i can u can: chicken stock

I made myself an amazing, delicious dinner for Valentine's Day last month. I buttered and rosemary-ed a whole chicken, baked it until it was golden brown...



And then stripped it down to the bone, throwing all the non-meat parts into a large pot. I tossed in some veggies, more rosemary (I love the stuff), and topped if off with water. Lots of water. I cooked it, boiled it, simmered it until my whole house smelled heavenly.

It grew on me. Before I knew it I had more chicken stock than I knew what to do with. And oh my did it smell yummy!



My freezer is too small and was already full of soup and King crab from my generous neighbor... so I decided I needed to can the chicken stock.

Thankfully my parents have a pressure canner plus a bunch of glass jars, unused lids, and rings. I didn't have to buy anything! Best deal ever.



I've never used a pressure canner before. I was a bit nervous. I was afraid of spoiled stock, broken jars, non-sealing lids, steam burns... I'm a worrier. I gained some confidence after a thorough Googling session and decided to jump in and get it done.



So I did. And I didn't get hurt or break anything. I ended up with 12 pints of canned chicken stock, plus a quart left over that I used for chicken and brown rice soup the next day. Success!



Now I have my own, homemade chicken stock from a chicken I baked (I've made it before from one of the rotisserie chickens from Costco), and I conquered my fear of pressure canning. (Mostly.) The great thing about doing it this way is that I could control the flavors and the salt content... the chicken I purchased was hormone-free and salt-free, making it very different from the stock I made with the Costco rotisserie chicken. Plus, it's much cheaper than store-bought stock. Love it.



Now I just need to figure out how/where I'm going to store my preserved and canned goods... you know this is only the beginning!

I had intended to tell you about my chicken stock making adventure when I wrote my make it, bake it post... but then it turned into something else so I decided to save it until now. When the writing flows in a somewhat unintentional (since I really wanted to tell you about my "new" lifestyle anyway), who am I to redirect it?