Canning Chicken

A local grocery store is offering fresh chicken leg quarters, 10# for $4.95. I really was hoping this year I could raise some chickens, but it's not going to happen, so I went and bought 60# of these leg quarters and canned them today. I ended up with 25 quarts of bone-in meat and what I think will be 18 pints of chicken stock. I've never canned meat before. A friend has told me how easy it is, and she is right. It was much easier than canning fruits and vegetables. This should be enough to last for a year for us. I did not try to make a tutorial for you. I didn't have a camera man available, and just didn't think I wanted to juggle the camera while I was dealing with greasy raw meat. So, I will give you the link where I learned how to do it. I'd also like to tell you how I cut up the meat. If you look at a chicken "leg quarter," on the underside, you will notice that on the edge of the thigh is part of the back of the chicken. Attached to that is a portion of the scapula, or shoulder blade. Run a sharp knife under that and cut close to the spine portion. Then, grasp that scapula and bend it away from the meat. Doing this will remove the bone of the thigh from the back and you can easily cut the back meat and bone off. I set these aside for making the stock. I also used kitchen shears to cut off any large pieces of fat, and put that with the stock as well. Next, on the skin side of the quarter, find where the leg and thigh bones meet and cut between them and through the whole piece. I found that I could fit about 6 legs or 5 thighs in a wide-mouth quart jar.

http://www.simplycanning.com/canning-chicken.html