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Are you a canner? Here, almost everyone cans a few things. The ubiquitous pickles, carrots or zucchini. But for some people, basic canning just isn’t enough. For serious farmers, canning meat like poultry is one of the last obstacles to pursuing a sustainable life.
Canning chicken is a great place to start if you are new to canning meat. The methods you use to can chickens can be used for all your domestic poultry, as well as small wild game. You can use this method to can pheasants, rabbits, and even squirrels.
Safety 101
Remember that all meats can present some challenges to the canner. It is important to always refrigerate your poultry thoroughly before canning. Handle it with care to avoid cross-contamination and always be sure to keep your meat fresh.
If you don’t know where a piece of meat came from or how long it has been sitting, don’t. Meat for sale at the grocery store is generally safer in the freezer, where it will easily keep for 6 months to a year. You just don’t know how old the grocery store meat is.
However, if you have a trusted butcher or grocer who provides you with all the information about the age of the meat, go for it.
Be aware that any wild game can be sick. Look closely at the liver of any animal you treat (if possible) and the pressure can be 10 pounds of wild game for the time required to be safe.
Canning under pressure
It is important to remember that you should only keep poultry in a pressure canner. A boiling water canner simply cannot reach the temperatures needed to safely preserve meats. You’ll be processing poultry at 240°F while boiling water will only reach around 212°F before turning to steam.
Pressure cookers look intimidating, but they’re surprisingly easy to use.
If you’ve been slow to get a pressure cooker, read them. You’ll soon realize that a pressure cooker is an incredible asset, not an imminent explosion, whatever horror story your grandmother told you.
Preparing Poultry for the Stockpot
If you harvest your own birds, butcher and pluck them as usual. Then let the whole bird cool for about 8-12 hours. Sometimes store-bought or farm-bought chickens will still have the liver and kidneys in the cavity. Also remove them. The purchased birds have already been cooled, so you can start canning them immediately.
If you are processing frozen poultry, make sure the poultry is completely thawed before you start. Now chop the chicken into small or large pieces, to fit your jars.
When canning poultry, you don’t have to worry about removing the bones or skin. You can debone your chicken before canning—it’s a great option if you’re planning on just tossing canned chicken into a quick and easy meal—but you don’t have to.
Hot compress vs cold compress
You can wrap your chicken pieces completely raw (cold pack) or you can partially cook the chicken before wrapping. Most people agree that hot-packed chicken produces a better end product than cold-packed. It retains its flavor longer and I think partially cooking the poultry before canning encourages more juices and enhances the flavor.
But raw packaged chicken saves a new cannery from accidentally overcooking chicken during processing. It’s also less labor and if you’re processing a lot of chicken, raw packaging speeds up the whole process.
Ideally, keep poultry with the skin on. The pieces on the outside rim of the pot (touching the sides) benefit the most from this layer of cushion that the skin provides.
Skin and bones aren’t popular right now, but both provide plenty of flavor and moisture. When processing chicken for long-term storage, you will see a noticeable improvement in flavor when you leave the bone and skin on.
Canning your poultry
Remember that you should always start with sterilized jars and equipment.
Make sure your coins fit well in their jars. They should fit freely, but without wasted space. Leave an inch of margin for expansion during processing. It’s a good idea to lightly season the meat during wrapping.
Add about half a teaspoon of salt in each pint or a teaspoon in each liter. You can also add pepper, garlic powder, paprika, or any other seasoning you commonly use on poultry.
Adding liquid
There is much debate about whether or not to add liquid to a jar of poultry before canning. Generally speaking, if you’ve cooked your meat, even if you’ve barely seared it in a pan, add hot water or broth. Of course, unsalted chicken broth is the best liquid to add to canned chicken.
Truly raw poultry doesn’t need any added liquid unless you’re using only skinless, boneless chicken breasts. If you don’t have any skin or bones in your jar, a tiny bit of broth will help keep your meat tender.
Add no more than a tablespoon of liquid to packaged raw boneless/skinless chicken.
Reduce air pockets
Once your jars are packed, use a butter knife or chopstick to gently help the chicken settle into the jar. The goal here is to reduce the number of air bubbles that can form small pockets in your jars.
We don’t want that, so squeeze gently into the jar and swirl once or twice to make sure your poultry is settled.
Wipe the rims
Even the best packers sometimes get a little juice on the rims. However, gravy will mar your seal, so wipe each edge thoroughly with a warm, slightly damp cloth. Once the rim is clean, but on top and tighten the lid.
Don’t worry about tightening the lid as tight as possible – just tighten it until it’s snug.
Canning under pressure
While you’re packing the jars, your stock pot should be warming up on the stovetop with about 2-3 inches of water in the bottom. Put your tightly wrapped jars of poultry in the canner and process them. Whether you’re processing raw or hot-packed chicken, the process is the same.
If you have a weighted gauge pressure canner, process the jars to 10 pounds pressure at low altitudes. Above 1,000 feet, process your jars to 15 pounds of pressure.
With a dial pressure cooker, you will be dealing with 11 pounds of pressure at low altitudes. In this case, it’s anything below 2,000 feet. In high altitude areas (approximately 2,000 feet), treat at a pressure of 12 pounds.
It can be a bit confusing because different types of preserves require different levels of processing and have different interpretations of high altitude. Make sure you know what type of pressure canner you are using and how to use it safely in your area.
Boneless
Boneless chicken should spend 65 minutes (for pints) or 75 minutes (for pints) in the pressure canner. Don’t worry, even if you partially pre-cooked your chicken before packing it, you won’t overcook the meat.
with bone
Bones take a bit longer to be processed safely. Bone-in chicken should spend 75 minutes (pints) to 90 minutes (pints) in the pressure canner.
What if it doesn’t seal?
Generally, when canning, if a jar does not seal, you can try again within 24 hours. But when canning poultry, trying again can lead to a pretty disappointing product. Processing poultry for more than an hour twice tends to overcook the meat.
Poultry treated twice tends to lose a lot of flavor and become grainy or dry.
If some of your jars don’t seal the first time, use them right away or put them in the freezer. Do not reprocess jars.
offal
Some people like to canned offal. These are the edible organs that sometimes go into store-bought birds and always go into home-slaughtered animals. If you like to eat organ meats or have dogs that like them, it may be worth canning them.
But, unless you want all of your poultry meat to taste like the giblets, keep those organs separate. You use the same process, but don’t mix the meats. Organ meats have a strong flavor, and if you process them with your poultry meat, everything will taste like organ meats.
Use canned chicken
Canned chicken can safely last a long time. Most canners agree that poultry is at its best if you eat it within 18 months of canning. But as long as the seal is intact and the jars are safely stored in a cool, dry place, your canned chicken can stay good for up to 5 years.
Home-canned chicken tends to have more flavor and better texture than store-bought canned chicken. So don’t be afraid to use this pantry staple in a variety of ways.
Canned chicken is a great addition to pastas, tacos or wraps. You can add it at the last minute to bulk up soups or stews. Drop it on pizzas or shred it into chili peppers.
One of the best things about canned chicken is that you don’t have to cook it again after processing. But, you also don’t have to worry about overcooking it when you put it in soups or chilies.
Just shred or chop the meat and add it near the end of the cooking time. Canned chicken juices also help enhance flavor. You can pour them directly into the pan while you cook.
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