Homemade Cream of Chicken Soup to Can

• Meat

  • 1 Chicken, large Whole

• Produce

  • 2 Bay leaves, dried
  • 4 Carrots, large
  • 4 stalk(s Celery
  • 6 clove Garlic pealed mashed with flat knife
  • 1 Onions, large
  • 4 sprig(s Thyme, dried

• Canned Goods

  • 2 qt Chicken stock
  • 14 qt Water plus extra water when stock cooks down, filtered

• Baking & Spices

  • 8 Peppercorns

• Tools & Equipment

  • 1/2 tsp Canning salt per pint jar

• Other

  • 3/4 c clear-jel "cook kind"

Found on justapinch.com

Description

Ingredients

• 1 large whole chicken (less if you are just doing one batch of soup)
• 2 qt chicken stock,homemade low/no salt (can use store bought)
• 3/4 c clear-jel "cook kind"
• 1/2 tsp canning salt per pint jar, i do not use salt, if using put it in the jar
• 14 qt filtered water plus extra water when stock cooks down
• 4 stalk(s) celery cut into 4 inch pieces
• 1 or 2 large onions quartered
• 4 or 5 large carrots cut into 4 inch pieces
• 1 large chicken washed and cleaned out giblet packet if it contains one.
• 6 -8 clove garlic pealed mashed with flat knife
• 8 -10 peppercorns, whole black (leave whole and strain)
• 2 bay leaves, dried
• 4 sprig(s) thyme, dried
• or any of your favorite chicken spices

Directions

• 1The day before you are going to can your soup you need to make your stock. Wash and check your chicken to make sure there is no giblet package inside chicken.Spray a large cookie sheet with Pam or another cooking spray. Cut chicken in half and lay it on the cookie sheet. 2Wash all veggies with a vinegar spray and brush, cut carrots in half length wise and cut into 4 inch pieces. Do the same with celery. Cut onion into quarters and clean garlic can crush to release juices.Put the prepared veggies on the cookie sheet with the chicken and put into over and bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. 3Put filtered water and spices in large stock pot or I use my electric 18 quart turkey roaster. Get the water and spices heating and when chicken and veggies are roasted put them and their juices in the roaster/pot and cook for about an hour. Remove chicken with slotted utensil and remove meat from bones. Save bones and add back to stock pot. You can even add extra bones that you have saved, chicken pieces like necks backs what ever you want/but if I was adding more bones and chicken parts I would put them on the cookie sheet with the whole chicken to roast. Be sure to keep adding filtered water as the stock cooks down so it does not scorch. 4Cool Chicken you have removed and put in a bag or Tupperware container and put into refrigerator for later in the recipe. Cook the rest of the stock for 12 to 24 hours for dark rich stock on medium in roaster or as long as you want on stove in stock pot. After stock has cooked as long as you want remove and cool slightly and strain through a fine strainer with cheese cloth to make sure you get all the fine bones that might be left behind. Then put stock back into stock pot or large container, cool in sink in ice bath and put into refrigerator to cool to the next day. Next day remove stock from fridge and skim off all the fat you can. 5Decide how much Cream of chicken soup batches you want to make and heat and measure your stock first. For my Soup I made 7 X the recipe and I got 31 pints and 2-1/2 pints you might not want that much soup you could freeze or can your stock that would be left over. Remove chicken from refrigerator and cut into small cubes like you would find in commercial soup.I didnt chop my chicken and you can see in my jars the chicken is kinda stringy like pulled chicken. 6To can soup Measure chicken stock in large stock pot. Heat to a boil reduce to a med heat. Be sure to save enough cold stock to mix with Clear-Jel about a cup and a half of cold stock for 3/4 cups of Clear-jel. Mix the cold stock and clear-jel to make a slurry add slurry to stock in pot, stir about a minute, add cubed chicken, stir. Being careful that soup does not scorch you can turn to low. 7Prepare your jars, lids and rings as you usually do. Ladle hot soup into hot sterilized jars, remove bubbles, wipe jar rims with damp rag or paper towel dampened with white vinegar. Place hot lids on and tighten rings finger tip tight. Place hot jars of soup into hot PRESSURE CANNER with the proper amount of hot water and a splash or two of vinegar. Put lid on canner and vent canner for a full 10 minutes after it has a steady stream of steam coming out the steam hole. Then put on the weight and process for 75 minutes at 10 pounds of pressure of adjust for your altitude. When processing time is over (DO NOT UNDER PROCESS) and canner gauge has dropped to zero can take 30 minutes or more for this to happen, you may safely remove the weight/giggler With a long tongs so you dont get steam burned, the giggler will still be very hot, let canner set for 10 more minutes before removing lid. Remove lid directing it away from you and then let canner set 10 more minutes before removing jars.Hopefully using this process you will not loose liquids from inside your jars. 8Place a sauce pan under jars as you remove them from canner the jar can break when it hits the air and you could get burned this happened to us once. Place jars of soup on a towel out of a draft at least 2 inches apart until the next day. If all your jars are sealed you should remove the rings wash jars in a mild cool soapy water and rinse and dry, label and store in a cool dark place 9Clear-Jel may be found on line at sbcanning.com, Amazon and at most Amish stores and at some bakery supply stores. Be sure you purchase COOK clear-jel for this recipe. Clear-Jel is the only approved thickener for canning by the USDA, do not use this recipe with corn starch or flour. It will definitely not work.