Beef Liver Dinner Recipe for Dogs
If you want to make your dog homemade organic dog food, try this Beef Liver Dinner Recipe for dogs! This easy healthy homemade dog food is one your pup will love, and it’s loaded with fresh organic ingredients!
If you like making food and treats for your dog as much as I do, check out some of John John's other favorites like Chicken Dinner Recipe for Dogs, Waffle Recipe for Dogs, Dog Friendly Whipped Cream, or Peanut Butter Dog Cookies.
A Quick Look At The Recipe
- Recipe Name: Beef Liver Dinner Recipe for Dogs
- Ready In: 35 minutes
- Makes: 10 servings (depending on your dog's size)
- Main Ingredients: chicken, beef liver, sweet potato
- Flavor Profile: chicken and sweet potato
- Dietary Info: gluten free, eggless, dairy free
- Difficulty: Easy!
- Why You’ll Love It: healthy homemade dog food
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Why You'll Love This Recipe
- Good for Your Dog: You will love this easy healthy homemade dog food and your pup will love it too!
- Dogs Love It: Your dog will go absolutely nuts for this Beef Liver Dinner Recipe for Dogs. Your dog will be licking their lips while they watch you prepare this meal! When we cook the beef liver, John John is always right by my feet. While it may not smell the best to us, dogs go insane for this! They'll also love Slow Cooker Beef Dog Food.
- Organ Meat: Beef liver is an organ meat, which is a great addition to your dog's diet! Also, check out How to Cook Turkey Giblets for Dogs for another great organ meat option.
- Safe for Everyday: You can feed this recipe to your dog every day, like we do, or you can make it for them on special occasions. This homemade organic dog food is loaded with delicious goodies for your fur baby just like our Turkey Dog Food Recipe.
- Meal Prep: This is a great recipe for meal prep, we make this about once a week and John John has fresh homemade dog food for the week! Also, check out How to Cook Sweet Potatoes for Dogs and How to Cook Ground Turkey For Dogs for easy meal prepping!
Jump to:
This easy healthy homemade dog food is a made with ingredients you probably already have at home, or buy weekly (except maybe the beef liver!). Beef liver is a superfood for your dog and it is for humans too, but we don't eat it often because the taste is less than ideal, haha.
But, trust me, while you may think this doesn't smell amazing, your dog thinks the exact opposite! This ingredient has a host of health benefits for your dog and they will love this addition to their food.
If you want to learn more about cooking homemade healthy food for your dog (that's also vet approved!) check out our course, How to Cook Homemade Dog Food (Vet-Approved, Balanced and Simple).
Ingredients
- Beef Liver: Always buy organic beef liver. This is super important with this ingredient because the liver is a cleansing organ. So, if a cow is fed a diet of GMOs, soy, grains and more, it will filter all these harmful things through the liver. So, this is why it's very important to buy organic to keep this the superfood that it is. Beef liver is low in fat, high in protein, iron, vitamin A, B12, and more. You can buy organic beef liver online at Starwalker Organic Farms, which is what we give to John John.
- Coconut Oil: I use a little organic coconut oil to cook the beef liver. This helps it not stick to the pan and it gives it a wonderful flavor for your dog. This is optional though, if you want to boil the beef liver, you can do without the coconut oil.
- Chicken Breast: Organic chicken breast is a lean that is a great option for dogs.
- Sweet Potato: We use organic sweet potato as it's John John's favorite carb, but rice or quinoa also work too!
*For a full list of ingredients and measurements, visit the recipe card below.
Tips for Beef Liver Dinner Recipe for Dogs
- You can use any kind of chicken you like for this. Chicken breasts are great for daily feeding as they are low in fat. You can also use How to Cook a Whole Chicken for Dog Food and use the whole bird!
- You can use other dog safe veggies if you prefer. Other great options are broccoli, zucchini, celery, or green beans.
- If you make more than your dog will eat in a week, just store in a freezer safe container. Thaw it whenever you need more!
- This makes about 10 meals for John John, about a week's worth of food. If you have a larger dog you can double or triple this recipe. If you have a smaller dog, you can half it as you shouldn't keep food for more than a week in the fridge.
How to Make Beef Liver Dinner for Dogs
Step 1
Peel the sweet potato and chop into 1-inch cubes. Add the sweet potatoes to a medium saucepan, and fill with water. Put over high heat and cover. Boil until they are soft when poked with a fork.
Step 2
Cut the chicken breasts into 2 to 3 inch chunks, this helps them cook quicker and more evenly.
Step 3
Fill a medium saucepan three-quarters full of water and add the chicken breasts. Bring to a boil and boil chicken until it is fully cooked and the internal temperature is 165°F. Remove from the water and cut into small cubes, about 1-inch or smaller if you have a small dog. You can leave larger if you have a large dog.
Step 4
Add the coconut oil into a small skillet and put over medium heat. Add the beef liver and cook for 2 to 4 minutes per side until it’s fully cooked. Remove from the heat.
Step 5
Chop beef liver into small pieces. Dice the carrots and red pepper.
Step 6
To prepare the dinner: Add oats into a bowl and pour just enough boiling water over them to begin cooking. Allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until fully cooked. Depending on how big your dog is will depend on how much oats to feed them.
Step 7
Once the oats are cooked, add the sweet potatoes, veggies, chicken, and add beef liver on top.
Recipe FAQ's
Yes, beef liver is an organ meat with health benefits for your dogs! It has vitamin A, copper, zinc, iron and different B vitamins. Also, if you have a rescue dog that has been malnourished, beef liver is incredibly good for them to get back to health. And, if you have a picky eater, I guarantee that they will love beef liver!
Don’t make your entire dogs protein source beef liver though. It can overload them on vitamin A. So, use beef liver as a food topper or as a treat. Think of it as a supplement. It should only make up about 10% of your dogs food intake. Make sure to give your dogs other sources of protein that they do well with, such as chicken, turkey, or beef. But, beef liver goes well with everything and your dog will love the addition of it to their diet.
You can cook beef liver for dogs two different ways. I cook it in a skillet with a little bit of coconut oil so it doesn’t stick. John John loves coconut oil and he loves when I cook his meat in it – I’ll cook ground chicken or ground turkey in coconut oil too! You can also boil beef liver just liked you’d boil chicken breasts.
Starwalker Organic Farms makes the best organic Beef Liver, and you can order it online!
Yes, you can use another protein besides chicken breasts in this recipe. John John loves chicken and does well with it, so we usually make that. Check out How to Make a Whole Chicken for Dog Food to save money when meal prepping chicken. But you can also do ground turkey or ground beef. If your dog is on a fish diet or lamb, you can also use that too!
Yes, you can use whatever veggies you want that are dog safe and that your pup likes. John John loves red peppers, they’re his favorite veggie and they are really good for dogs, so we always add those. Carrots are easy and we always have in the fridge, so those are his main veggies. But you could also use green beans, peas, or celery as these vegetables are all safe for dogs.
Yes! I use sweet potatoes and oats as John John loves them. But, you can also use rice, quinoa, or all oats. Whatever your dog prefers you can swap out the carbs.
Yes! Dogs cannot have the skin of sweet potatoes, even we can eat the skin it can cause GI upset for your dog. So, be sure to peel your sweet potatoes for this recipe.
Absolutely! We meal prep for John John and make it all about once a week. We cook the chicken, beef liver, and sweet potatoes, then cut them all up into the small chunks and put in Tupperware. Sometimes we cook the carrots and red pepper and sometimes we leave them raw, just depends on time sometimes. But we chop them up and put them in a Tupperware together.
Then, at mealtime, we cook the oats with some boiling water. And then we measure out the sweet potatoes, veggies, chicken, and beef liver and heat it all up together for him. You could also mix together the chicken, beef liver, sweet potato, and veggies all together and put in a Tupperware as well. That would also be fine and then scoop it out that way.
This can be served to your dog hot or cold! Just be sure to cook the oats completely, but the other ingredients can be cold if your dog prefers.
This all depends on your dog’s size, current weight, and activity level. Always check with your vet to make sure you are feeding your dog the appropriate amount of food for their size and age.
But a general rule is you should be feeding your dog 2% to 5% of their body weight in fresh food. And small dogs weighing about 20 pounds or less can even get up to 10%! I have an entire article dedicated to How Much Homemade Dog Food Should I Feed My Dog? with a formula you can use for your dog's weight. Also, check out How to Cook Homemade Dog Food (Vet-Approved, Balanced and Simple) if you want to learn more about homemade dog food.
More Homemade Dog Food Recipes
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Beef Liver Dinner Recipe for Dogs
Equipment
- 3-Quart Pot
- Small Frying Pan
Ingredients
- 1 sweet potato
- 1 pound chicken breasts
- ½ pound beef liver
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 2 large carrots
- 1 red pepper
- 1 tablespoon rolled oats
Instructions
- Peel the sweet potato and chop into 1-inch cubes. Add the sweet potatoes to a medium saucepan, and fill with water. Put over high heat and cover. Boil until they are soft when poked with a fork.
- Cut the chicken breasts into 2 to 3 inch chunks, this helps them cook quicker and more evenly.
- Fill a medium saucepan three-quarters full of water and add the chicken breasts. Bring to a boil and boil chicken until it is fully cooked and the internal temperature is 165°F. Remove from the water and cut into small cubes, about 1-inch or smaller if you have a small dog. You can leave larger if you have a large dog.
- Add the coconut oil into a small skillet and put over medium heat. Add the beef liver and cook for 2 to 4 minutes per side until it’s fully cooked. Remove from the heat.
- Chop beef liver into small pieces.
- Dice the carrots and red pepper.
- To prepare the dinner: Add oats into a bowl and pour just enough boiling water over them to begin cooking. Allow to cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until fully cooked. Depending on how big your dog is will depend on how much oats to feed them. (I give John John about 1 tablespoon per meal.)
- Once the oats are cooked, add the sweet potatoes, veggies, chicken, and add beef liver on top.
- Store extras in the fridge for up to a week.
Video
Notes
- You can use any kind of chicken you like for this. Chicken breasts are great for daily feeding as they are low in fat. You can also use How to Cook a Whole Chicken for Dog Food and use the whole bird!
- You can use other dog safe veggies if you prefer. Other great options are broccoli, zucchini, celery, or green beans.
- If you make more than your dog will eat in a week, just store in a freezer safe container. Thaw it whenever you need more!
- This makes about 10 meals for John John, about a week's worth of food. If you have a larger dog you can double or triple this recipe. If you have a smaller dog, you can half it as you shouldn't keep food for more than a week in the fridge.
Nutrition
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Hi Ellen! Yes, organ meat should only make up 10% of your dogs diet and that means 10% daily. So, it makes sense, you’d feed it to your dog every day as long as the daily total is not more than 10% of their total food intake. If you are curious about phosphorus for dogs, the correct ratio of calcium to phosphorus is 2 to 1. I talk about my top supplement recommendation for this when fresh feeding in John John’s meal plan on this page here: https://mimisorganiceats.com/meet-john-john/ the link to the supplement is also right here: https://mimisorganiceats.com/BetterBones.
Just wondering before I dive in and start feeding my sick dog your recipes which sound ok..there are some things I woukdnt include based on the research I’ve done collectiveky… but my big question is how are you qualified to recommend these recipes for a dog with health issues? What training it credentials do you have? If its here I apologize for missing it.
hi Dee! I’m not a vet. I have completed a course on Dog Nutrition and I continue to learn on my own with lots of research! All dogs are different, just like humans. You can include or exclude anything you like based on your specific dogs needs or likes. You can also talk to your vet or a holistic vet might even be a better option if you want to discuss fresh feeding as most traditional vets do not know much at all on this topic! My vet is a friend of mine and they are typically not trained on fresh feeding as he always says I know more than he does about food! I hope your dog feels better soon and that they really enjoy this Beef Liver Dinner Recipe for Dogs!
Joh John loves this dinner! We make it all the time!