Celebrate “culture” in agriculture & share skills like growing, cooking, canning

Canning meats

Canning meats is easy to do and is a great way to preserve the meat. More importantly to me is that it makes it convenient to have meat in a minute from the jar so I don't have to spend the time cooking it at mealtime. The basic procedure is to pack raw meat into jars leaving an inch of headspace. You don't have to add anything else. Just put the lids and rings on and process for 75 mnutes (pints) or 90 minutes (quarts). If you choose you may add spices & salt but I like to can mine without them so I can have a more versitile product when finished.

I can boneless skinless chicken breast with no additional liquid, salt or spice.

I then use it directly from the can to make great chicken salad. Just pour off the broth (maybe save it for rice the next meal) and flake it apart (it's really tender) and add the mayo, relish and whatever else you want in your chicken salad.

I also use the canned chicken to make pizza, quasidillias, salads and even stir fri where I just add it at the last minute (since it's already cooked). I sometimes just stir it in with a little BBQ sause and make a BBQ chicken sandwich.

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Zoubida Ayyadi on June 15, 2011 at 4:11pm

Christene, I do cook chicken, when not roasting it, without added water. And I'm not talking about canning, just regular cooking. It's way better in taste. The flavors are most wonderful compared with chicken cooked with added water.

There is a lot of moisture in chicken's meat and there's a lot of moisture in most vegetable too. The moisture is released in the right cooking vessel and at the right temperature. It's not difficult at all. You just make sure you have a heavy cooking vessel. I use either enamel coated cast-iron or a traditionnal moroccan tagine pot. You don't need to go to Morocco to have one. I bought mine here, in Montreal, in a regular store.

As a matter of fact, I just did cook a chicken dish with no added water for yesterday's supper.

Now that I know, thanks to Pat, that I can pack chicken, with no added water, and safely too, in Mason jars and process it, I will adapt all my chicken tagine recipes to can them. I'm thrilled!!! It makes such a difference in taste when regularly cooked, I just can imagine how much better it will be canned since pressure canning deepens the flavors even more.

Christene said:

ok Pat I am a little confused. You just put raw chicken in a jar and put the lid on and process for 75min. but where does the broth come from that you are talking about???

Permalink Reply by willie mitchell on June 16, 2011 at 9:25am

When you say 75 or 90 minutes, is this in a regular cold pack canner or a pressure canner? I hav apressure canner and cannot wait to try this.

Permalink Reply by Pat Johnson on June 16, 2011 at 9:34am

Meats should only be canned in a pressure canner and never in a waterbath canner. Cold pack is fine, there is no need to heat the meat prior to putting it into the jars. Just make sure the pressure is at 10lbs (sea level) for 75 minutes (pints or 90 minutes (quarts).

Permalink Reply by sparky on June 16, 2011 at 11:23am

Karen C: I have been canning pot roast for years. I do mine in a large roaster, cooking it first with coffee, gravy master or kitchen bouquet, garlic, onion. I then chunk the roast, and pack it in the broth. It is the most amazing roast you will ever eat. I do venison the same way. You can't tell it from the beef.

I do my meats precooked, although I see you are doing a lot of raw pack. I am not a meat eater, but I love good broth. Precooking gives me the broth, and hubby gets the meat. I can poultry, fish (which I DO rawpack), corned beef, pork, ground meats, meatloaf, taco meats, beef, and venison.

Permalink Reply by Karen Cunningham on June 16, 2011 at 11:35am

Sparky: Canning roast is at the top of my list of things to try next. A friend on another board has been telling me that cooking roast with coffee is the best way to fix it. I'm anxious to try that too.

I've not done any raw pack yet, so I think that part of your post was meant for someone else. I'm planning to do give chicken a try with my next check. I'm going to raw pack the chicken so we can have quick BBQ chicken sandwiches. 8-)

sparky said:

Karen C: I have been canning pot roast for years. I do mine in a large roaster, cooking it first with coffee, gravy master or kitchen bouquet, garlic, onion. I then chunk the roast, and pack it in the broth. It is the most amazing roast you will ever eat. I do venison the same way. You can't tell it from the beef.

I do my meats precooked, although I see you are doing a lot of raw pack. I am not a meat eater, but I love good broth. Precooking gives me the broth, and hubby gets the meat. I can poultry, fish (which I DO rawpack), corned beef, pork, ground meats, meatloaf, taco meats, beef, and venison.

Permalink Reply by sparky on June 16, 2011 at 12:50pm

Karen, are you on SRM?? lol Thinking I know you real well, and where you got the coffee advice??? rofl Hugs!

Permalink Reply by Karen Cunningham on June 16, 2011 at 12:57pm

Yes, Sparky, I'm on SRM. I *thought* you sounded familiar. 8-) I discovered this place when I did a search and found Pat Johnson's outdoor setup. I was looking for a way to can outdoors, and his propane burner popped up. (Going to get one of those as soon as my next check comes in!)

Go back in the archives and look at what Pat Johnson has done with the sausages. That's on my list of things to try too. 8-)

Glad to "see" you here.

Permalink Reply by Pat Johnson on June 16, 2011 at 3:04pm

Sparky's precooking is a good thing for many recipes. If you are going to cook something that is traditionally browned before cooking it in the crockpot or added to a stew or casarole, it should be at least browned before canning. I mentioned that I "brown& cook" hamburger before canning it. I also" brown" stew meat before adding it to the other ingredients and canning it. I "brown & cook" the beef going into a canned pot roast. Many times I brown, cook & can roasts so I can add them to casaroles or make quick dishes that normally would require me to brown & cook the meat first. Obviously that saves me time on the day of the meal. So....pre-cooking or heating the meat isn't nessessary to can it but it makes it so much better in certain circumstances & recipes. Sometimes I am fully cooking the meat so that I render the fat out before adding it to a stew or chili. That way there isn't a bunch of grease floating on the top after canning it. Consider all these factors when canning your meats so that you end up with the best results.

Karen Cunningham said:

Yes, Sparky, I'm on SRM. I *thought* you sounded familiar. 8-) I discovered this place when I did a search and found Pat Johnson's outdoor setup. I was looking for a way to can outdoors, and his propane burner popped up. (Going to get one of those as soon as my next check comes in!)

Go back in the archives and look at what Pat Johnson has done with the sausages. That's on my list of things to try too. 8-)

Glad to "see" you here.

Permalink Reply by sparky on June 16, 2011 at 3:42pm

Pat, I love your old stuffer. :) I was given a meat grinder last year, a big home-adapted one that runs through meat like nothing. I got some new plates for it, and set my hand grinder up with a sausage auger to do the links. So far I did two batches of bulk, and am looking forward to doing some venison links this winter! My mom gifted me with a smoker soon after the acquiring of the other toys, so I can't wait to run some through the whole process!

Permalink Reply by Pat Johnson on June 16, 2011 at 4:09pm

I think my stuffer was sold as a lard press but had the stuffer adapter as well. A friend came over and we did a bunch of sausage back in January I think it was. They had a brand new stainless steel 5lb hand crank sausage stuffer and it worked so easily I was tempted to buy one but haven't yet. Mine is neater but theirs worked easier. Mine holds 15 pounds of meat so you are tempted to fill it up but then have to push it all down (hard) and it also leaves about 3/4 pound in the bottom when finished (the new one left almost nothing). I use a propane smoker these days and love it becuase I can adjust the heat eaisily and it cleans up so well.

Permalink Reply by sparky on June 16, 2011 at 4:40pm

What I have is a big hand crank outfitted with a flywheel and 1/3 horse electric motor. It does a great job grinding, but I can't imagine trying to keep casings under control. So I took a smaller hand grinder and set it up for stuffing. Lots more control, and by then the meat will be ground and should run through easily.

Permalink Reply by Karen Cunningham on June 16, 2011 at 4:52pm

I make roast in the crockpot, but I brown both sides first. Would I need to add any liquid if I just browned the meat and then canned it? Or would I be better off cooking in the crockpot for the full time I normally would do, then canning the finished meat? Seems that would double cook it, though, and I'm thinking that wouldn't be a good thing. I love the way it comes out in the crockpot--nice and fork tender. If I could get it to come out like that with canning, I'd make up a bunch of it for fast meals for tough/long working days. 8-)

Pat Johnson said:

Sparky's precooking is a good thing for many recipes. If you are going to cook something that is traditionally browned before cooking it in the crockpot or added to a stew or casarole, it should be at least browned before canning. I mentioned that I "brown& cook" hamburger before canning it. I also" brown" stew meat before adding it to the other ingredients and canning it. I "brown & cook" the beef going into a canned pot roast. Many times I brown, cook & can roasts so I can add them to casaroles or make quick dishes that normally would require me to brown & cook the meat first. Obviously that saves me time on the day of the meal. So....pre-cooking or heating the meat isn't nessessary to can it but it makes it so much better in certain circumstances & recipes. Sometimes I am fully cooking the meat so that I render the fat out before adding it to a stew or chili. That way there isn't a bunch of grease floating on the top after canning it. Consider all these factors when canning your meats so that you end up with the best results.