Canning Chicken Meat

[LilyD]

I will be finishing up my last chicken canning today and tomorrow. So far I've canned 3 doz. jars of chicken and also broth. The fat is skimmed off and frozen into cubes for later cooking. We have eaten 3 different soups from this year's processing and I can honestly say, after doing this for most of my life, these chickens taste better than any I've ever had before. These ancient and young, breeds of all kinds, roosters obtained on the cheap and fed out on FF have been the most flavorful chicken I've ever had the fortune to eat. The fermented feed took all the gaminess out of them and the canner took all the tough out, leaving golden broth, flavorful and tender meat and a mild, gourmet taste to it all.

Today I expect I'll get another dozen or more jars of the same. What a feeling to have a source of meat that isn't raised commercially, with all that encompasses, and know that something that would ordinarily be spurned as too tough and old for consumption was turned into something that is tender and the best tasting chicken I've ever had. I thank God for it!

Wow way to go 3 dozen jars would do me for quite a while. This year I am going to stagger my processing a bit more and get some older roosters off of craigslist for canning as well as processing my younger birds for whole birds for roasting and frying.

If I may ask you a question though...what do you feed for fermented feed for the 2 weeks. I was feeding whole grain fermented feed but then the supplier of my grains fell through so now I am back on pelleted feed until I can find something better. Would a GMO free pelleted feed work for feeding them fermented feed or do you feed a specific mix?

I love all your posts I learn so much when I read the things you write, thank you

 

[Beekissed]

Wow way to go 3 dozen jars would do me for quite a while. This year I am going to stagger my processing a bit more and get some older roosters off of craigslist for canning as well as processing my younger birds for whole birds for roasting and frying.

If I may ask you a question though...what do you feed for fermented feed for the 2 weeks. I was feeding whole grain fermented feed but then the supplier of my grains fell through so now I am back on pelleted feed until I can find something better. Would a GMO free pelleted feed work for feeding them fermented feed or do you feed a specific mix?

I love all your posts I learn so much when I read the things you write, thank you

I just feed what I feed my layer flock each day...layer mash and whole grains. Any feed can be fermented and yield good results.

I'm so glad you like my posts!

 

[Chris Duke]

Great idea with the fat for the pie crusts, I'll have to try that.

To render the chicken fat for canning, I put the hardened fat in a pot with a cup of water, and let simmer for about 1/2 hour, then put it in the freezer to reharden the fat. This gets any solids to drop down into the water on the bottom of the pot. Then I put the hard fat into another pot with just a little water and let simmer till the bubbles stop. When the bubbles stop, all the water has been evaporated, and you are left with a clean pot of chicken fat. I'll heat up sterilized Mason jars in the oven at 250"F when the bubbles start to slow down, then pour the fat into them threw coffee filters for a super clean Shmaltz (chicken fat). There are a ton of uses for the chicken fat I have yet to try. Any Jewish cook book is filled with them. Historically speaking, it was used by everyone in the past who could not afford pork for lard. It's peasant food, but peasant food is some of the best food historically speaking. And darn tasty. Noting goes to waste around here when I can chicken.

 

[BCMaraniac]

To render the chicken fat for canning, I put the hardened fat in a pot with a cup of water, and let simmer for about 1/2 hour, then put it in the freezer to reharden the fat. This gets any solids to drop down into the water on the bottom of the pot. Then I put the hard fat into another pot with just a little water and let simmer till the bubbles stop. When the bubbles stop, all the water has been evaporated, and you are left with a clean pot of chicken fat. I'll heat up sterilized Mason jars in the oven at 250"F when the bubbles start to slow down, then pour the fat into them threw coffee filters for a super clean Shmaltz (chicken fat). There are a ton of uses for the chicken fat I have yet to try. Any Jewish cook book is filled with them. Historically speaking, it was used by everyone in the past who could not afford pork for lard. It's peasant food, but peasant food is some of the best food historically speaking. And darn tasty. Noting goes to waste around here when I can chicken.

I made schmaltz with the fat from 4 big fat fat fatty broiler hens that I let start laying before I butchered them.....got almost 1 1/2 pounds from 4 birds...I just put mine in a pot and heated it to render. I added finely diced onions to this batch while it was rendering, then filtered out the solids into hot Mason Jars as well....ended up with almost 2 pints. I put it in the back of the fridge even though it sealed to use like lard....gonna try that pie crust. The solids left in the filter are like the cracklings left when rendering lard......very flavorful. Gonna try adding them next time to some biscuit dough and top a chicken casserole with it.

 

[Chris Duke]

I made schmaltz with the fat from 4 big fat fat fatty broiler hens that I let start laying before I butchered them.....got almost 1 1/2 pounds from 4 birds...I just put mine in a pot and heated it to render. I added finely diced onions to this batch while it was rendering, then filtered out the solids into hot Mason Jars as well....ended up with almost 2 pints. I put it in the back of the fridge even though it sealed to use like lard....gonna try that pie crust. The solids left in the filter are like the cracklings left when rendering lard......very flavorful. Gonna try adding them next time to some biscuit dough and top a chicken casserole with it.

Mmmm, that sounds good. I've found that I also need to use butter when using the chicken fat. I just use it to substitute the lard part of any recipe. I render my own lard as well, so it's not a health thing, just a flavor thing.

 

[Arielle]

Quote: Love that fat has many good uses!!!! I rarely make buiscuits anymore as we have cut out most of the flours from our diet, and I for one eat plenty of fat and chicken and beef. I am remembering fondue from the 60's when that was the entertaining "thing"; bet the schmaltz tastes much better than veg oil to fry up chunks of bite sized meats.