Canning Canning gaffe

[kyrsyan]

For the first time ever, I screwed up and forgot water in the canner. I caught it, hopefully in time. No jars damaged from what I can see but I can't do anything else right now. I have to wait until everything completely cools. But ut looks like the chicken in the jars is cooked.
So start over tomorrow or pull the meat and put it the freezer?

 

[Parakeet]

I would wait until it's cool enough to handle then pull the meat off the bones and shred it. Store it in the fridge overnight with any juices that accumulated in the jars and process it from scratch as cooked chicken tomorrow. If you leave it whole on the bone, there's really no way to know if it's cooked all the way through and leaving partially cooked chicken overnight (even in the fridge) could be a salmonella risk.

 

[kyrsyan]

No bone. Found a good sale on blsl breasts and thighs.
It will either get processed or frozen. If frozen it will be cooked well before it's consumed. I don't take risks. We've had salmonella once before because a cooking thermometer was badly off. I have absolutely no wish to do that again.
I'm more worried about ending up overcooking the meat if I process it. I did that once, a long time ago, and the meat was awful. Even the animals wouldn't touch it.

 

[Parakeet]

I would probably go ahead and can it up then. Mostly because the space in my freezer is always at a premium and it's just easier having it canned and on the shelf. I've always pressure canned chicken that's completely cooked due to the fact that I'm usually processing old, tough laying hens. So far, I haven't had any problem with it coming out overcooked. I pack it in pint size jars which process for 75 minutes instead of the 90 minutes for quarts and I always add plenty of broth which, probably, helps prevent any toughening or drying out.

 

[Kathy in FL]

If it didn't seal then I would just re-can it. I frequently have to re-process and I haven't had any problems. The trick is what are you doing with it until you can get it reprocess and whether or not the meat in the jars is burnt. I can baked meats frequently … like pulled pork, meat that is in soups, etc. Sure I love the ease of rawpack but sometimes you just can't because the meat has to go into something else. Just change your processing time from rawpack to cooked and see if you need to add any liquid. Or like I said, use the cooked meat in a soup or stew and then reprocess.

 

[kyrsyan]

I decided to reprocess. I lost a freezer over spring and freezer space is at a premium. Out an abundance of caution, because meat is not cheap even when on a good sale, I moved the meat to new jars and replaced the lids. I also topped back of the fluid levels in a couple. The meat is definitely cooked.
But none of my books have a decreased canning times for cooked cooked chicken, so 75 minutes it is.
Keeping fingers crossed.

 

[20Gauge]

I would probably go ahead and can it up then. Mostly because the space in my freezer is always at a premium and it's just easier having it canned and on the shelf. I've always pressure canned chicken that's completely cooked due to the fact that I'm usually processing old, tough laying hens. So far, I haven't had any problem with it coming out overcooked. I pack it in pint size jars which process for 75 minutes instead of the 90 minutes for quarts and I always add plenty of broth which, probably, helps prevent any toughening or drying out.

We are going to can some chicken in about 2 weeks, (our vacation time), and I appreciate the reminder to use pints. I generally use qts, but this is a good idea! I can do 14 pints and won't have to worry about having left over from the jar!