Canning Chicken Broth | Chicken Stock
Canning Chicken Broth is the perfect way to stock your pantry with this all-important staple. Of course, it’s the ultimate winter canning project too.
How many recipes do you make monthly that call for chicken stock? I’d venture to say a boatload. So whether you’re making chicken soup or adding it to flavor your rice or potatoes, chicken stock is an essential ingredient in your pantry.
Why can your own?
- Cost savings: Boxed chicken stock can be costly. Making your own only takes a few minutes of hands-on time.
- Control your ingredients: Most commercially prepared stocks and broths contain lots of sodium and preservatives. When you make your own, you control the ingredients, so you can make it much healthier for your family.
- Customizable flavor: Add spices to your broth to use it for different purposes. Think adding cumin, coriander, or chili powder for Mexican-flavored dishes or basil, oregano, and parsley for Italian recipes.
- Versatile: If you are running short on time, you can freeze your whole chicken carcasses until you have enough to make a big batch of stock. When time allows, thaw the carcasses in the fridge, add spices and can it.
- Long shelf life: Canned chicken broth has a long shelf life. This means you can stock up and add it recipes all year long.
- Convenient: Having canned chicken stock on hand means you can quickly and easily make a delicious and satisfying meal at any time. Simply open a jar, add it to your favorite dishes, and serve.
- Sustainability: The last consideration is that you are using the chicken carcass, which would generally be tossed in the garbage, to get the most bang for your buck.
New to canning? Start with our comprehensive article on “How to Can Everything“. It will walk you through all of the dos and don’ts related to canning.
What you need
- Chicken: Use chicken carcasses or poach frying chickens and save the meat for other recipes, like chicken stuffed tomato bites or chicken tacos.
- Aromatics: onion, carrot, garlic, celery.
- Herbs: Use fresh herbs, if available, such as parsley, thyme, rosemary, sage, bay leaf, etc.
- Salt: You can use any salt, like kosher salt, sea salt or pink Himalayan salt.
- Pepper: Freshly ground black pepper is always best.
How to make the broth
Add carcasses (or use a whole chicken) to a large stock pot.
Toss in the vegetables, roughly chopped.
Add the herbs and spices. Barely cover the carcasses with water. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for one hour.
You can simmer all day if you’d like. This will make a more concentrated stock, but it only needs to simmer for an hour.
How to can it
Prepare jars and lids. Prepare the pressure canner according to the manufacturer’s instructions.
Heat broth. Strain the broth to remove the aromatics, bones and herbs.
Ladle hot broth into warmed canning jars using a canning funnel, leaving a 1-inch headspace.
Remove bubbles if needed. Wipe the rims with a damp, clean kitchen towel or paper towel.
Center warm lids on jars.
Screw on the bands fingertip tight.
Add the jars to the canning pot. Secure the lid. Turn on the heat. Once the water boils, the pot will start to steam. Let it vent for a full ten minutes.
After 10 minutes, add the weighted gauge or dial gauge. Finally, bring the pressure canner up to the specified pressure for your altitude. (See the recipe below for details.)
Start timing when it reaches the pressure. Be careful to adjust the temperature of your burner to maintain the target pressure or slightly over. If the pressure goes below the desired PSI (pounds per square inch), you must restart the timing.
After processing time is complete, allow pressure to release. Carefully unlock the lid. Remove the jars from the pressure canner. Let the jars cool undisturbed for 12-24 hours on the counter. Check lids for seal. Press down in the center of the lid; if it flexes up or down, the jar is not sealed and should be stored in the fridge. Use these jars first.
Pro Tips
- Do not water bath can chicken broth! According to the National Center for Home Food Preservation, low-acid foods, like this broth, require pressure canning to make them shelf stable.
- If you don’t have a pressure canner, add the stock to a freezer bag or another freezing container and freeze it. Frozen stock will last about six months. Always thaw it in the refrigerator before using, or place the frozen stock directly into a stockpot and heat it on the stove.
- Use this recipe to make bone broth from beef bones, turkey, pork, venison, or chicken.
- We prefer using pint jars. Two cups of broth is perfect for most recipes, but you can use quart jars if you’d like.
- You can also make the bone broth with your instant pot or slow cooker.
The National Center for Home Food Preservation and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture. All of the recipes on this site are based on one or both of these trusted sources. We just do a more thorough job showing you how to do it, step-by-step.
Helpful Tools
More Pressure Canning Recipes
Canning homemade chicken broth is an easy project that will save you money and is so much more flavorful than store-bought.
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I hope you enjoyed the recipe today.
Enjoy. And have fun cooking!
Canning Chicken Broth
Ingredients
- 2-3 chicken carcasses
- 2 medium onions quartered
- 4 large cloves garlic crushed
- 2 stalk celery
- fresh parsley
- minced fresh rosemary
- fresh thyme
- bay leaves
- water
Instructions
For broth
- Place carcasses in 6 quart crockpot or large Dutch oven.2-3 chicken carcasses
- Add onion, garlic, rough chopped celery, and any herbs that you would like.2 medium onions, 4 large cloves garlic, 2 stalk celery, fresh parsley, minced fresh rosemary, bay leaves, fresh thyme
- Cover with water.water
- Slow cook on low for 8-10 hours or overnight. Or bring Dutch oven or stockpot to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer.
- Beef, pork and venison should cook for at least 4-5 hours on the stove. Poultry can be cooked for only 1 hour on the stove.
- Allow to cool. Skim off fat, if desired.
- Separate any good meat for soups and stews.
How to can the broth
- Reheat broth.
- Prepare pressure canner according to manufacturer's instructions.
- Add water to pot. Begin heating.
- Prepare jars, lids and bands.
- Add meat to jar, if you would like to can a meaty broth. Eliminate for clear broths.
- Fill jars with hot stock, leaving 1"-headspace. Apply lids with a jar lifter. Screw on bands fingertip tight.
- Place jars on the bottom insert. (never place jars directly on the bottom of the pan.)
- Fill canner and close lid. Allow steam to vent for 10 minutes. Then add the pressure regulator. Bring the pressure up to 11 psi (for dial gauge canner, below 1000 feet above sea level) and maintain it there.
- See notes for elevation and canner type in notes below.
- Process pints for 20 minutes and quarts for 25 minutes. (below 1000 feet above sea level.)
- After allotted time, remove from heat. Allow the canning pot to release pressure naturally. (This can take up to an hour.)
- Release remaining pressure. Remove lid. Allow jars to sit in the pot for about 10 minutes.
- Remove from the canning pot. Set on a towel placed on the counter, undisturbed overnight.
- Check seals in the morning. (Lid does not flex up or down when pressed in the center)
- Store jars in a cool dark place for up to 18 months, if using the new 18 month lids.
See all of my favorite tools and gift ideas on my New Amazon Store!Check out Binky’s Amazon Store!Notes
Pressure settings for different altitudes
Dial gauge pressure canning pot 0-2000 feet above sea level 11 psi 2000-4000 feet 12 psi 4000-6000 feet 13 psi 6000-8000 feet 14 psi Weighted gauge pressure canning pot 1-1000 feet above sea level 10 psi above 1000 feet 15 psi Processing time pints 20 minutes quarts 25 minutesPro tips for your success
- For more refined sauces, strain the meaty broth.
- For chicken stock or turkey stock, use the entire carcass.
- Be sure to remove all the bones, especially from turkey or chicken stock.
- Although the stock can be cooked in as little as a couple of hours, the longer it cooks down, the more flavorful it will be.
- A stock that is cooked down for more extended periods of time is called a brown stock. For example, if you want a clear yellow broth for chicken or turkey, cook it for a short period of time.
Nutrition
Originally published February 15, 2023. Updated February 22, 2025.
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Question for you:
I tried canning the broth and even though it was strained; there was a layer of fat on the top of the jar that didn’t look correct. The broth smelled fine when it was open and since it was used in a soup, we still used it. However, it makes me leery to try to can it going forward. Is this normal?
A bit of fat will not hurt anything, you can skim it off of the top before using it, if you’d like. In the future, let the broth cool before canning it. Then scrape off the fat, then reheat it to boiling and add it to the jars and proceed with canning.