First off, if you’re interested in canning, there are lots of web pages that are reputable and go into great detail about canning. It isn’t scary . . if done correctly. I’m not going to go over the canning basics here,
There are several reasons why I can food. Probably the main reason is because it’s so much easier to store and I don’t have to worry about a freezer going out and losing the contents of the freezer. Also, if we move, it’s much easier to transport canned food. But chicken is one of those items that I can because, for most recipes, I like it so much better than frozen. Anything that requires cooked chicken as an ingredient, canned chicken works great. I open the jar, drain the meat from the broth, reserve the broth for another recipe if not needed in the current recipe, then shred the chicken with two forks (or my fingers).
When I’m dealing with raw chicken, I never feel like I have my counters wiped down well enough, or that I’ve scrubbed the sink sufficiently or that I’ve tossed all the towels into the washer that may have raw chicken residue on them. If I spend a day (or two) canning chicken, then I can wipe down the counters, scrub the sink, throw all the towels in the washer and chances are, I’ll hardly have to touch raw chicken again for about a year. Sure, there will be times we’ll want grilled chicken or fried chicken strips but that’s about the only time I need anything other than canned chicken.
Recipes that come to mind where canned chicken works great are enchiladas, tacos, soups, salads. MomFabulous has 50 Recipes with Shredded Chicken.
Chicken can either be raw packed or hot packed. The quickest and easiest method is raw pack. Chicken is simply cut into chunks, placed in jars, a little salt can be added or not, and no liquid is added. During the canning process, liquid cooks out of the chicken and it isn’t bad broth to use, but the chicken isn’t flavored, nor is the broth, as well as it is when hot packed with the seasoned broth.
This is chicken that I raw packed, simply because I was tired and, since it was the last batch, I wasn’t sure how it was all going to fit into the jars/canner. I didn’t want to cook up a bunch of chicken only to find that I ended up with 2 or 3 jars more than would fit into the canner and then I’d have to run the canner for 90 minutes again for just a few jars. With raw pack, I filled the jars as I cut the chicken and anything that was more than the 14 jars that would fit into the canner would have gone into the freezer on that last batch.
This is raw packed chicken. You can see that the liquid may or may not cover all the meat. That’s ok.
Raw Packed Chicken
My preference is hot pack because of the yummy, already seasoned broth. As with raw pack, I simply cut the chicken into chunks.
Chicken for Canning
For the broth, I use carrots, celery, onions and garlic.
Making Chicken Broth
To that, I add peppercorns, red pepper flakes and bay leaves. I do not add salt at this point.
Chicken Broth
And look at that yummy broth I end up with!
Chicken Broth
For the first batch I canned, I ended up with not a drop of broth left over after adding it to the jars of chicken. For the second batch, because I had less chicken and used the same amount of water, I ended up with 6 quarts of leftover broth. I think I like the broth better than the chicken.
Here’s the chicken canned in the broth. You can see that the broth is rich and will have much more depth of flavor than will the raw packed chicken.
Chicken Canned in Broth
And, here’s the broth with no chicken. I love it when there’s broth left over after filling the chicken jars and I get a few jars of broth to can. This will drastically improve the taste of any recipe that calls for chicken broth. By the way, I do add salt to each jar. I use canning salt instead of table salt, and I use way less salt than you’ll find in most commercial broths.
Broth
No matter how it was packed, it makes me very happy having lots of canned chicken ready to be used.
Cheryl says
I love canning chicken also! Gramma taught me how 35 years ago and she didn’t use a pressure canner. I definitely use a pressure canner!!!! I notice that you used a Tattler lid in one of your pictures. Have you had success with them? I have used them in certain things and have not had failures but have recently read where people have had issues. What have you found? Looking forward to hearing more about your adventures!!
Rebecca in SoCal says
Judy, you almost have me convinced to take up canning! There are a lot of recipes that use cooked chicken, and that looks very good. A lot of cooked chicken can be dry, but not canned! Also having the broth is great; so many recipes call for some. I love home-made broth!
I had to check back to see that you got boneless skinless chicken breasts. What a great way to maximize the savings!
Nancy says
I have always been afraid to can meat but you make it look so easy. I am sure it is still a lot of work. When you do the hot pack with broth you do still put the raw chicken in the jars and them cover it with broth? Or do you add the chicken to the broth and cook first?
Diana G says
Yep I feel the same way about raw chicken and pork. I cannot clean my counters enough , I go back and clean them again. I have a special cutting board for the raw meats and I clean it with lemon, water and salt. I still end up going back and cleaning it again before putting it back. I know ” one of those clean freaks”, but one hears so much about cross contamination, I have special knives I use for cutting up meats and one for vegetables. Both get washed with soap and water then put in the dishwasher for another round of cleaning !LOL
Susan says
Ditto. I feel so well-supplied when I have jars of chicken on the shelf. It looks a little weird in the jar, but it tastes delicious. Stacey and I don’t even cut it up, just cut enough to fit it in the wide-mouth jar – but that’s the Zaycon chicken which is huge chicken breasts. It’s so much faster than having to thaw and cook frozen chicken!
Sibyl says
Judy, you are really encouraging me to do this. I have plenty of chicken breast in the freezer that I should can. It would make meals so much easier.
May I ask what kind of pot are you cooking your chicken broth in? Looks unique. I think you have mentioned it previously–but I just do not remember the name.
JudyL says
It’s called a maslin pot. I’ll do a blog post about it soon.
Heidi says
Do you process hot packed chicken for the same amount of time as the raw pack? We recently had a big storm blow through and power for us was out 18 hours. Some people out up to 5 days and longer. Made me think I need to process some meat and not be so vulnerable with freezer storage.
Julie@MomFabulous says
Thank you for the mention! 🙂 I have never canned meat. How interesting!!
NancyB from Many LA says
We’ve been canning meat for years – I love it! Canned chicken makes GREAT chicken salad, doesn’t it?
We also buy leg quarters on sale (anywhere from 29cents to 49 cents/lb. ) We cut it up, take the skins off, and can for our dogs, and it’s fine for prepping/SHTF scenario). Our local store just put it on sale for 25cents/pound, so we’ll be stocking up. The bones cook down soft, so we crush them up when we feed the dogs. Or, take the bones out if it’s for us.
We take the skin off, and cook it like you would pork rinds. Add a LITTLE bit of water, and cook it on a low-medium heat until it’s crispy. Drain on paper towels, add some seasoning, and you have a great ATKINS style snack.