Ugly Chicken

This is a pressure-canning post.  Just getting that out of the way now, in case you have zero interest in the subject.

Leisa Sutton at Suttons Daze coined the term "ugly chicken" to describe raw pack, pressure-canned chicken, and it has kind of become a thing in the canning community.  If you've ever opened a store-bought can of chicken, you know it isn't the prettiest thing.  It also smells kind of off for half a minute.  Now imagine it in a glass canning jar instead of a metal can.  No one would buy it.

Cans of chicken (10 to 12 ounces) are running almost four dollars.  I don't use it a lot, but it's nice to have a few in the pantry for salads, soups, and casseroles.  I waited a couple of months after getting the Presto for boneless/skinless breasts to go on sale for $2 per pound, the maximum I'm willing to spend on this product with current prices.

You can use any cut of chicken for this project, including bone-in.  Leisa makes her life easier by using B/S, and I agree.  I'm terrible at cooking B/S breasts in the oven or on the stove, but pressure canning is steaming it in its own juices at 250º, which is pretty hard to mess up as long as you do it at the correct pressure for the right amount of time.  It's just cut up, stuff in jars, and go for it.

To follow along, here's the link to the National Center For Home Food Preservation's procedure, considered the current best practices and updated when necessary.  They do prefer using the hot pack method for poultry and mammals, but raw pack is acceptable and produces the texture I want in this particular product.  Raw pack is also one ingredient, fewer steps, and is frankly more consistent because par-cooking chicken is an iffy thing.

I bought a little over eight pounds of chicken, plus the very close to one pound from the bottom of the freezer.  Sheesh, it's been in there since last October.  I was expecting eight jars out of it, but the headspace math actually turned it into ten jars and I got out the extra rack.  There's a lot of headspace in canning meat, so it's 12 to 14 ounces per jar.  That's more than you get in a store bought can.

1.  Wash your jars, lids, and rings.  I canned in pints because it's 3-4 servings, and wide mouth because it's a bigger target so I wouldn't have to use a funnel.  For a large family, there are instructions for quarts.  I've pretty much decided the only thing I'll ever can in quarts is soup, and I haven't done that yet.  You don't need to sterilize jars for pressure canning.

2.  Prepare your canner according to manufacturer's instructions.  That may involve some minor maintenance.  I feel like I know how it works better than I know how my car runs.  Fewer parts.

3.  Cut chicken into manageable chunks and toss in the jars.  I didn't measure, but it was roughly the size I would cut them for grilling skewers.  I also put the packs in the freezer for half an hour first, to make them easier to cut, and ran the knife against the steel.  This part only took maybe a minute per pound, which is so different than making jam.  Lightly press the chicken pieces into the jars to make sure there aren't any huge air bubbles, but don't pack it super tight.  Leave 1-1/4" headspace, which is when you're sure it's below the rim that the band screws down to.  If you can't see the top of the chicken when the ring is on, you've over-filled it.

4.  Wipe the rims with vinegar to remove any debris and/or fat.  With jams and vegetables, you can generally get away with wiping with only water, but anything with fat in it definitely benefits from a vinegar cleaning.  Center lids, screw down bands finger-tight, and arrange jars in the canner.

5.  Follow the canner's instruction manual to vent and bring up to pressure.  The NCHFP link has a chart for pounds of pressure and time based on pints and quarts.  If you do a smaller jar, you still have to follow the pint time.  Then you get to sit around for a minimum of 75 minutes to keep an eye on the gauge or listen for the jiggler.  You actually don't have to watch it every second, but if it falls below pressure, you have to start the timer over again.  I have gotten used to finding the sweet spot on the gas dial remarkably fast, so I only check on it every five minutes or if I hear something unexpected.

6.  When the time is up, turn off the heat and follow the instruction manual on how to safely lower the pressure and remove the lid.  You're probably going to be waiting on it another half hour.  All this time of waiting for the thing to boil, processing, and releasing pressure is part of the equation for safe canning.  It's going to take nearly three hours from lock to unlock, and that's what you signed up for when you bought the canner.

7.  Remove the jars to a mat or wood resting surface.  Never place a hot jar directly on a tile or stone countertop.  It will crack from thermal shock.  All that liquid that's now in the jar is the chicken's natural juices and can be used as stock.  If they're bubbling, that means they're probably going to seal, but not bubbling isn't an instant sign of failure.  I had three fails, which isn't terrible for a first try.  I knew at least one didn't make it when I could smell cooked chicken before opening the lid.  Let them rest a minimum of 8 hours and up to 24.  Test the seals.  Refrigerate any fails and use within a week.  For the sealed ones, remove the rings, wash in soapy water, date, and store.  They are best used within a year, but lids are generally guaranteed to 18 months and they can be safe for years if stored properly.  I expect ten jars to last me a year (including the fails, which are now in the freezer), so that will be $20 (including the lids) well spent.

Difficulty rating  π