Canning Chicken Recipes

CANNING CHICKEN

Steps:

• Place your chicken in a pressure cooker, add 4 cups of water, close the pot and set on the stovetop.
• Turn the heat to high, once the weight starts to rock, lower the heat a bit to keep it rocking gently. Cook your chicken for about 30 minutes (see notes below if you don't have a pressure cooker).
• Transfer your pressure cooker to the sink and rinse it with cold water to release the pressure and cool it quickly. Open the pot carefully and remove the chicken. Set the pot with the chicken stock that is in it aside, we'll use it in a minute.
• Take all the chicken meat off the bones.
• Fill your pressure canner (not cooker) with 2'' of water. Set on the stovetop and turn the heat on high to start heating the water in the canner.
• Wash your jars, lids, and bands with soapy, hot water.
• Pack the jars with the chicken meat. Make sure to leave 1'' headspace.
• Add the chicken stock from the pressure cooker to each jar making sure to leave 1'' headspace. If for some reason you don't want to use your fresh chicken stock you can use water or store-bought chicken stock.
• It is optional to add salt. If you choose to add salt, add 1/2 teaspoon of salt to each pint jar or 1 teaspoon of salt to each quart jar.
• Use the bubble remover to remove air bubbles.
• Use a clean paper towel to clean the rim of the jar.
• Center the lid and close the jar with the band not too tight.
• Place your jars inside the pressure canner on the rack. Make sure the jars don't touch each other.
• Close the canner and turn the heat on high (if it's not already on high). Make sure the weight is not on the vent.
• Once steam starts to vent, lower the heat just a bit and set your timer to 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, place the weight on the vent. Process pint jars for 75 minutes and quart jars for 90 minutes. See notes below for processing pressure depending on your altitude and the type of canner you are using.
• Once the time is up, turn off the heat and let the canner cool slowly (for a couple of hours).
• When the canner is cool, open it but don't remove the jars just yet. Let them stay in the warm water for an additional 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, use your jar lifters to remove the jars from the canner. Set them on the counter to cool completely overnight.
• Check that all the jars have sealed before removing the bands and storing them in the pantry or root cellar.

CANNING CHICKEN (HOW TO DO IT SAFELY)

Steps:

• Prepare your pressure canner.
• Prepare your chicken. If keeping the chicken with bones, separate the meat at the joints and make sure the pieces fit into the jars. Cut up boneless chicken into pieces. Remove the skin from your chicken if you want.
• Fill your jars loosely with meat pieces, leaving 1 1/4 inch headspace. Sprinkle 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. salt on top of pints jars, and 1/2 - 1 tsp. of salt on quart jars, if desired. Hot Pack method: Lightly cook your chicken (you can boil or bake it). Fill your jars with lightly cooked chicken, and hot chicken broth or water, leaving 1 1/4 inch headspace. Sprinkle 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. salt on top of pint jars, and 1/2 - 1 tsp. salt on quart jars, if desired.
• Remove air bubbles from the jars with a canning utensil or a knife.
• Wipe the rims, adjust the lids/rings, and process in a pressure canner as follows: For jars without bones (both hot and raw pack methods), process pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes. For jars with bones (both hot and raw pack methods), process pints for 65 minutes and quarts for 75 minutes
• For Dial-gauge pressure canners, process jars at 11 pounds pressure (altitudes of 0 to 2,000 ft) or at 12 pounds pressure (altitudes of 2,001 to 4,000 ft). For Weighted gauge pressure canner, process jars at 10 pounds pressure (altitudes of 0 to 1,000 ft) or at 15 pounds pressure (altitudes above 1,000 ft).

CANNING CHICKEN IN A PRESSURE COOKER - RAW PACK RECIPE - (3.8/5)

Steps:

• Prepare chicken: Remove any excess fat from the fresh chicken breasts, then cut in large chunks (4 or 5 pieces per breast). Set aside in the refrigerator until you are ready to fill the jars. Warm up the canning jars by running them through a dishwasher cycle (heated dry turned on) without any detergent. Leave door closed until ready to fill jars. Heat 3 quarts of water. You will be pouring this into the canner. (You don't want to boil it, but it just needs to be hot. For raw packed foods (like as in this instance), the water should only be brought to 140°F.) Wash lids with soap and water and set aside. Preheating lids is NOT necessary. However, if you want to, cover lids with water in a small saucepan and bring to a simmer (180°F) over medium heat for 10 minutes. Keep lids hot until ready to use. To prevent seal failure, do not boil lids. Using your warmed up pint-sized jars, pour 1/2 teaspoon salt and scant 1/2 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules into the bottom of each jar. If using quart-sized jars, use 1 teaspoon salt and a scant 1 teaspoon chicken bouillon granules. Loosely fill jars with chicken chunks, leaving 1 1/4 -inch headspace for expansion during processing. Do not add any water or broth. The meat will form its own liquid as it cooks in the canner. (FYI, in case you are wondering, this picture does not show 1 1/4 -inch headspace. So leave more headspace than shown.) Wipe the rim of the jar with a clean, damp paper towel to remove any bits of chicken or grease that may interfere with the seal. Center a lid on the jar. Apply band and adjust until fit is fingertip tight. Pour 3 quarts of boiling water into the canner, up to the 3 quart water line marked on the inside (in my canner, this is the lowest line marked near the bottom; your instruction manual will confirm if this is the case for your canner). Always add water before setting jars in the canner. Set the rack inside and evenly place jars on the rack. The jars may touch. If you have an extra rack to place between the layers of the pint jars, you may set 10 pint jars on the bottom, put the rack on them, then stagger stack 10 more jars on the top layer. If you do not have an extra rack, you may only be able to stagger stack 9 jars on the top layer. (Stagger stack means you place one jar on top of two.) Cover. Do not place the pressure regulator on the vent pipe yet. Turn heat on high. When steam begins flowing steadily out of the vent pipe (for me, it usually heats for about 15 minutes before this occurs), put timer on for 10 minutes. Maintain a moderate steam flow. This procedure is called "exhausting". After the 10 minutes are up, put the pressure regulator on the vent pipe, increase the heat to high, and wait for the pressure to reach 11 pounds pressure (if you are below 2,000 feet altitude). (Plan on 5 to 10 minutes to reach pressure.) (Process at 12-pounds for 2,001-4,000 feet altitude, and 13-pounds for 4,001-6,000 feet.) Once your pressure has been achieved, put the timer on for 75 minutes if using pints and 90 minutes if using quarts. Adjust your heat so that the correct pressure is maintained. To do so, you will need to keep checking it. When the time is up, turn off heat. Wait for the pressure to drop. Pressure is completed reduced when the air vent/ cover lock has dropped and no steam escapes when the pressure regulator is tilted. This may take 45 minutes or longer. (Leave the pressure regulator on the vent pipe during this time.) When pressure has been completely reduced (and the air vent/cover lock has dropped), remove pressure regulator from vent pipe and let canner cool for 10 minutes. Take the jars out of the canner and set on a towel to cool. (FYI, the liquid in the jars will not reach up to the top. If you notice some chicken juice residue on the outside of your bottles, that's okay. Sometimes they can leak if they have been packed too tightly, but it doesn't wreck the seal.) Do not disturb the cans as they cool. After the recommended 12 hours, you may wipe the jars off, test the seals, remove bands, date the lids with a permanent marker, and store in a cool, dry place. (If any of the lids have not sealed, you will want to place the jar in the fridge for immediate use or reprocess it, before the 12 hour cooling period of course. To know if it is not sealed before the 12 hour mark, look at the lid closely to see if it has flattened or turned concave on the top. If it has, it is sealed. If it is convex, it may not have sealed and I would store it in the fridge until you can manually test it by pressing the center of the lid and seeing if it flexes up and down when pressed.)

CHICKEN - CANNING

Steps:

• CHICKEN-BONED (Use for all Poultry) Steam or boil chicken until about 2/3 done.
• Remove skin and bones.
• Pack meat into hot jars, leaving 1-inch head space.
• Add 1/2 teaspoon salt per pint or 1 tsp per quart.
• Skim fat from broth.
• Bring broth to boil.
• Pour over chicken, leaving 1-inch head space.
• Remove air bubbles.
• Adjust caps.
• Process pints 1 hour 15 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.
• Process quarts at 1 hour 30 minutes at 10 pounds pressure.