easiest to check doneness
Instant Pot	Chicken breasts with water on high pressure, natural release, then shred. Rice cooks separately with equal parts rice and water	Convenient and hands-off, but confirm the chicken is cooked through before shredding
Slow cooker or crockpot	Chicken and plain water on low until the meat shreds easily, usually several hours. Rice cooked separately	Best for batch cooking, leaves broth you can skim and reuse

A note on the Instant Pot and crockpot versions: it is tempting to throw the rice in with the chicken and walk away. You can, but the rice absorbs rendered fat from the chicken, and fat is the one thing you are actively trying to keep out of a bland meal. Cooking them separately and combining afterwards gives you control over the fat content and the ratio. Whichever appliance you use, skip every ingredient that normally goes in a slow cooker recipe, including stock, onion, garlic, herbs and oil.

Pumpkin and other safe add-ins

Plain chicken and rice is deliberately boring, and for a few days that is the feature, not the bug. Still, there are a small number of additions that veterinarians commonly discuss with owners.

Pumpkin. Plain canned pumpkin puree, one hundred percent pumpkin with nothing else on the ingredient list, is the most common add-in. It is a source of soluble fibre, and many owners report it helps firm up loose stool. Pumpkin pie filling is a different product entirely and contains sugar and spices, so check the label rather than the picture on the front. Ask your veterinarian how much is appropriate for your dog's size.

Other things people mix in

• Plain boiled or steamed sweet potato, mashed, with no butter or sugar
• Plain cooked carrots, soft and chopped small
• Skimmed, unsalted cooking broth from the chicken itself
• A probiotic your veterinarian has recommended or dispensed
• Plain boiled white fish or plain turkey breast if your dog does not do well with chicken

What never goes in: salt, butter, oil, garlic, onion, leek, chives, stock cubes, gravy, seasoning blends, grapes or raisins, anything sweetened with xylitol, cooked bones, and skin or fatty trimmings. Several of these are genuinely toxic to dogs, not merely unhelpful.

If you are mixing chicken and rice into your dog's regular kibble rather than feeding it alone, that is a transition step rather than a bland diet, and the ratio matters. Your veterinarian can tell you when to start blending the two.

Where a bland diet fits during recovery

Owners often reach for chicken and rice during a rough patch that is not only digestive: after anaesthesia, after orthopaedic surgery, or while a dog is on medication that leaves the stomach still developing. Appetite matters during recovery, because a dog that is eating is a dog that is taking in the protein needed for tissue repair. That is a reasonable use of a bland diet, with one condition: it stays short term and your veterinarian is kept in the loop, particularly if your dog is on prescribed medication. Never stop or adjust anything your vet has prescribed because food seems to be helping.

Food is only one lever during a recovery window, which is why many owners researching soft tissue and joint recovery end up looking at peptides as well. pawgen makes K9-REPAIR, a BPC-157 and TB-500 formulation for dogs. BPC-157 is a peptide studied for its role in tissue repair signalling, and TB-500 relates to thymosin beta-4, a protein involved in cell migration and the formation of new blood vessels, both processes that sit at the centre of how tendon, ligament and soft tissue remodel. Research suggests these mechanisms are relevant to repair, and owners report using the combination through recovery alongside the plan their vet set. Neither compound is an FDA-approved veterinary drug, and nothing here describes a treatment for any condition. What pawgen can state plainly is what is in the bottle: a two-peptide formulation, third-party tested with certificates of analysis published, dosed by body weight on the label, shipped direct to the door, and backed by a sixty day money-back guarantee. Bring it up with your veterinarian before adding it to a recovery plan.

Storage, portioning and getting back to normal food

Cook a batch, cool it quickly, and refrigerate it in a sealed container. Treat it like any cooked chicken dish in your own fridge: a few days at most, and discard it if the smell changes. Freeze the rest in meal-sized portions and thaw in the fridge rather than on the counter. Warm refrigerated portions only to take the chill off, never hot.

Going back to normal food is a gradual process, not a switch. The usual approach is to blend a small amount of the regular diet into the chicken and rice and increase the proportion over several days while watching the stool. Rushing the transition is one of the most common reasons a dog relapses after seeming fine.

Stop and call the clinic if your dog will not eat at all, vomits repeatedly, has blood in the stool or vomit, becomes lethargic, has a distended abdomen, or does not improve on the bland diet. Puppies, senior dogs, pregnant or nursing dogs and dogs with existing conditions such as pancreatitis, kidney disease or diabetes need veterinary input before any diet change, not after.

Key Takeaways

• Boil plain chicken breast, cook plain white rice separately, shred, and combine at roughly one part chicken to two parts rice.
• Use white rice, not brown. Lower fibre means less digestive work.
• Instant Pot, slow cooker and stovetop all work. Cook the chicken and rice separately so the rice does not soak up fat.
• Plain pumpkin puree is the most common safe add-in. Never pumpkin pie filling.
• No salt, oil, butter, onion, garlic, broth cubes or seasoning, ever.
• It is a short term bland diet, not a complete and balanced food.
• Transition back to regular food gradually over several days.

Your veterinarian owns the diagnosis and the treatment plan. They are the one who decides whether your dog's symptoms call for a bland diet, diagnostics, medication or something else entirely, and how long to stay the course. Food and supplements, peptides included, work in the space that proper veterinary care creates, never in place of it.

Owners looking further into the peptide side of recovery can read the published third-party certificates of analysis at /coas/, check shipping coverage at /location/, and see the current K9-REPAIR formulation at /shop/.

Owners exploring peptide support for their dog can review K9-REPAIR, BPC-157 + TB-500 formulated for dogs, at https://pawgen.com/. BPC-157 and TB-500 are not FDA-approved veterinary drugs. Nothing in this article treats, cures or prevents any condition; every decision about your dog's care belongs with your veterinarian.