Saturday, October 24, 2009

Hot Packing Chicken

Summer canning season has finally trickled to a halt, and, after using our stores of canned meat without replenishing any for the last several months, I'm ready to get back into the meat canning business! There hasn't really been much in the dollar-and-under range for awhile, which is probably just as well -- I've had my hands pretty full!

But one of the stores had chicken leg quarters for $.39 a pound, so I headed out for it after work. Unfortunately, I made this stop after making a Costco run, and by habit, accidentally went to another store that often has great deals on meat instead. They did have chicken leg quarters, for $.69 a pound, and I decided that I was too tired, and for the gas it would take, it wasn't worth the trek over to the other one. So I grabbed a 10# bag and headed home.

I'd forgotten how satisfying it is to "put up" high quality meat for my family! After baking the chicken (sprinkled with a little herbes de provence & extra thyme) until it was almost done, I pulled the meat & skin off the bones and put it in the fridge overnight. Ended up with 3 separate containers -- meat, skin & bones and stock. This a.m., skimmed the solid layer of fat off the stock & threw it, a little more water, the skin & bones, an onion and some more herbs & salt into a stockpot. When the last bits of meat had fallen off the bone, I tossed out the skin & bones and put the stock back on to boil. Warmed the meat in the microwave, put it into the boiling stock and brought it back to a boil. It made 7-1/2 pints of chicken, plus stock, to fill 8 pints. It's now in the pressure canner, chattering away. Very good to know it'll be ready to use, sometime soon when I really need it -- and for less than $1 a pint! THIS is the whole reason I bought the pressure canner!!

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