I'm Not Chicken Anymore!

A friend of mine, (Gina) who used to live here, was a pro canner. She seemed to be canning all of the time. She would give demonstrations at her house on all things canning. When chicken or london broil would be at a really good price, she would can her own meat. She said how easy and yummy it is. Even though pressure canning scared me to death, I bought a pressure cooker about two years ago so I could do my own meat. Well, it has been sitting in my garage waiting for me to get the guts up and actually try it myself. Unfortunately, that pro canner friend moved to Colorado last year. But fortunately, I have other friends who know how to use that freaky pressure cooker thing.

There is a company called Zaycon that sells chicken for $1.58/lb in cases of 40 lbs. Last fall, I bought 80 lbs worth and froze it all. I still have some left in my freezer. So when they announced that they'd be delivering to Boise again, I decided I didn't need any. But then I remembered that dusty pressure cooker out in my garage! I really did want to have some canned chicken on my shelf. So I went ahead and ordered 40 lbs. I picked it up on Saturday morning.

One of my brave pressure canning friends, Kris Bell, said she would come over and help me get started on canning my chicken. She stayed with me until the canner reached the desired pressure. I was such a brave little girl, I told her to go home and I'd finish it myself. I did three batches that day. I only had one jar crack and one other jar not seal. My final count was 24 pints and 5 quarts.





I made chicken noodle soup for dinner last night with one of the two jars of chicken that didn't work properly. It was so good. And how easy is that to just open a jar and not have to worry about pre-cooking chicken. Have you ever opened a store bought can of chicken breast and it smells a little like canned tuna? Not my favorite smell. Well, this does NOT smell like that!

I'm happy that I have overcome my fear of using a pressure canner.... maybe not completely overcome... but pretty close! Now, onto canning some good quality red meat. We aren't big red meat eaters, but I would like to have some on my pantry shelf. I'm thinking quick, easy beef taquitos or vegatable beef soup.