Chicken Stock, Canned

Ingredients

5 pounds chicken bones and/or carcasses
2 stalks celery cut into 3 pieces each
2 carrots cut into 3 pieces each
2 onions quartered
3 cloves garlic, crushed
10 peppercorns
1 teaspoons dried parsley (or 2-3 sprigs of fresh parsley)
1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary (or 1-2 sprigs of fresh rosemary)
2 Bay leaves
5 quarts water

Directions

To make the chicken stock:
Preheat the oven to 425˚F. Place the chicken bones into a large roasting pan. Scatter the onions, carrots, celery, and garlic on top.
Roast the bones and vegetables uncovered in a preheated oven until the vegetables are slightly charred and the bones are brown, about 35-45 minutes. Stir about halfway through to help brown evenly.
Remove the roasting pan from the oven. Use tongs to transfer the bones and vegetables to a large stockpot.
Add 1 cup of water to the hot roasting pan to deglaze the pan. As the water steams, scrape the pan with a wooden spoon to release the flavor infused brown bits stuck on the bottom of the pan. Add the liquid to your pot.
To your stockpot, add bay leaves, herbs, peppercorns, and enough water to cover the bones by a couple of inches, about 5 quarts.
Turn the heat to medium-high and bring the pot to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for at least 4 hours and up to 24 hours. Stir occasionally and skim off any foam.
Remove the chicken bones and vegetables from the stock using tongs. Strain the stock through a fine-mesh sieve into a large heatproof container. Discard the solids. Let the chicken stock cool and refrigerate overnight.
Once the stock cools in the refrigerator, the fat will rise to the top and can be skimmed off. You will can the chicken stock the following day.
To can chicken stock:
The next day, prepare the canning equipment by washing the jars, lids, bands, and canning tools in hot soapy water and rinsing thoroughly. Set the lids and bands aside until you are ready to use them.
Place the canning rack into the pressure canner, and fill with water per your pressure canner manufacturer’s instructions: my All American is 2 to 3 inches.
Fill the jars halfway with hot water, and then place them on the rack in the canner. Bring the canner to a simmer for 10 minutes (180˚F). Keep hot until you are ready to fill them.
Remove the chicken stock from the refrigerator and skim the solidified fat from the surface. Return the stock to a large saucepot and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
Spread a kitchen towel on the counter. Use your jar lifter to remove a jar from the canner. Pour out the water (save it for washing dishes), and place the jar on the towel. Keep the remaining jars in the canner, so they stay hot.
Use the canning funnel and ladle and fill the jar with hot stock, leaving a 1-inch headspace at the top of the jar.
Swirl the bubble popper through the jar and wipe the rim. Center a lid on the jar, place the band over the lid, and screw it on until fingertip tight.
Use the jar lifter to place the jar back on the rack in the canner, and repeat with the rest of the jars until the canner is filled, or you run out of stock. If you have leftovers, store in the refrigerator or freeze for longer.
Place the lid on the canner and lock it. Leave the vent open, adjust the heat to medium-high, and bring the canner to a boil. Allow the pressure canner to vent steam for 10 minutes, then place the pressure regulator on top of the air vent, and watch the pressure rise.
Once the canner has reached the correct pressure (10 pounds for weighted gauge, and 11 pounds for dial gauge canners.), set a timer, and process pint jars for 20 minutes and quart jars for 25 minutes at altitudes of less than 1,000 ft.
When processing time is complete, turn off the heat, and let the pressure canner cool down to 0 pressure on its own.
Once the canner is depressurized, let the canner cool additional 10 minutes before removing the lid.
When the canner has cooled down, spread a kitchen towel on the counter, unlock the cover, and remove it by tilting the lid away from you so that steam does not burn your face.
Allow another 10 minutes for the jars to adjust to the change in pressure. If jars are still boiling, let them sit in the canner for another 5 minutes, or until the boiling stops.
Use the jar lifter to lift jars carefully from canner and place on the towel. Keep the jars upright, and don’t tighten bands or check the seals yet. Let the jars sit undisturbed for 12 to 24-hours to cool.
After 12 to 24-hours, check to be sure jar lids have sealed by pushing on the center. The lid should not pop up. If the lid flexes up and down when the center is pressed, it did not seal. Refrigerate the jar and use up within a few days, or transfer to a freezer container and freeze for up to 6 months.
Remove the ring bands, wash, label, date the jars, and store the jars in a cool, dark location (50 to 70 degrees F). Use within a year for the best quality. Yields about 8 pints or 4 quarts.

Notes

Chicken stock flavoring options:

The USDA and So Easy to Preserve give directions for plain, pure chicken stock, unfiltered.

Ball and Bernardin add flavoring options. The Bernardin Guide (2013, page 99) and the Ball / Bernardin Complete (2015, page 399) suggest you add 2 stalks celery, 2 onions cut into quarters, and 10 peppercorns. The Ball Blue Book (37th edition, 2014, page 105) suggest those items plus 2 carrots. All 3 of those books have you remove and discard those items along with the bones before canning the broth. They also add the suggestion that you strain the broth through a cheesecloth-lined sieve before canning to remove any particles from it. Their canning and processing times are identical otherwise.

Note: you may see some people saying they simmer, boil or pressure cook chicken bones for stock for 5 or 6 hours. Should you choose to boil, notice that the USDA suggests that 45 minutes is completely adequate. And if pressure cooking, 30 minutes will yield the maximum result you are going to get. Any time beyond that is really just increasing your cooking fuel bill with zero benefit to show for it.

Laura Pazzaglia, author of Hip Pressure Cooking, says that for pressure cooking (note, not pressure canning), HIGH PRESSURE equals 13 to 15 lbs, or 90 to 100 kilopascals, or .9 to 1 bar. [1] The pressure cooking time of 30 minutes for poultry stock also comes from the same excellent book, page 48. Note: if you are using an electric pressure cooker to make the stock in, such as an Instant Pot, she advises increasing the time to 33 to 35 minutes. (Don’t take our word: check with her over at hippressurecooking.com.)

Above all, please do keep clear the difference between pressure cooking the stock to save energy and produce a superior stock, and then pressure canning it later to preserve it.

Roasting the chicken bones can result in a wonderful deep rich flavor but also results in a quite dark stock, usually (photos show on this page show stock from unroasted bones.)

Safety tip: After you have a plate of meat you have picked off a chicken carcass, always take a minute to feel carefully through that meat with your fingers, pressing it all, feeling for small bones.

Pressure cooking uses less energy and extracts more flavor and gelatin from the bones, resulting in a better quality stock to can.

A bay leaf or two while you are boiling or pressure cooking the bones will elevate your stock.

You could add a bit of salt or salt sub per jar, but it could be argued that it’s just better to can it as is, then do flavor adjustments when you go to use it in something.

The USDA Complete and So Easy to Preserve do allow that you can add tidbits of chicken meat to the stock. As there is no definition of what quantity of meat that exactly allows, and we’d never be able to answer that question for ourselves let alone others, we have left that out of the directions. But that certainly is there as part of it. Ball and Bernardin don’t have that: as noted above, they have you strain the stock to get anything out.