How To Can Chicken or Turkey – Simple and Easy

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Learning how to can chicken or turkey is easier than you think, and a great way to stock your homestead pantry shelves.  I love having canned chicken, turkey, venison and beef on my pantry shelves for those times when I forget to thaw some meat from the freezer, or need a quick meal.  We use canned chicken or turkey interchangeable in recipes as you can’t really tell a difference between them once they are canned.  They are so tender and juicy and good!  

I love being able to grab a jar of chicken off the pantry shelf and quickly make a meal.  Some of our favorite ways to use canned chicken include making

• chicken salad sandwiches
• chicken noodle soup
• chicken and rice
• chicken casseroles
• chicken tacos
• chicken enchiladas
• chicken taquitos
• chicken pot pie

As long as you have canned chicken or turkey on your pantry shelves, you can have a nourishing meal on the table in minutes.  

Homestead Fast Food

We cook all of our food from scratch and rarely if ever go out to eat.  It’s really nice to have some convenience food like canned chicken or turkey on the pantry shelves for those times when we’ve been busy outside all day, the kids are sick, or we just need a fast meal.

Chicken Bone Broth

Another benefit of canning your own chicken or turkey, is that it’s very easy to make your own chicken bone broth once you’re done getting the meat off the bone for cooking.  I like to cook my chickens or turkeys first, then debone them, and then add more water, seasoning and vegetable scraps to my pot and let it simmer slowly to make broth.  Then I can the chicken broth to add to any recipes that call for chicken broth.  If you have canned chicken, and canned broth, you can very easily make chicken and noodle soup for your family if they are sick.  And the best part is, that you’ll never have to leave your house.

Sourcing Chickens Or Turkey For Canning

Old Hens Or Roosters

We are not set up to raise chickens on our homestead yet, which is kind of ironic since we produce all of the rest of our own food and even have Jersey milk cows.  But we have friends and family that raise a lot of chickens so we can always source farm fresh eggs easily.  Usually people that raise chickens have to go through their flock about once a year and decide who is getting to old to lay eggs.  It costs a lot to feed chickens that aren’t laying, and so a lot of times this culling of the flock will be done in late fall before winter.  A lot of times people will give you their old hens and roosters, and you can butcher them yourself.  It doesn’t really matter how tough they are, because they become really tender during the pressure canning process.

Raise Your Own Chickens

You can also raise your own chickens or turkeys of your own every year and can or freeze them in the fall.  Meat birds are typically more tender than older laying hens or roosters, so I like to freeze them and use them for making fried chicken.  I prefer to can all the tough old birds that aren’t as good to cook fresh.

Local Grocery Store Sales

Another way to source chickens or turkeys for canning is to look for meat sales at your local grocery store.  I prefer to only have food in our pantry that we raise because we know what goes into it and that it’s organic, but I’m not above taking advantage of a good deal.  Sometimes grocery stores will have chicken or turkey on sale after the holidays, because they don’t want to store them in their freezers anymore.  The last turkeys I purchased (which are shown being canned in the video below) were about $12 each.  I got anywhere from 6-7 quarts of turkey from each bird, so the cost per quart was $2 or less.  You can make a pretty big casserole or lots of chicken salad sandwiches with a couple of quarts of chicken, so it’s a really inexpensive way to feed your family.

Why Can Chicken Or Turkey?

Health Benefits

Knowing what is in the food on your pantry shelf is so important. When you can your own chicken or turkey, you know there are no artificial flavors or preservatives. If you raise your own chickens, or know the person who does, then you know what the birds have been fed and how they have been cared for. Home raised chicken will always be healthier than commercially frame chicken.

Peace Of Mind

Another benefit of having your own meat canned on your pantry shelves is just the peace of mind of knowing that it’s there.  It increases your sense of food security, and in case of a power outage where it might be more difficult to cook, you have a pre-cooked meat that can be eaten as is or easily made into sandwich filling without having to cook it at all.  

Saves Freezer Space

Speaking of power outages, if you have all of your meat in freezers and the power goes out, you are at risk of losing all of it if the power doesn’t come back on right away.  And besides, it costs a lot of money to keep freezers running, and they always seem to fill up quickly.  It only makes sense to can as much meat as possible, so it will store for many years to come, and save you lots of room in your freezer.

Healthy Fast Food

When you have canned chicken or turkey on your pantry shelves, you’re never more than a few minutes away from a nourishing and healthy meal for you and your family. I like to call it “homestead fast food”.

Pressure Canning

Whenever you are canning meat, you ALWAYS have to pressure can it.  Water bath canning will not get it hot enough for a long enough period of time to kill any potential bacteria.  To safely can chicken, you must process it through a pressure canner.  If you are new to pressure canning, don’t worry, it’s very easy to do and very good skill to learn.  I explain more in the video below.  Be sure to always refer to your canners instruction manual for specific instructions related to your specific brand of canner.  

For pressure canning chicken, the amount of pressure and length of time will vary based on your altitude and whether you are canning your meat with or without the bones.  Where I live at less than 2,000 feet in elevation, I process my quarts of chicken for 90 minutes at 10 lbs pressure.  This seems like a long time, but you can accomplish a lot of other things while the canner is simmering away on the stove.  Canning meat is one of the easiest and least time consuming things I make every year.

Hot Pack Or Raw Pack

There are two different methods for canning chicken or turkey: hot pack and raw pack.  

Hot Pack

The hot pack method is shown in the video below and consists of pre-cooking the bird so the meat can easily be taken off the bone.  Then the meat and some broth are added to jars and processed in a pressure canner.  I prefer this method because it is so simple and easy, and because the meat is so tender and juicy in the jar.  I also prefer boneless chicken, because it makes preparing meals super quick.

Raw Pack

The raw pack method consists of putting raw meat into the jars, either with or without bones, and pressure canning it that way.  This is a good method also, but requires more labor up front, especially if you’re going to cut the bones out of the raw chicken before canning it.  It just depends on your set up and available time as to which method you choose.  

Please note that the processing times for raw pack canning will be different, and will also vary based on whether the bones have been removed or not.  I always like to refer to the Ball Blue Canning Book to double check my processing times depending on what I’m preserving.

FAQ:  

What Parts Of The Chicken Are Best For Canning?  

You can preserve any part of the chicken by canning.  If you find a special sale on chicken breasts, or legs and thighs, they will all work for canning.  Most of the time I cook the whole chicken or turkey and can it all together.  I usually remove the skin and any excess fat and use it for making bone broth.

What does home-canned chicken taste like?

Canned chicken is incredibly tender and juicy and has a great flavor!  It is my preferred way to make almost anything with chicken except for fried chicken of course.  Even the toughest chicken will be tender after being canned in a pressure canner.

How long will canned chicken keep on your pantry shelves?

Canned chicken or turkey will keep for at least 1-2 years on your pantry shelves.  As long as the seals “pops” when you open it, the meat is still good to eat.  I have kept canned chicken on my pantry shelves for much longer than 1-2 years and it’s always been fine.  It’s important to do what you feel comfortable with, but as long as I can hear a nice “pop” when I open the jar, then I know it’s safe to eat.

Supplies You Will Need

• Chicken or Turkey, thawed
• Salt (optional) – it improves the flavor of the meat
• Roaster or crockpot (for hot pack method) – I like to cook my chicken or turkey in a roaster for a few hours so it can easily be deboned before putting the meat into jars.
• Roaster Or Crock Pot Liner (for hot pack method) – this saves on cleanup and makes straining out the broth easier (see video below)
• Canning Jars – I prefer to put all of my chicken in quart jars for our larger family, but you can certainly use pint jars as well.  You can find jars at garage sales and auctions, or you can purchase them from Azure Standard.
• Lids and rings – I like the lids and rings from ForJarsUSA as they have the best seal rate of any lid I’ve ever tried.
• Jar Lifter – for taking hot jars out of the canner
• Canning Funnel – for putting meat into jars
• Towel – for setting your hot jars on when placing them on the counter.
• Pressure Canner – a really good pressure canner is a great investment and one that will serve you well for many years to come.  I prefer this All American pressure canner or the pressure canner from ForJarsUSA.

How To Can Chicken Or Turkey

If canning fresh chicken that has just been butchered, be sure to clean thoroughly and allow to chill for 6-12 hours.  

Hot Pack Method:

Cook bird in roaster or crockpot for a few hours or overnight.  Allow to cool enough to debone.

Remove all the meat from the bones and place into a separate bowl. Using a canning funnel, place meat into jars.  

Raw Pack Method:

Place raw meat pieces, either with or without bones into jars.  If leaving the bones in, it’s easiest to separate them at the joints.  Just make sure each piece will fit in the jar.  You can also remove the skin if you wish.

For Either Method:

Add salt to each jar.  ½ teaspoon salt for pints, and 1 teaspoon salt for quarts.

Pour hot water or broth into each jar leaving ½” headspace at the top.

Using a butter knife, remove the air bubbles from the jars by running it down along the edges of the meat.

Using a clean cloth, wipe the top of the jar to remove any food particles or grease.

Place the canning lids and rings on the jars.  They only need to be hand tight.

Canning Process

Place 1-2 quarts of water in your pressure canner, place it on your stove and turn your burner on high.

Add jars of chicken to the canner and put lid on, being sure to lock it into place.  You can refer to your canner manual for detail instructions related to your canner.

Allow the canner to continue to heat until steam is coming out of the vents.

Place pressure gauge or applicable device over steam vent.

Process at 10 pounds pressure for altitudes below 2,000 feet.  Process at 15 pounds pressure for altitudes about 2,000 feet.  

When desired pressure is reached, lower the heat so that the pressure is maintained.  You don’t want it to go too far above or below the desired pressure for best results.  On my canner, it has a little pressure regulator that jiggles, so when it is put on the canner for 10 pounds of pressure, it is supposed to jiggle 4-5 times per minute.  That is how I know it is at 10 pounds of pressure.  This is very simple, but will vary from canner to canner, so please refer to your canner instructions for more details.

Set Timer

Processing Times

• For raw or hot pack – process pints for 75 minutes, and quarts for 90 minutes.
• For jars with bones (both raw or hot pack) – process pints for 65 minutes and quarts for 75 minutes.  

At the end of the processing time, simply turn off the heat and let the canner cool down slowly.  

Once the canner is completely cooled, remove the lid and using the jar lifter, place the jars on a towel on your counter to cool.

Allow the jars to fully cool to room temperature.  You will hear the satisfying “pop” of the seals as the jars cool.  This means you’ve been successful!

Check The Seals

Once the jars are completely cooled, check to make sure they all have a good seal.  To do this, you’ll want to make sure that the lid on each jar is indented downwards, and when you press on it, it doesn’t move.  If you use the For Jars lids, you won’t have any trouble with jars sealing.  If you have a jar that doesn’t seal, you can put it into the refrigerator and use it within a week. Or you can replace the lid and re-process it in the canner.  Sometimes a lid won’t seal if there is a small crack on the rim of the jar, or if a piece of salt or food particle wasn’t cleaned off the jar rim properly.

Wipe down your jars and put them on your pantry shelf to be enjoyed for a long time to come. I hope you try canning your own chicken at home, and if you do, please comment below with any questions you may have. Thanks for following along as we teach you how to grow a simple, sustainable life.