Canning Chicken Soup

Ingredients

          Chicken

          Salt

          Crushed Garlic

          4 or 5 lbs Carrots

Large Stalk of Celery

Onions

You will also need quart jars, lids and rings and a Pressure Canner

First, you can’t can rice or noodles. You’ll have to add either or both of those before you serve this yummy treat.

Cut up chicken was on sale so I got some breast and leg quarters – about 8 pounds. I rinsed them and placed them in a stock pot, covered them with water and added about 8 carrots that I had halved, 6 stalks of celery also halved, a couple tablespoons of garlic and a tablespoon of salt.  I kept the veggies large so I could have the flavor of the soup and they’d be easy to remove.

I cooked the chicken for about an hour and then drained the chicken and let it cool.  I strained the broth and set it aside.

While I was cooking the chicken, I diced carrots and celery. I’m allergic to onions so I skipped those but you’re welcome to add them to your soup.  Next I skinned, boned and cut up the chicken. 

With all the prep done, I put the strained broth back on to boil.  Then I put 1/3 C of celery in the bottom of quart jars.  Next I put about ¾  C of carrots on top of the celery Here’s where you would add the onions.  With the veggies in place, I added the cut up chicken. The amount of chicken I used was more than a cup. I just divided the chicken up equally into the quart jars. 

When the jars are full, you ladle in the hot broth to about 1” from the top. Wipe the tops of the jar. Place hot lids on the jar and finger tighten the rings.

Pressure can at 10 Lbs for 90 minutes. Let the pressure drop before removing the lid. Then place the soup on a towel on the counter to finish cooling.  Next day, remove rings and rinse jars.

Canning Ground Beef in Broth

   Ingredients

Ground Beef

          Salt

          Hot Broth or hot water

You will also need pint jars, lids and rings and a Pressure Canner

I canned my ground beef in pint jars... rule of thumb one pint=one pound (more or less)... so pints are a good size for when your recipe starts out with "brown one pound of ground beef..."

I started out by browning my ground beef. I then drained the meat...

...and filled the hot, sterilized pint jars loosely, leaving a generous one inch headspace.

Next, I filled the jars with hot vegetable broth that I had made specifically for this purpose. I took carrots and celery with some crushed garlic and boiled it until it smelled wonderful. (You can also make your own beef broth, buy it from the store, or use beef broth granules and mix with boiling water)... I left a one inch headspace... got rid of any air bubbles by inserting a plastic knife between the inside of the jar and the meat, adjusting headspace as necessary by adding more broth if needed.

After wiping the jar rims with a damp cloth I tightened my hot, sterilized lids on to fingertip tightness.

I processed the pint jars in my pressure canner at 10-11 pounds pressure for 75 minutes (quarts would be processed for 90 minutes).

After processing, I let the pressure drop in my canner slowly, on its own... then waited an additional 10 minutes or so (the slow "cool down" helps prevent liquid loss and jar breakage) then removed the jars using my jar lifter...

Then set them on a folded dish towel on the counter to cool (away from any drafts) and to listen for the PING! of each successfully sealed jar. After they have completely cooled, remove the rings and rinse jars to remove any residue.