Skip to main content

DIY Chicken Stock Using Pressure Canner

By

Our local Wal-mart reduces any left-over rotisserie chickens to half price after 8:00 PM. So I can snag a chicken for $2.59. I bought one the other day and picked all the meat off. With the meat, I made Chicken quesadillas twice, a chicken bacon ranch pizza and chicken fried rice. I saved the carcass for this recipe!

I have also been saving leftover vegetable scraps. I mean the stuff that you would normally throw away. The top of a pepper, onion scraps and skins, carrot tops, etc. I had about two cups of vegetable scraps. 


I threw everything in the slow cooker and filled it to the top with water. Add a little salt and pepper to taste, or fresh herbs or whatever you like! I cooked in the slow cooker for 20 hours. You can do as little as 4 or as much as 24!


This part took a few minutes but using a fine mesh strainer, ladle the broth to get out all the little pieces. 


When you are done, you will be left with a deep, rich colored broth!

I put mine in the fridge overnight and skimmed off any fat or other stuff that comes to the top. There wasn't hardly anything to skim so next time I might skip this step, but if you do this, you will need to  bring your broth to a boil again before adding to hot jars.

I won't go over step by step on how to can because, honestly, I'm still learning! I'll be canning a lot of green beans this summer so I'll try to add a how to can post sometime. In the meantime, there are a lot of canning how-to tutorials out there. I would find one of those, but also carefully read the instructions that came for your canner. Each canner is a little different and you want to make sure you are doing it right so that your jars will seal properly to avoid food spoilage.


I processed mine at 10 pounds for 20 minutes.



 When you take them from the canner you should start to hear the seals "Popping!" pretty quickly. This means you did it right and your jars are sealed!


Let the hot jars sit for 24 hours and then store in a cool, dark place for up to 18 months. 


There's something so gratifying about making something that you would normally buy in the store from nothing but scraps that would have been thrown away anyway!

Here are some helpful links to canning info to get you started canning today! 

Ball/Kerr Canning 101

Melissa K. Norris-Is Home Canning Really Worth it?

Melissa K. Norris-Canning Myths

I also love listening to the Melissa K. Norris-Pioneering Today Podcast! It's full of helpful on information about homesteading, gardening, canning, preserving and making your own food.

Coming soon, I'll have a post about making Strawberry Jelly via the boiling water method! I plan on canning green beans, whole tomatoes, some black raspberry jelly (hopefully) and some apple butter and peach butter. Maybe some whole peaches too. 

Have you canned anything? If you so, what's your favorite things to can?

Comments

Post a Comment

Leave me a comment!

Popular posts from this blog

My $100 Kitchen Cabinet Makeover!

By
I'm so excited to share today's post. It's something I've been working on for about 2 months, on and off. But it is finished and so today I'm sharing how we renovated our kitchen cabinets for about $100. When we bought our house in a little over a year ago, I fell in love with the kitchen just by the listings photos. UPDATE!!! Check out this  post to see how I also stained my island! It was HUGE and there was about a billion cabinets. The kitchen in our old house was a pretty good size also and I knew I would not be content with a smaller kitchen. So these pictures sold me. We bought the house and moved in and I lived with the kitchen for awhile but the cabinet color was really bugging me. I liked the counter tops well enough but they clashed with the cabinets. We did not have the money to replace all those cabinets so the next decision was to either paint or stain them. I stumbled upon General Finishes Gel Stain and thought the id
22 comments
Read more

My Frugal Cottage/Farmhouse Decor and how YOU can get it.

By
I have been on a decorating spree lately. I just finished my cabinets ( see them in this post here !) and so I've been changing things up a little bit. Plus spring is almost here and so I've been getting my flowers out for it! I also love to see how inexpensively I can decorate while still looking nice. I love the stuff from Pottery Barn, Magnolia Market, etc. but here on THIS blog, I'm on a budget! My favorite stores are thrift stores, specifically the Goodwill or Goodwill Outlet and stores like Ross, Homegoods and Michaels. And of course, the Dollar Tree! I try to make a lot of my stuff, or redo it so it's more my style. I've tried to include links to some of the stuff I've bought. None of these links are affiliate links, they are just there to help you out! I've already shared my "mantle"  already but I had to include it in this post. I made the star, my husband made the plaque, I covered the books and decorated the vase. Everythin
1 comment
Read more

Thrifty Thursday-Marked Down Bread

By
Today I am sharing a tip that I use to stretch my meals out a little.  I buy marked down Italian bread loaves in the store bakeries.  I bought this loaf for $.72. It was only $1.00 to begin with but $0.28 is $0.28! Plus that's not the only savings you get with this. I love those boxes of frozen garlic toast that are about $3.00 for 6 slices!!! That's crazy. But sometimes, I just really want some bread with my meal. So I slice up the loaf and portion it out in 4 pieces per bag.  I then put all the individual bags in one big freezer bag and freeze. When it's time to eat, just pull out a bag. They thaw quickly. I spread softened butter on each side and sprinkle with garlic salt. I sprinkle with mozzarella cheese and sometimes I add Parmesan cheese. Bake at 375 for about 7 minutes or until they reach the desired crispness. With those other boxes coming in at about $0.50/slice, these are so much cheaper!!
Post a Comment
Read more