The Challenge of Chicken (Who wants to touch it?) EWW, not me!

Along with hamburger (see post below) we got some nice boneless skinless chicken breasts on sale today at the local mom and pop grocery store. Since the "canned chicken" space in the pantry was running low, we decided to stock up.

Start with 7 sterilized quart jars. Put 1 teaspoon of salt in the bottom along with a couple of tablespoons of onion. This is not a scientific recipe, add what you want, except the salt. That is a necessary/mandatory ingredient. I also add a celery and carrot stick. I actually use those to poke the chicken in the jar. I guess I should have had my sweetie take a picture of how to properly wear the gloves so as to not actually touch the chicken. (GROSS!)

Because enquiring minds always want to know and I never have an good slightly accurate guesstimate, I actually figured each jar holds about 1 pound 12 oz of chicken. About 12 1/2 pounds will do a 7 quart canner load.

At this store the chicken breasts were really big so 5 packages did a canner load. I bought 6 just in case and we put the last one in a vacuum sealed bag with teriyaki sauce to freeze and make a quick meal later. Actually my sweetie put it in the freezer :)

This is the chicken when it comes out of the canner.

Oh, stuff everything in the jar, put the hot seal on and the screwband. Process at 15 pounds of pressure for 90 minutes. You do not need to add liquid. The chicken will make its own broth.

I prefer wide mouth jars for chicken. See all the yummy broth?

I don't think the carrot and celery are meant to be eaten, they are extremely squishy, however, the middle child thinks they are delicious and that I save them just for him when I use the chicken. This is the same child that won't eat a mushroom because it is "too squishy". Mushrooms are not nearly as squishy as the carrot and celery. Most of the time they don't even come out in one piece.

Save the broth when you open the jar. It makes the best gravy. Even if you aren't making something to utilize the broth right away when you open the chicken, you can freeze it to use later.

It gets a little graphic from here on out. If you have a weak stomach, enjoy your Jar-o-Chicken.

If you are still with me,
I like to rinse the icky off the chicky. If I am lucky someone else will be home to do that and will pick the fat globs off. Don't cut the fat globs off before you can it. I did this once (I had the boys cut it off) and there wasn't hardly any broth. The chicken was fine, but not as moist or as flavorful. If I am the only one home, I dump the jar into the colander and turn the water on fast to blast off the icky and most of the fat globs. It also pulverizes the carrot and celery so those aren't a problem. If it was small pieces of chicken, the water blast will pretty much shred the chicken too. No touching involved.