Chicken spaghetti sauce? Keeping chicken out of freezer

[Sabz]

Does any of you guys do a chicken spaghetti sauce? I have never tried. I am seeking ways to conserve the chicken for all winter, I doubt that my freezer will have enough space. So I thought that if I could can chicken spaghetti sauce, it would save a lot of space in my freezer!

I am not sure if it would change the PH so much that it wouldn't be safe to can it just by boiling though. I don't have a pressure cooker yet. Might get one before the harvest season though, I have tripled my garden size this year, I think I will have a veggie overload in september

If I do get a pressure cooker, then it means I could can the chicken directly, just with the broth. Do many of you do that? How does it taste like, any difference from "fresh"?

Thanks

 

[Ridgerunner]

Do not try canning meat with the water bath method, you have to have a pressure canner.

What I do is can spaghetti sauce separately and add the meat when I prepare the meal. I don’t can the meat, I pick the bones when I make broth and get fully cooked and well-flavored meat, which I then vacuum pack and keep in the freezer. Without the bones it takes up a lot less room. All I have to do is mix the spaghetti sauce and meat, heat it up, and it’s ready.

Many people pressure can the meat, especially from older chickens. I don’t know the processing time or procedure since I don’t do it, but the processing time is pretty long. That meat is fully cooked and extremely tender when you open the jar. All you’d have to do is add that to the spaghetti sauce and heat it up. Should be delicious.

 

[Demidog]

Hi there!

I jar ( I'm in Europe, we use screw top jars) tomato based veggie sauces and fruit for winter. I was reading it's possible to jar everything if you use a pressure cooker. But you can do it in a water bath too, there is just more of a risk of the food spoiling because it's at lower temperatures. I was watching one video on youtube where they were making beef chili and jarring it but i think they used a pressure cooker, and they put in a whole carton of orange juice for extra acidity, as well as the tomatoes. I don't have a pressure cooker because those things cost a small fortune and i want a big one, my water bath takes 8 big jars. I've not tried it with meat yet, but I'm considering it.

 

[donrae]

Meat needs a pressure canner.

I've canned lots of chicken. It's not that hard, once you get the hang of it, just like any canning. I think it's 90 minutes for quarts, though....takes a long time. Results are great, especially for older roosters that are too tough to roast. I love being able to open a can of meat and get a meal on the table in no time. If I have canned chicken, I can have enchiladas on the table in just about 30 minutes from when I hit the kitchen

Then again, if I make several pans of enchiladas at a time, I can have them ready even faster, but that's another topic......

but like Ridgerunner, I prefer to can my meat separate from the sauce or veggies. I like having the ingredients, for the most part, so I can put them together however my heart desires.

 

[Ridgerunner]

The main reason for caning (jarring) is to protect against botulism. That forms an odorless tasteless poison when it can’t get fresh air, like when it is sealed in a jar. Botulism kills.

Botulism cannot live in things with a high acid content. That’s why pickles and even jelly can be water bathed. Botulism can’t grow in them. Most tomatoes are fairly high-acid and historically have been canned using the water bath method, but some tomatoes are low-acid and cannot be safely water bathed. They need pressure canning. There is a myth that yellow tomatoes are low acid and red tomatoes are high acid, but that myth is not really true in all cases. To avoid pressure canning tomatoes and tomato sauces you can add acid to them. I use lemon juice. Different recipes tell you how much you need to add. Pure tomatoes don’t need a lot. If you mix in peppers and other things like I do when I make spaghetti sauce you need more acid.

To kill the botulism microbe, you need to get all the product above 240 degrees Fahrenheit. Water boils at 212 so you need to boil it under pressure to get the temperature that high. Altitude above sea level has an effect on that. The higher you are the more pressure you need.

What you are canning makes a big difference. Different things have different densities and transmit heat differently. When I can chicken broth in pints it only takes 20 minutes at pressure since it is pure liquid and heats up really quickly. Quarts take 25 minutes. A pint of whole kernel corn takes 55 minutes while a pint of cream style corn takes 85 minutes because of the differences in that heat transfer. With some things whether you cold or hot pack makes a difference but with some it doesn’t. With chicken meat, if you include the bones it heats up faster than if you can it boneless.

Here in the States the Ball Blue Book is considered the bible for canning. There are other good recipes out there but be a little careful of things just off the internet. Just get a reliable recipe and follow it. My granddaughter eats a lot of what I can. I’m not going to take shortcuts.

 

[Demidog]

Yeah i worry about botulism, and that's why i do everything in a tomato based sauce plus i add balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce or lemon juice to raise the acidity. I've not tried orange juice but i think that would work too.