Another First

     Last night I tried canning chicken for the first time. I had canned deer stew many many yrs ago. About 34 to be more precise. The first yr we were married. I hadn't done meat since. Well last night I was reading on several different blogs about canning cooked chicken by hot pack and raw chicken by raw pack. I also found a link for the USDA guidelines HERE. Doing raw pack seemed so much quicker and it was late  in the evening when I got back with about 8 lbs split chicken breasts that I bought for .99/lb. I figured wrong and thought it would do more jars than it did. I only got 6 small pints. But its cooked and ready to go for chicken salad sandwiches, or creamed chicken on biscuits. I usually buy the cans in the store for almost $3 / can. I figure one pint is easily equal to 2 cans of meat. The chicken made its own broth but next time I will add about 1/2 jar of water to help it out more. Here is how I did it:
1. cut up your chicken into chunks. I have also read about putting whole peices in.
2. Sterilize jars and lids, keeping lids warm.
3. Fill your jars with the raw chicken.
4. I placed a tsp of chicken bouillon on top. Some do this some dont, some just add a tsp of salt.
5. For test purposes, and because we like garlic, I also placed about 1/8 tsp of garlic salt on top.
6. Pour about 1/2 jar of sterilized water into jar. ( I didnt this time, but will the next)
7. Clean rims thoroughly. Some clean with a little bit of white vinegar, then dry.
8. Apply lids and hand tighten rings.
9. Place in canner with water, and process according to your towns elevation. Mine was 10 lbs for 75 minutes for pints.

Correction: I was informed by an experienced canner that any time you
pressure can or BWB for 10 minutes or more there is no need to
"sterilize" the jars. There is possibly the need to warm the jars to
prevent thermal shock and breakage but no need to "sterilize".

This tip came from someone on yahoo groups " canning2".


UPDATE: I just opened a pint of this chicken because my husband wanted chicken salad sandwiches for lunch. This chicken turned out fabulous! So moist, and flaked like a dream. Tasted soo much better than the store canned. I also figured up the price. Not counting electricity or costs of the jars since they are re-usable. I bought about 8 lbs. It should do about 5 pints "packed". This equals out to about 3 cans of the store chicken after it shrinks from cooking. So it equals about $1.60 per pint, or about  .53 cents per can. So much cheaper than the almost $3 per can I pay in the store. But more importantly, much better quality and taste. Also figured out the slightly darkened areas on the top are just from the chicken bullion. Next time I probably wont use it, or at least mix it with the  water first.