I roasted a chicken with the intention of canning the meat for quick meals later on. Instead of leaving the meat in larger pieces like drumsticks or thighs, I wanted something that would be ready to use in sandwiches, wraps, and salads, so I cut all of the meat into small cubes.

Before I started filling jars, I put a pint of homemade chicken stock on the stove and brought it up to a boil. While the stock was heating, I placed my half-pint jars into hot water to warm them up. Having hot jars ready to go helps prevent temperature shock when adding the hot food and broth.

Once the broth was boiling, I packed the cubed chicken into the hot jars, leaving 1¼ inches of headspace. After that, I ladled the hot chicken stock into each jar, again making sure to leave 1¼ inches of headspace.

With the jars filled, I used my headspace tool to remove any trapped air bubbles. This step only takes a minute, but it helps ensure the jars seal properly and gives a more accurate headspace measurement. After checking the headspace one final time, I wiped the rims with a paper towel dampened with vinegar to remove any grease or residue.

I placed the lids on the jars, tightened the bands finger tight, and loaded them into the canner.

My Carey Electric Canner calls for 8 cups of water, so that’s what I used. If you’re using a different canner, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for the correct amount of water. I also added a splash of vinegar to the canner water to help keep the jars from developing a cloudy film during processing.

Once everything was loaded, I closed the lid and made sure the vent was left open. Since I was canning boneless chicken in half-pint jars, I processed them for 75 minutes, which is the same processing time used for pint jars.

If you’re using quart jars, the processing time is 90 minutes.

For bone-in chicken, the processing times are 65 minutes for pints and 75 minutes for quarts.

These processing times apply whether you’re using a raw pack or hot pack method.

I selected the pressure canning function and set the canner for 75 minutes. The canner first heated up and completed its standard 10-minute exhaust cycle. When the exhaust cycle finished, it beeped to let me know it was time to close the vent.

After that, the canner built pressure and automatically started the 75-minute countdown.

When the processing time was complete, the canner shut itself off. I let it depressurize naturally, which is an important part of pressure canning. Once all pressure had been released, I opened the lid and let the jars sit for another 10 minutes before removing them.

In the end, I only filled five half-pint jars. Looking back, I probably should have roasted two chickens.