This post is a sequel to the Canning Ground Beef.
Last week, I explained how I canned ground beef. Today, I thought I would talk about canning chicken.
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We eat a lot of chicken in our house. My daughter loves homemade chicken nuggets, my husband, green chile chicken enchiladas and I myself find a big bowl of chicken chili comforting on a cool day. Besides using fresh chicken, that I find are best for the above-mentioned recipes, we also use canned chicken for the more “practical” uses like casseroles (i.e. fast dinners!). What I am getting to is, that having a decent stash of it in our house is necessary. We use it and it makes life a little easier.
There are a couple ways to can chicken…
…and since I had never canned it before and had a decent amount of chicken on hand, I thought I would try both.
Raw Pack:
The first is raw pack. Which is as you guessed it – packed raw. I cut all the chicken to uniform sizes and in hot jar added the raw chicken. I didn’t fill the cans to the top, instead I opted to leave a little extra room – just in case – and made sure I had 1 inch of headspace. Then added boiling water, wiped the rim clean and added a hot, sterilized lid and ring. Then into the pressure canner they went.
**Make sure you read the instructions for your pressure canner and follow the directions to safely use it.**
When your canner is full put your lid on and process the pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes. In our area I needed to have the pressure at 12 for the 90 minutes for the seven quarts that I had, but you will need to check your pressure canner instructions and adjust for your altitude.
Hot Pack:
The next method to try was hot pack. Once again, I cut all the chicken into uniform sizes then pulled out a fry pan. I cooked the chicken in batches – not all the way cooked, but just enough that they held their shape. I also added just a bit of salt and pepper while it cooked. Then once done they were added to the jars. Once again making sure that the jars were hot and sterilized, filled with boiling water allowing for 1 inch of headspace, rimmed wiped clean and topped with a hot sterilized lid.
**Make sure you read the instructions for your pressure canner and follow the directions to safely use it.**
Then just like the raw pack method when your canner is full put your lid on and process the pints for 75 minutes and quarts for 90 minutes. Once again where we live, I needed to have the pressure at 12 for the 90 minutes for the seven quarts that I had, but you will need to check your pressure canner instructions and adjust for your altitude.
The result?
Both are great. The raw pack looks a bit unappetizing in the jar, I did try it in a chicken and rice bake and it did great!
Have a great day!
–Dawn