How to Can Chicken

Canning chicken is what got me interested in canning initially. It's really quite easy. Watch my video below to see just how simple it is.

I bought 40 pounds of chicken from Zaycon Foods for $1.61/lb. and spent the following two days canning all of it. My canner can process about 9 pint jars for each batch, which is roughly 9 pounds of chicken. For each batch it took about 20 minutes to cut the fat off the chicken and cut it into cubes. Then it probably took another 20 minutes to get it into the jars, put the lids on, and load the jars into the canner. By the time the canner was hot enough to start the processing time I had put in about an hour of work. I processed 4 batches (the last batch was quart jars), so it took about 4 hours of work to get it all done. Not too shabby! Now I don't have to handle raw chicken, thaw frozen chicken, cook chicken, or cut chicken for the next several months! I would say that was 4 hours well spent. Once the chicken is processed it lasts on the shelf for over a year so it's a great idea for your food storage!

Sometimes I get asked what you can use canned chicken for. My response is that you can use it for anything to which you add chicken! It's great on salads, in casseroles, in soups, in anything you cook in the crockpot, and in any other recipe that calls for chicken. I do keep a few pounds of frozen chicken in my freezer for the occasional marinated chicken breast or grilled chicken breast on the BBQ, but for the most part, we use canned chicken for our meals. We love how quick and easy it is to just open a can and have ready-to-eat meat! No more trimming, freezing, thawing, cooking, or cutting! All the work has already been done.

For information about canning ground meat read my post here. For more information about the gear you need to get started canning see my post here.  Let me know if you have any questions!

How to Can Ground Meat

I do a lot of canning. I do it primarily as a way to save money, but it also gives me peace of mind knowing that we have a large food storage for a rainy day. I put together a little video for those of you who would like to learn how to can ground meat. (Always consult the user's manual that came with your pressure canner before you start!)

So let's break down exactly how canning saves money. I drill on this same principle over and over again: the way to spend as little as possible on your food is to wait for each product to hit its rock-bottom price. Buy enough of it to last for several months, or until that product hits that rock-bottom price again. I love to buy my ground beef from Zaycon because I get enough of it that I only have to can/freeze it about once per year!

In the case of meat I am well aware that you can stock up and freeze the meat rather than can it, but I prefer canning to freezing for a few simple reasons:

• Freezing meat takes up a lot of room in the freezer, room that I prefer to save for other foods (see my post here).
• Once in awhile I hear of freezers breaking or shorting out while a family is out of town. Sometimes an extended power outage can make the food in the freezer spoil. If you have a lot of meat in there it could mean hundreds of dollars wasted. (This actually happened to my mom. She has a flood in her basement and somebody accidentally unplugged the deep freezer to plug in a fan. She lost hundreds of dollars on the spoiled meat we had to throw away. Also, it smelled HORRENDOUS!)
• Canning is a few hours of work, but then you have several cans of ready-to-eat meat that last on the shelf for one year or longer. That means quick, easy meals without the hassle of defrosting and cooking meat all the time. This also means no more handling raw meat on a regular basis!

You may be asking yourself what a really good price on meat is. It depends on where you live, but I can give you an idea of the prices I watch out for in Phoenix, Arizona:

Ground Turkey - $1.99/lb.
Boneless/Skinless Chicken - $1.67/lb. although a couple of months ago I found it for $0.99/lb. and you better believe I jumped all over that!
Chicken on the Bone - $0.35/lb. or so
Ground Beef - $2.99/lb. One of the things I love about canning beef is that you can buy the fattier cuts (they are usually cheaper) and the fat will float to the top of the meat and solidify there. I just skim it off before serving the beef and we have super lean ground beef!

You may also can wild game and sea food, but I have never done that. One other tip: I often find phenomenal prices on meat and produce at our Hispanic stores (Food City and Phoenix Ranch Market), so go check them out if you have one close!