Canned Chicken and Gravy Recipe

Step 1

Fill the pressure canner with two inches of water. Get clean jars into the canner and turn on the heat for everything to start gently warming up.

Step 2

Prepare and chop all vegetables and add them to a large bowl.

Step 3

Dice chicken and add to the bowl of veggies. If there’s any juice from the chicken defrosting, you do not need to add that.

Step 4

Add salt, pepper, poultry seasonings and white wine to the bowl and stir to distribute evenly.

Step 5

In a pot on the stove, bring the broth up to a simmer.

Step 6

Remove hot jars from the pressure canner (dumping out any water first) and place on a towel-lined counter next to your large bowl of chicken mixture.

Step 7

Using a funnel and tongs (or another tool of choice), fill each jar with the mixture, packing firmly, leaving a one-inch headspace. Homestead Hack: The goal is to pack this meal as well as possible so only a few tablespoons of broth are needed to fill the jar.

Step 8

Once jars are filled, ladle over the hot broth, maintaining the one-inch headspace. Run the bubble popper along the sides of each jar to remove any air pockets, then add more broth, if necessary. Homestead Hack: The one-inch headspace is important to maintain for getting a good seal on your jars.

Step 9

Wipe each rim well with a clean, damp dish rag.

Step 10

Add lids and bands, tightening to fingertip tight.

Step 11

Transfer jars to the pressure canner and follow the manufacturer’s instructions for adding the lid.

Step 12

Bring the temperature up slowly (over about medium to medium-high heat).

Step 13

Once steam is coming out of the steam vent at a steady pace, set a timer for 10 minutes.

Step 14

After the 10 minutes, add the regulator or weighted gauge and bring up the pressure to the desired level for your specific elevation (refer to the chart in the blog post).

Step 15

As soon as your pressure is up to full pressure, start your timer. For quart jars, set the timer for 1 hour and 30 minutes. For pint jars, set the timer for 1 hour and 15 minutes.

Step 16

Once the time is up, turn off the heat and allow the pressure canner to come all the way back down to zero pressure naturally. Don’t jiggle the weighted gauge, don’t place your pressure canner in cold water, just let it sit and naturally come back down to zero pressure.

Step 17

Once the dial gauge reads zero, very gently tap the weighted gauge/pressure regulator to make sure no more pressure remains. Remove the weighted gauge/pressure regulator and wait another ten minutes.

Step 18

Remove the lid (be careful, it’s hot!) and, using the jar lifters, remove the jars of chicken and gravy from the canner onto a towel-lined counter. Let the jars sit, undisturbed for 12-24 hours.

Step 19

Remove the bands, check the seals, wipe the jars clean and label and date them.

Step 20

Store on the pantry shelf and be sure to check out all the great meal ideas below.