First you clean your jars really well. Make sure there are no chips on the rims. Then take your chicken breasts and cut off any junky parts if you want. I want. Pack jars with chicken.
Make sure you wash your hands and work surface often with soap since you are working with chicken.
We got about 1 1/2 chicken breasts in each jar. You don't want to overstuff. Keep all meat below the first line on where the rim starts.
I purchased frozen chicken at a great sale from Safeway. But after I got looking at it, I noticed that it had additives of sodium phosphates for plumping. I think next time I will get fresh chicken (right now it is on sale at Albertson's in case you looking). Hey I wonder if I drank sodium phosphates if that would plump my... oh never mind.
Add 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of salt (to your liking). You do not need to add liquid. Boil your canning lids in hot water for a minute or so. While this is happening, double check that your jar rims are clean by wiping with a damp washrag. Place lids on jars, screw on rings and place in pressure canner which has about 1 1/2 inches of water in the bottom. You can double stack your pint jars in your canner. Also make sure they jars are NOT sitting directly on the bottom. Your canner should come with a bottom piece.
Do you need a pressure cooker? I bought mine from Amazon.com. It is the Presto pressure canner. It got good reviews. Then right after I got mine, my mother bought an All American. This my friends, is the cadillac of pressure cookers. Am I jealous, no, since Mom said she will write it in the will that it goes to me. Neeneer Steff and Wendi! See what happens when you live close to your mother :)
So here are the canners doing their job. You bring them up to temperature until steam comes out of the regulator for 7 minutes then put the doohicky (yes that is the technical terms) on the top then adjust the temperature to get the right pressure.
The pork takes 90 minutes at 15 pounds of pressure.
Chicken takes 90 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure. Unless you own an All American pressure canner. Then the chicken will actually walk into your kitchen, jump into the jars, climb into the warm water bath and cook themselves. This is while you are getting a manicure and pedicure. See what an investment this is?
Oh, here is the label on the All American. It is such a coveted item (think hood ornaments on the cadillac). I guess that is why my sister in law tried to pick it off and steal it. Even though you can read on the bottom where it says "please don't remove".
When the 90 minutes are up, turn burners off and let it go back down to 0 pounds of pressure. Then have your mom remove the lid of the hot, steaming, dangerous pan while you tell her you need to document this for her posterity. Otherwise if she figures out you are making her do the dangerous work, she might will the All American to one of your sisters... which would be very sad.
Ohhh aren't they pretty?
The pork is on the left, chicken on the right.
I guess I should mention that the pork had a lovely sauce poured over it before we put the lids on and cooked them. It is as follows....
Canned Pork Cafe Rio Style
2 8 oz. cans Pato (in the Mexican aisle)
3 8 oz. cans of tomato sauce
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup of water
Cut pork into chucnks and put in jars loosely. Pour sauce over the top (remember, don't go about first line where rim starts or it will be to full). Use a knife to ease sauce down between pork chunks. Add more sauce if needed. Wipe jar rims with a damp washrag. Put on lids and rings then do your thing baby.
We opened one of our jars of pork just to see if we liked it. We had a little bit of sauce left over and poured a little on top of our shredded pork. Highly recommend this recipe!
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