If you’re anything like me, you’ll prioritize ease when it comes to making dinner. I love chicken soup, and love even more that I can make a big batch to can and use later. This frees up precious space in the freezer, and is an easy meal to dump into the pot on a cold day.
This is the second time ever using my pressure canner AS a pressure canner, and since I’m excited, let’s jump into it.
This is a LOOOOOONG process. I took me close to 6 hours from start to finish, so it’s best to do this when you have an afternoon or morning you can block out.
Be sure to check out the video I made for this recipe on my YouTube
Ingredients:
- 2 chicken carcasses - I use the leftover meat, bones, and
skin off whole roast chickens that I save in the freezer. You can also use one full uncooked chicken for this recipe.
- 5-6 carrots, chopped
- 1 whole onion, chopped
- 3 celery stalks, chopped
- Salt, to taste
Step One
Put your chicken in a 12-quart pot and add water until the pot is roughly ¾ full.
Step Two
Next, we’re going to chop and add our veggies.
How small you chop them is up to you, I normally cut them all pretty well, since I like to save the meat and vegetables to keep in the soup. If I were just saving the broth, I wouldn’t bother cutting them any smaller than into a couple inch chunks.
Step Three
Bring your pot to a rolling boil. Once it’s boiling, drop the heat until it stays at a consistent simmer, and leave it alone for a couple hours to cook down.
I generally leave it for 3 hours, or until the water has cooked down to around the half-way mark on the pot.
Once it’s cooked down as far as you want it, you can taste the broth and add salt (or any other seasonings) to your liking.
Step Four
Place a strainer in a large bowl and carefully pour the pot into the strainer. This will help you separate the broth from the solids.
Step Five
Here comes the canning section!
Last time I made this recipe, it perfectly filled four quart-sized jars, so I split the broth evenly amongst those four jars.
If you are just looking at saving the broth, it would fill two quart jars and one pint.
(Optional)
I like to keep the meat and veggies in the soup, so I endure the painstaking process of sorting every little bit to make sure I’m not accidentally adding any bone back into the broth. Like I mentioned earlier, with the recipe above, I got four quarts with the broth and solids.
Fill your jars so there is an inch of headspace.
Headspace is the distance from the top of the stuff in the jar to the rim of the jar.
Step Six
Wipe down the tops of the jars with a damp paper towel or cloth, place your lids, and screw on the rims finger-tight.
Set them into your pressure canner so none of the jars are touching.
Add water until there is at least two inches of water over the top of the jars.
Secure and lock the lid of your pressure canner, turn on the heat, and let the steam build up.
Once steam is coming out the spout, place your 10lb weight on top, and adjust your heat to keep the pressure at 10lbs.
With my canner, I know the lid is locked with a red button on the side pops up. Once that button falls back down I know that the pressure has returned to zero, or is close to zero. Each pressure canner is a little different, so be sure to check the instructions with yours.
Step Seven
The jars need to process for 90 minutes, so you can work on other things while this is going. If your canner is finicky, be sure to stay within eye-sight to adjust the temperature as needed.
At the end of the 90 minutes, turn off the heat and let the pressure return to zero. This can take upwards of an hour (or longer), so you’ve got more time to focus on other things again.
Take of that canning weight, make sure your lid is no longer locked, and carefully remove the lid facing away from you so you don’t run the risk of any leftover steam hitting you in the face.
Step Eight
Now we can remove our jars! Use a jar lifter (yeah, that’s what those funny looking tongs are called) and carefully pull them out of the water and set them on a flat surface to cool.
As they cool, you should hear a POP! This means the seal is
good and the jars can be stored in your cupboard or pantry. If any of the lids do
not pop you’ll
need to store them in the fridge and use them sooner rather than later. You can test the seal by gently pressing on the middle of the lids. If they do not flex, that means they're sealed. If they do flex, it didn't seal fully.
Please let me know if you try my recipe and what you think of it, I’d love to hear from you.
Thank you for joining me, hopefully we’ll get to try some more exciting recipes and other projects in the future.
Hope you all have a freaking awesome rest of your week, and I’ll catch you next time!
-Alyx
