Slow-Braised Chicken & Butternut Strips
Allergen lists cover the priority allergens in the recipe as written. Always check your own ingredient labels, and introduce each new allergen on its own first.
Ingredients
- 2 boneless skinless chicken thighs (about 250 g)
- 200 g butternut squash, peeled and cut into 2 cm chunks
- 1 small onion, finely chopped
- 200 ml plain water, or a no-salt-added chicken stock — read the label first, as shop-bought stocks commonly contain celery, soy or wheat
- 10 ml (2 tsp) olive oil
- ½ tsp ground coriander and a pinch of mild sweet paprika (no salt)
Method
- 1. Warm the olive oil in a small casserole over medium-low heat and soften the onion for 5 minutes without colouring.
- 2. Add the spices, the chicken thighs and the squash, then pour in the water or no-salt-added stock so the meat is about two-thirds submerged. Ordinary stock cubes are extremely salty — use plain water or a no-salt-added stock, never a standard cube.
- 3. Cover and simmer very gently for 40-45 minutes, turning the thighs once. Braising keeps the meat moist; roasted or grilled chicken dries into hard crumbs that are difficult and unsafe for babies to manage.
- 4. Check the chicken is cooked through — no pink, juices run clear — and that the squash mashes with light finger pressure. Then test the meat itself: a piece should pull apart along the grain and squash between your thumb and forefinger. If it still feels firm or springy, cover and simmer for a further 10-15 minutes and test again before serving any of it to your baby.
- 5. Lift the chicken out, rest for 5 minutes, then slice with the grain into strips. Mash a little of the squash into a sauce and spoon it over so the meat stays slippery and moist.
- 6. Cool to just warm before serving; the remaining squash makes a soft side.
How to serve by age
6–8 months
Cut the braised thigh with the grain into finger-length strips about 8 cm long and the thickness of an adult finger, then coat in the squash sauce. A strip this size sits in the whole-hand palmar grasp with an end exposed for sucking and gnawing, which is how babies at this stage draw the juices and soft fibres out of meat.
9–12 months
Shred the braised thigh along the grain into soft threads and short pieces about 1 cm long — shredding rather than cubing, because springy cross-cut cubes are harder to manage — then moisten with mashed squash so each small morsel is easy to lift with the thumb-and-forefinger pincer grasp.
Paediatric note
Chicken supplies around 65-85 mg of choline per 100 g plus zinc and vitamin B12, nutrients that infant stores start to run down from about six months, so it is a useful choline route for egg-allergic babies. Slice cooked meat with the grain rather than across it for babies under nine months — long fibres break down under gumming, whereas cross-cut cubes stay springy. Chicken, squash and onion carry none of the Top-14 allergens, but shop-bought stock often does, so check the label or simply use water.
Source guidance: https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/baby/weaning-and-feeding/
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