Shh.. I will let you in on a little secret, I am not amazing. Even though people think that I am because I have learned how to do really cool things like can chicken, the reality is: canning chicken is seriously easy. Our local grocery store had a crazy good deal on chicken--only 97 cents a pound! I bought the limit and decided I would can all of it. I ended up getting just over 20 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken breasts. You can bottle other parts of chicken, but seriously why would you?
First, I cleaned and sanitized all of my equipment and pint jars. I started to heat up 3-4 inches of water in the pressure canner. (Note: you have to bottle chicken in a pressure canner--there is no safe way to do so in a water bath canner or steamer.)
Then I put 1/2 tsp table salt in each jar. I lined up all of my jars on the counter so I could be extra careful about cross contamination, etc. I sliced each breast into about 1 oz pieces, think "about the width of your thumb". You can put them into whatever size you want really, as long as it stays uniform throughout the entire cutting. Then, using a canning funnel, I filled each jar almost to the top, with about 1/4 inch headspace. Once I loaded all of the jars, I washed my knife and cutting board. I wiped the rim of each jar with a clean paper towel. This is important to the seals on the lids really take. You are supposed to tighten each ring, with "finger tight" only, meaning not too hard. They seal because of heat and pressure, not because you are Hulk. Now you say a prayer and start loading the jars into the pressure canner. I was able to fit 20 pint jars, in two layers, in the canner.
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