There is a kind of quiet satisfaction that comes from walking downstairs to your pantry shelf, reaching for a jar, and knowing that supper is already mostly made. That is what home canning gives you. Not complicated. Not expensive. Not out of reach. Just good, honest food put up with your own two hands, waiting patiently for you when you need it most.

We raise our own chickens here on the homestead. From the time our chicks arrive until the day they go into the freezer is just fifty-eight days. Fifty-eight days, and we have a full year's worth of chicken for our family. We raise them on non-GMO food we know, and scraps from our own table. I know what goes into those birds, and that matters to me.

But I also want to say something plainly, right here at the start, for anyone who is earlier in this journey than we are... if you don't raise your own chickens, that is perfectly fine. Start where you are. Use what you have. A good rotisserie chicken from the store still gets this job done, and it is still one of the most economical, practical things you can do for your family's table. The goal is a stocked pantry. You will get there, whatever the starting point.

"Three small chickens. Eight pint jars. A pantry shelf that works as hard as you do."

Plain Canned Chicken

Let's start with the simplest thing, because simple is almost always the most useful.

Meat from three small cooked chickens, 3-4lbs each, packed tightly, will fill eight pint jars of beautifully canned chicken. That plain canned chicken is one of the most versatile things on your pantry shelf. Soups, stews, casseroles, stir fries, chicken salad sandwiches, pasta salads the list goes on and keeps going. You open a jar, and half the work of supper is already done.

Cut chicken meat into bite size pieces and pack into clean, hot jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Add hot broth or water for hot pack method, which is what I use. Wipe rims well to remove any grease, (vinegar works well for this) and add the lid and ring to finger tight only. Pressure can pints at 10lbs weighted gage for 75 minutes (up to 1000 ft altitude). You can find more information, how to, recipes, and more at The National Center for Home Food Preservation.

3 small cooked chickens, 3-4lbs apiece, (Sam's Club Rotisserie) $4.97 each

Yield: 8 pint jars of canned chicken

Jars (collected, gifted, or found)~$0

Cost per jar (chicken only)~$1.87

Because not everyone raises their own chickens, I figured the price per jar based on Sam's Club rotisserie chickens. The total cost is less than two dollars a jar. If you have to buy jars, that price goes up a bit. The investment is greater in the beginning, but once you have the jars, they can be used again and again. Compare this price to what you'd pay for commercially canned chicken at the grocery store, if you can even find the quality, and the difference is remarkable. And if you do raise your own then this is your chicken. You know exactly what is in that jar.

A NOTE ON SAFETY: All meat and broth must be processed in a pressure canner not a water bath canner. There is no acid in chicken or bone broth, and that means a water bath canner cannot reach the temperature needed for safe preservation. Please always follow tested, approved canning guidelines. The National Center for Home Food Preservation is the primary authority. Safety first, always.

Chicken, Mushroom & Garlic Cream Sauce

Now. Let me tell you about the jars of goodness we had for supper last night.

With the meat from two additional 3-4lb cooked chickens, I put up two quart jars and four pint jars of chicken in a mushroom garlic sauce. To the chicken, I added 16 oz of sliced white mushrooms, and a full, large head of garlic (minced) grown right here on our homestead. The liquid I used to fill those jars? Our own homemade bone broth, made from the very carcasses of the birds we'd just stripped. Nothing wasted. Everything used. Every bit of goodness kept.

Cut cooked chicken into bite size pieces. Add to a large stockpot, along with mushrooms, minced garlic, and bone broth. Bring to boil and simmer 5 minutes. Using a slotted spoon pack solid ingredients into clean, hot jars first to make sure amounts are even in each jar. Ladle hot liquid into jars leaving 1 inch headspace. Wipe rims well to remove any grease, (vinegar works well for this) and add the lid and ring to finger tight only. Pressure can pints at 10lbs weighted gage for 75 minutes (up to 1000 ft altitude) or quarts for 90 minutes at 10lbs pressure. You can find more information, how to, recipes, and more at The National Center for Home Food Preservation.Those jars are what I call homestead fast food. And I mean that with all the warmth in the world.

• A quick note before we get to the finishing steps: what is in those jars is the chicken, mushrooms, garlic, and bone broth. That's it. You cannot safely can flour or cream. Those ingredients get added in when you're ready to cook, not before. That's all the finishing work you do at the stove, and it only takes about ten minutes. This is the safe and proper way to do it.

From Jar to Stovetop in Ten Minutes

1. Open your jar and pour the broth liquid into a saucepan, and if you have it, add little dry white wine, about a 1/2 cup. (I use Pinot Grigio) It adds a beautiful depth and a little brightness that really elevates the sauce. While it is optional, I would encourage you to try it if you have it. The solid contents in the jar can be set aside until we are ready to add them.

2. In a medium size stockpot, make a simple roux using equal amounts of butter and flour. Melt butter first, add flour, stirring a minute or two, then whisk in that beautiful bone broth from the jar. Let it thicken over medium heat.

3. Season if using your own chicken. The rotisserie-seasoned chicken has already done most of that work for you.

4. Add the chicken, mushrooms, and garlic from the jar. Stir gently to warm through.

5. Finish with a splash of cream, about 1/4 cup. Enough to make it rich and silky. That's the moment it becomes something truly special.

6. Serve over homemade noodles, baked potato, rice, or creamy whipped potatoes.

About the Pressure Canner

A pressure canner is mandatory for canning non-acidic foods. I know what some of you might be thinking. A pressure canner is expensive. I hear you. But let me tell you how I got mine.

I found it at a yard sale for seven dollars.

Seven dollars. It's a Presto, and it is solid as the day it was made. I took it straight to our local extension office, and they checked the gauge, inspected the seals, and confirmed it was safe to use. That was the extent of my investment. And that canner will last me the rest of my life, and very likely the life of my children after me.

Before you spend full price on a new one, put it out there to friends and family that you are looking for one. Search Facebook Marketplace. Ask in your local buy-nothing group. Ask your neighbors. There are pressure canners sitting in basements all over this country, belonging to someone who doesn't can anymore and I'm sure they would be glad to see it go to a good home. These things are findable. I promise you, they are findable.

"There are pressure canners sitting in basements all over this country — waiting for someone who is ready to use them."

Don't Forget the Bones

Once you've stripped those birds clean and the meat is in your jars, you have one more gift waiting: the carcasses. Do not throw them away. Every bone, every bit of skin, every little piece that's left, including the drippings, goes into a pot or into a freezer bag until you have enough. Add any vegetable scraps: onion skins, carrot peels, the ends of your celery, the leaves most people discard, any bits of garlic. Things you were going to throw away anyway.

Cover it all with cold water, add a couple tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, and bring it slowly to a simmer. Let it go low and long. We let ours sit on the cook stove for 2 or 3 days. What you end up with is bone broth... rich, nourishing, deeply golden. That is what I use in those mushroom garlic sauce jars. It is the liquid that becomes your sauce. Nothing wasted, and unlike store-bought broth, you control the salt.

As I said above, bone broth must be pressure canned for safety, not water bath canned. But once those jars are sealed and on your shelf, you have something extraordinary: the full cycle of a chicken, honored completely, from the first jar to the last.

This is the Simple Life — not perfect, not complicated, not out of reach.
Just good food, made by your own hands, waiting for you when you need it most.

WITH LOVE FROM OUR HOMESTEAD TO YOURS — JULIE