Cesar Simply Crafted Chicken review

Cesar · Simply Crafted Chicken · Wet food · Adult maintenance

76 / 100Our label score

★★★★☆4 of 5 stars, from the score

20%Crude protein (min)

35kcal per 1.3 oz

1FDA recall event for the brand

On the facts printed on its own label, Cesar Simply Crafted Chicken scores 76 out of 100 on our rubric: a solid mid table label. The panel opens with Chicken, and the first ingredient signal earns 20 of its 20 points. At 20% crude protein it ranks 2 of the 8 Cesar recipes we scored for protein. Crude fat reads 0.3%.

The brand carries one FDA posted recall event in our check, set out below with its date.

The panel runs to 2 ingredient lines. 1 of them are animal source lines and 0 are plant lines.

The label facts

Maker	Mars Petcare
Format	Wet food
Life stage	Adult maintenance
Full ingredient list, in label order	Chicken Water
Guaranteed analysis	Crude protein (min) 20% · crude fat (min) 0.3% · crude fibre (max) 0.5% · moisture (max) 78%
Dry matter reading	With the water taken out, the same analysis reads 90.9% protein and 1.4% fat. Dry matter is how wet and dry foods can be compared fairly.
Calories	944 kcal/kg, 35 kcal per 1.3 oz, as labelled
AAFCO adequacy	CESAR SIMPLY CRAFTED Complements Tubs were designed to give dogs a simple and tasty meal complement.
Price	Not listed. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing, and we had not for this recipe when the label was read.

How the score breaks down

Signal	Points	What the label shows
First ingredient	20 / 20	Chicken, a named whole animal protein, opens the panel.
Animal protein depth, first 10 ingredients	4 / 15	1 of the first ten ingredients are named animal ingredients.
Protein level for the life stage	15 / 15	Crude protein reads 90.9% on a dry matter basis (water removed), read against the adult maintenance stage the label claims.
Fat level fit	3 / 10	Crude fat reads 1.4% on a dry matter basis (water removed).
Whole foods versus filler-flagged ingredients	10 / 10	None of the rubric's flagged ingredients appears in the first ten.
Artificial colours and preservatives	10 / 10	No artificial colours, colour-retention chemicals or artificial preservatives appear in the panel.
AAFCO adequacy basis	Not scored	No AAFCO adequacy basis was stated in the data we could verify, so this signal is not scored.
FDA recall history	6 / 10	One FDA posted dog food recall event found for the brand in our November 2026 check.
Price tier	Not scored	Not scored in this round. We publish a price only when we have verified it from a dated listing.
Total	76 / 100	Scaled from 68 of 90 available points. Stars are the score divided by 20, rounded to the nearest half. The method is published in full on the dog food hub.

Ingredient notes: the first ten, one by one

Definitions below are written from AAFCO's ingredient definitions in our own words. They describe what an ingredient is, never what a brand claims about it.

Chicken. Chicken is the named meat in fresh form. Panel order is set by weight before cooking, and fresh meat is mostly water, so its share of the finished food is smaller than its place at the top suggests.
Water. Water is the base of a wet food. A wet panel is mostly water by design, which is why its analysis is read on a dry matter basis.

Who it suits

Owners who want a named whole meat, not a meal or a plant, at the top of the panel
Picky eaters and older dogs: wet food smells stronger and is easier to chew

Who should skip it

Large dog homes on a budget: wet food takes several cans a day at big-dog calories

The brand's recall record

2016: Mars Petcare recalled CESAR Classics Filet Mignon Flavor trays and variety packs in October 2016, in an FDA posted notice, over pieces of hard white plastic that entered during production and posed a choking risk. No injuries were reported.

The single event covered this recipe's own flavour in its tray format, and it is the only Cesar event we found in FDA records in our November 2026 check.

See the full dog food recall tracker for recent events across all brands.

Other Cesar recipes we scored

Recipe	Score / 100	Protein	Format
Home Delights Pot Roast with Spring Vegetables Dinner	79	7%	Wet food
Wholesome Bowls Beef, Chicken, Carrots & Purple Potatoes	78	9.5%	Wet food
Classic Loaf in Sauce Turkey	74	8.5%	Wet food
Classic Loaf in Sauce Dry-Aged Ribeye	70	9%	Wet food
Classic Loaf in Sauce Beef	70	9%	Wet food
Filets in Gravy Prime Rib	58	8%	Wet food
Rotisserie Chicken Flavor & Spring Vegetables Garnish	56	26%	Dry food

Feeding it

Switch foods gradually over about a week, mixing more of the new food into the old each day. Portion by calories, not by the look of the bowl: our feeding calculator works out a daily amount from your dog's weight, and this recipe's calorie line above is the number it needs.

What that means at the bowl, for a typical neutered adult (resting energy 70 times body weight to the power 0.75, times 1.6; treats come out of the same budget):

Dog's weight	Daily energy	Of this recipe, at 35 kcal a can
3 kg	about 255 kcal	about 7.3 cans
10 kg	about 630 kcal	about 18.0 cans
20 kg	about 1,059 kcal	about 30.3 cans
30 kg	about 1,436 kcal	about 41.0 cans

Puppies, pregnant dogs and very active dogs need more; older and weight watching dogs need less. The calculator linked above adjusts for those cases.

Cesar Simply Crafted Chicken: our recipe review