Chicken Broth Gravy Pour-Over

🧺 Ingredients

• 2 chicken thighs, bone in and skin removed
• 1 litre cold water
• 1 teaspoon cornflour
• 1 tablespoon cold water, for slaking the cornflour
• Nothing else — no stock cubes, salt, onion, garlic, leek, herbs or bouillon powder of any kind

👩‍🍳 Method

1. Place the chicken thighs in a pan, cover with the cold water and bring slowly up to a bare simmer.
2. Skim off any foam that rises, then cover and simmer very gently for 3 hours, topping up with water if the level drops below the meat.
3. Lift out the chicken and strain the liquid through a fine sieve into a clean bowl.
4. Pick every scrap of meat from the bones and set it aside for another recipe — then discard the bones, which must never be given to a cat.
5. Chill the strained broth until the fat sets on top as a solid white layer, and lift it off and discard it.
6. To thicken, warm 200 ml of the defatted broth in a pan, slake the cornflour with a tablespoon of cold water and stir it in, simmering for a minute until it just coats the back of a spoon.
7. Cool to lukewarm and pour a tablespoon or two over your cat's usual food.

📝 Notes

Never substitute a shop-bought stock cube or ready-made broth: almost all of them contain onion, garlic or extract thereof, both of which damage feline red blood cells, and the salt levels are far too high. Cooked bones must always be discarded — they splinter and can perforate the gut. A pour-over is an appetite aid and a supplementary source of moisture, not a meal, and treats and toppers together should stay within about 10% of daily calories rather than displacing a complete balanced diet. If your cat has suddenly stopped eating, treat that as a veterinary matter first: a cat that skips more than a day or two of food is at genuine risk of hepatic lipidosis, and a tastier bowl is not a substitute for a diagnosis. Refrigerate the broth for up to 3 days, or freeze it in an ice-cube tray for up to 3 months.