I am finally canning!
I was a little nervous at first, but after getting the chicken mostly cooked, realized I had already completed the most labor intensive part! Now, I’m just waiting 90 minutes for it to complete. I’m using chicken out of my freezer, so I’m not expecting it to turn out wonderful - but I’m trying to lessen my dependence on power and having canned meats instead of frozen seems like a good idea.
My question to all of my mentors is: when it talks of loosely packing the meat, covering it with boiling water and leaving 1 1/4 inch of head space - it seems I can get only a few chicken pieces in a quart jar following those directions. About 2 1/2 chicken breasts cut up, to be exact. Does this sound right?
>>>when it talks of loosely packing the meat, covering it with boiling water and leaving 1 1/4 inch of head space<<<
The loosely packed is so that the water will be able to fill in all the spaces and conduct the heat uniformly. So, you can pack it down a bit, just so you can get the water down there.
>>>About 2 1/2 chicken breasts cut up, to be exact. Does this sound right?<<<
Hmmm, Broiler, frier, stewer (small, medium, large) My Buff Orpingtons were pretty large, I got about 2 1/2 - would get more with broilers. I do press it down a bit rather than just super loose filling.
Remember not to rush the cool down... Most seal failures occur from trying to cool it too fast. - Strangely, don’t leave them in after pressure gets down to zero (like overnight if you were tired from a long day canning.) Many seals will fail if you do. (I have no clue as to why and have not seen experts have a really good explanation, except that it does.)
“I am finally canning!”
So, how was it? Give us the juicy details on your chicken. I was thinking of doing up a batch of soup or something for my first batch to test the waters.