canning broth

Since we've been getting all these whole chickens, we've ended up with all this wonderful chicken broth. At first I froze it. Now that the freezer is full of shredded zucchini, corn, tomato soup, and a months worth of meat, we needed another way to preserve the broth. I was hesitant about canning a meat product, but my in-laws say it's fine and they are pro canners. Plus, there are dozens of recipes for canning meat in my pressure canner manual. And, if I come across 'possom or frogs, my old Ball book can help he can that too.

Sometimes I roast the chicken in the oven, but it's generally easier for us to throw it in the crock pot. I throw in the frozen chicken, a couple of cups of water, and a few random vegetables (carrots, celery, squash, whatever) first thing in the morning. I put mine on high; I have only two temperature settings. Later in the day, I turn it down to low.


After I take out the chicken and vegetable out and pull all the meat off the bones, I throw all the bones and such back in the crock pot. I usually set the crock pot in the fridge and work on the broth the next day. (funny: when I type crockpot, spell checker wants to change it to crack pot)

The next day, when the crock pot is taken out of the fridge, there is a nice layer of fat on top of the mix. I skim that off and throw it in my jar of fat in the fridge. I don't reuse this, I just keep it in the fridge for storage. See all the layers of bacon grease, sausage drippings, etc. When this is full, I'll just toss it. It's in a canning jar only because the top was chipped and I was going to toss it anyway. (It appears we are in dire need of an orange juice run!)

I warm up the crock pot again and get it all hot. Sometimes I add some more water. I don't think there are any real rules. Once it's super hot, it can be poured through a strainer to separate the bones and what not. If you wanted, I've read that you can strain it again through cheese cloth to remove more 'particles.' I'm good with this level of straining.


I clean up the jars and get them all ready.

Pour the hot broth into the hot clean jars. Clean up the rims and put the lids on.

Into the pressure caner they go.


The manual with my canner says pints of meat broth need processed 20 minutes at 10 pounds pressure. Quarts 25 minutes.


This is a jar of beef broth, but I can them the same way. This canned homemade broth seems to have a richer taste and we love it. The above pictures are actually Cornish game hen broth... pretty sure its the same as chicken broth.