Canning Chicken
Our friends at Fishnet Ministry ran into a huge problem recently. They received two shipments of chicken days apart from each other adding up to a total of 63,000 pounds of frozen meat. The problem for Fishnet was that they didn’t have the freezer space for all the food. Every walk-in frig was converted into temporary freezers and calls sent out to churches and organizations begging them to come as quickly as possible to take the food off their hands so it wouldn’t be wasted. Our family was given so much frozen chicken breasts after working our volunteer shift last week that I had no extra room inside my home freezer for anything else. What a perfectly wonderful problem to have! Haha! So this week I went into “can-everything-inside-the-freezer” mode in order to make room.
Although the thought of canning raw chicken might seem daunting to most people, it really is quite easy. Honestly, I think it’s easier to can chicken than it is garden green beans. The benefits to being able to can your own chicken are numerous. My favorite are the quick meal preps when needing diced chicken for a casserole or whipping together a cold chicken salad for lunch. Just pop open a jar and you are ready to go! It’s the convenience of store-bought canned chicken but way less expensive. Stock up on chicken breasts when they go on sale (or when given a trunk full!) and save money and freezer space by canning it all.
The “juice” in the jars is 100% chicken broth since no liquid is added before processing in the pressure canner. You can either use the juice in the meal prep with the canned chicken, or set aside and store inside the refrigerator for 3-4 days.
What You Will Need
- Thawed chicken (cut into chunks)
- Wide-mouth pint or quart jars
- Lids and bands
- Pressure canner
- Salt
- Vinegar
- Funnel and jar tongs
Step-by-Step Instructions
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Comments (4)
Hello,
I have a question. Is it possible to can partially frozen chicken or does it need to be fully thawed before pressure canning. If it reaches temperatures over 210 degrees for over an hour I would think it’s safe but I may be wrong.
Hey, Kurt! I’m not a scientist here, but I believe the reason you don’t want to can partially frozen chicken is that the heating won’t be consistent all the way through which is key when pressure canning anything. This can then lead to partially over-cooked meat and other portions being under-cooked. The best and safest way to can meat is to have it completely thawed before packing your jars. Off the top of my head I can recall reading sections in canning books that say you can’t can pureed pumpkin but you can can it if it is cubed. The reason is the density of the pumpkin and the heat being able to cook all the way through at a consistent temperature. This then goes with the theory that consistent heating of the food is key to proper canning.
I hope it’s simple math. I canned 1 ½ pint jars for 87 minutes. I’m at 4000 ft so 13 lbs pressure and used ¾ of a tsp of salt.
Other than cooking a few extra minutes which doesn’t hurt anything, it sounds like you did everything by the book. Kudos to you!