Monday, August 1, 2011

Bottling Chicken!

CHICKEN!
I chose to use pint jars because it seemed to be the perfect size for adding chicken to many of my often used recipes! Chicken Salad! Chicken Enchiladas!  ....and so many more!

Pack the RAW chicken, I cut mine into about 1 inch chunks, tightly into your jars add 1/2 tsp of salt, place the lids and rings on and process for 
75 minutes at 10 lbs.

These jars are packed and
ready for the pressure cooker!

If you notice in the picture that there is liquid in the jars – that’s broth!  OH YEAH! It's a result of the bottling process! 100% NATURAL! Can't ask for anything better! This is really moist and tender Chicken! It will shred with hardly any effort!
 So GREAT!!!

BEANS!

Bottling beans was "supper" easy!
First start with clean bottles, wash your beans and set them aside you will need 1 1/4 C. clean bean's for each quart bottle.
 After adding my beans I added 1/4 tsp. of Cumin and 1 tsp. salt. We love the flavor of Cumin. The Cumin is completely optional! But don't forget the salt!
Fill the bottles up to the LIP, at the bottom of the jar neck, with boiling water. 
The Cumin makes the water a little yellow. Put the lids & rings on... just finger tightened.  Let them sit on your counter for at least 2 hours.
The beans will begin to absorb the water and will take up a little more space in the jars. Then arrange your jars in your pressure cooker.  
Process for 60 minutes at 10 lbs. of pressure.
 Once your pressure cooker is no longer under "pressure" remove carefully and allow to cool.
Finished Pinto Beans and...  
Black Beans
Don't forget to mark your jars clearly with the contents, month, & year they were bottled!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Chicken soup!

Here's the run down on the chicken soup!
Ingredients:
1 ~  5lb. bag of carrot's
3 ~ celery stalks
3 ~ large yellow onions
7 lbs of Chicken thighs (you can use any kind of chicken or turkey you want)
1 Cup of Tone's Chicken base
3 ~ Gallons of water
4 rounded spoons of minced garlic

Chop up your veggies. Cook & cube your chicken.

In a large pot heat water until is a rolling boil add the chicken base, simmer for a few minutes

 then add your chicken, garlic, & veggies.
 Ladle into clean quart jars.  Fill your jars up to the LIP at the bottom of the jar neck. 

Use a canning funnel to help keep the outside of your jars clean.

Heat your canning lids in a small sauce pan of water to simmering.... not boiling!  Use a magnet or a fork to pick the lids up out of the water one at a time. Place on clean jar rims. You may need to wipe the rims off with a clean damp rag. A clean rim helps insure a good seal. Put on your jars rings and lightly tighten.
   Arrange your jars in your canner.  My pressure cooker holds 7 quart jars. (This was my last batch so there are only 5 jars in this picture.)  Process for 85 minutes at 11 lbs of pressure. Be sure to allow your pressure cooker to return to 0 before removing the lid! This is very important! A quick change in pressure can crack jars, and trying to remove the lid before all pressure is dispensed is DANGEROUS!
Use can lifters to gently remove from pressure cooker, as pictured below with a jar of beans. Place on a clean towel and allow to cool.


Once cool you can leave the rings or remove them if you like . The rings on these 2 quart jars have been removed.
The jars on the left are ready to go in the pressure cooker. The jars on the right are ready to be put in the pantry.
Be sure to mark your jar lids with a permanent marker. Put the item in the jar, the month, and year it was canned.


When you are ready to eat add noodles, rice, or potatoes, more seasoning or broth as needed.
Enjoy!

Pressure Cooker Basics

When I decided to start this blogaventure!(My new word!)  I wanted to make sure that I covered the basics of using a pressure cooker! There are some very crucial points that everyone who is using a pressure cooker should be aware of! As I began to type and write it all out I realized that I'm still learning and I wanted to find somewhere that all the answers could be found! After looking at several websites I found this one! I think it will answer most, if not all, the questions in a much better way then I ever could! ENJOY & Happy Pressure cooking! 


This was helpful as well!

Canning a new chapter!

For the last three day's I have been completely engulfed in the world that is canning! I have breathed, dreamt, and most importantly consumed canning! Lots of thanks go out to my dear friend Staci for getting my started (again) and always answering my questions! Now this is not to say that I have NEVER done any canning, I have, but there were a lot of firsts for me this week!


 I'd heard that canning chicken was easy but WOW, it was amazingly EASY! I had never bottled beans, of any kind, and soup was a first too! I have in the past done strawberry jam, bread in a bottle, tomatoes, pickles, applesauce, and when I was a tween I remember having a canning class in which our amazing teacher turned over grown zucchini into mock apple pie filling and mock pineapple! Yes she was that good!


I on the other hand am still learning the canning world and have to be honest there are a few thing's that I refuse to can!!! The first being store bought veggies... if they didn't grow in my garden I refuse to buy, prepare, and bottle veggies that I can buy already in a nice neat can! This goes for apple sauce too! It was so much work for so little product, and then I didn't want the kids to eat it because it was so much WORK, and then it would be GONE!!!  


Which in my mind seems backwards!!! I want to bottle things for my family so that we can eat them, enjoy them, and hopefully so that they will make meal time easier!!!  Let's be honest! I don't always have the time or the energy to make a gourmet meal! So if I can walk into the pantry and pull something off the shelf that will help me make a well rounded meal I am all for it! 


Join me on my journey! I'll share what I have learned!  What I am learning & discovering!  Come all who like me wants to make life in the kitchen a little easier, less expensive, and happier!


~Rana