16+ Turkey Canning Recipes

Turkey canning recipes can be a lifesaver in November, when you have leftover turkey (but no refrigerator space), or when you find a deal on raw turkey in bulk the day after Thanksgiving.  Turkey canning recipes work with both cooked and raw turkey, so they are fine for leftovers after a meal and for a bird bought on purpose.

There’s no freezer burn on a canned jar, and it’s ready to heat and eat right off the pantry shelf. That’s mostly why I’d rather can the leftovers than freeze them.

Leftovers after the holidays, or a bird found on sale at the store, both come out the same way. You will know how to preserve it, even with no freezer space left.

Is Turkey Safe for Canning?

Every year I get emails from readers looking for turkey canning recipes. They all want to know the same thing: can you pressure can leftover turkey that is already cooked?  The answer is yes, you can!  Now I’ve collected every turkey canning recipe I can find in one big list to save you time.

It’s perfectly fine to pressure can turkey, and it can be either raw or cooked.  Grocery store bird, home-raised, or wild turkey hunted in season, they can all be canned the same.  

You can even process turkey bone-in, or boneless.  Both are fine, believe it or not.

Turkey can be used in any chicken canning recipe, even though it is technically a different meat.  All types of poultry can be used interchangeably, so you can also use duck, goose, or quail in chicken canning recipes as well.

It’s still a different animal, though, and there are recipes where turkey works especially well. Most of the time you’re working with leftovers after a holiday meal. With chicken, you’re usually starting from boneless, skinless pieces, bought prepped and raw. Turkey is also easy to find as ground meat year-round, and ground chicken isn’t.

Both of these facts mean that turkey canning recipes are sometimes a bit different, so this list collects the ones that work well specifically with turkey.  Feel free, of course, to use turkey in place of chicken in any canning recipe though, knowing that it’s a safe and allowable substitution.

Instructions for Canning Turkey

Turkey is safe for pressure canning, but not for water bath canning.  Pressure canning uses temperatures above 240 degrees F, and is reserved for meats and low-acid vegetables like green beans and potatoes.  You will need a pressure canner for canning turkey, and should not attempt to can turkey in a simple water bath.

Water bath canning only works for high-acid fruits, jams, jellies, and pickles.

New to pressure canning? Read my beginner’s guide to pressure canning before you get started.

Turkey Canning Times and Pressures

With pressure canning, the canning time doesn’t change with elevation, only the canning pressure.  Always refer to your own tested recipe to be sure, but in most cases, turkey canning recipes are processed for:

• 75 minutes for pint jars
• 90 minutes for quart jars

There are a couple of exceptions. A soup with both turkey and seafood in it takes longer, and a plain turkey broth takes less. Nearly everything else on this page uses those times.

For a brothy soup with turkey in it, where less than half the jar is solids, the time drops. That’s 60 minutes for pints and 75 minutes for quarts. That only holds if there’s no seafood or shellfish in the recipe.  You can read more about that in my article on soup canning recipes.

With broth and stock, with all the solids filtered out, the canning times are 20 minutes for pints and 25 minutes for quarts.

Altitude adjustments for turkey canning recipes are as follows:

For dial gauge pressure canners:

• 0 to 2,000 feet in elevation – 11 lbs pressure
• 2,001 to 4,000 feet in elevation – 12 lbs pressure
• 4,001 to 6,000 feet in elevation – 13 lbs pressure
• 6,001 to 8,000 feet in elevation – 14 lbs pressure

For weighted gauge pressure canners:

• 0 to 1,000 feet in elevation – 10 lbs pressure
• Above 1,000 feet – 15 lbs pressure

Do You Have to Cook Turkey Before Canning It?

You don’t have to cook turkey before canning it, but you can if you want to. 

All turkey canning recipes work exactly the same with raw turkey or cooked turkey. It does not matter which you start from.

Some recipes tell you to cook the bird halfway before picking it off the bone. That isn’t a safety step. You can de-bone a turkey raw if you want to. It’s just much easier to pick the meat off a cooked or partly cooked bird by hand. That’s the whole reason for the instruction.

With raw meat, you can pack the raw turkey with no added liquid. It releases its own in the jar as it cooks. That’s fine for safety, but not for quality. Turkey is lean, and it almost always comes out dry that way. Save the dry pack for something fatty like pork shoulder, and even there I’d add liquid.

With cooked meat, you always add broth or water to fill the jars, since it will not release any liquid of its own.

Raw or cooked, I think it is always better to pack turkey in a turkey or chicken broth with a bit of salt. The results are just better that way.

Bone-in or Boneless Turkey Canning

Believe it or not, you are allowed to can meat as a “bone-in” recipe, and that comes in handy with hard-to-bone chicken wings and beef short ribs. Turkey tends to have very large bones that won’t fit into canning jars.  If you do leave the meat bone-in, you’ll need to ensure that the bones fit into the jar, leaving at least 1-inch headspace.  And, of course, be careful when you serve the dish because it does contain bones.

Personally, I always can turkey boneless, but bone-in is a safe, tested option if you choose.

Turkey Canning Recipes

Turkey is handy in canning recipes, raw or cooked. I use it in just about everything, from soups and stews to curries and pot pie fillings.

It also works well as taco meat, or seasoned with savory green herbs like sage, thyme, and rosemary.

There’s really no way to go wrong with turkey.

Canning Plain Turkey

Plain turkey can be canned in water or broth, and either cooked or raw.

Again, as I’ve discussed, you can leave it bone in as well, but I think it works especially well boneless.

Keep in mind, ground poultry is not approved for canning except in recipes specifically designed for chicken or turkey. There are plenty of ground beef canning recipes, and you cannot substitute turkey or chicken.

• Canning Leftover Turkey

Turkey Soup Canning Recipes

Turkey soup is an easy way to use up leftover turkey, especially since you can use the carcass to make a hearty turkey stock too.

There are quite a few turkey soup canning recipes online at this point, so you can take your pick.

• Mexican Turkey Soup
• Turkey and Vegetable Soup
• Turkey Soup with Carrot, Celery and Onion
• Chicken Soup, Made with Turkey
• Build Your Own Turkey Soup, the USDA Formula

The rest are spicier. That’s what I want by the third day of plain turkey soup. The pozole verde is written for pork shoulder, and turkey goes in pound for pound.

• Turkey Tortilla Soup
• Pozole Verde for Pressure Canning

Turkey Chili Canning Recipes

It’s not really a surprise that there aren’t many (or any, actually) turkey chili canning recipes on the internet.  There are actually only a few chicken chili canning recipes.

You can use turkey in place of chicken in chicken chili canning recipes, so those are the options below.

• Chicken Chili Verde
• White Chicken Chili

Turkey Pot Pie Filling Canning Recipes

Again, sadly there are not any specific turkey pot pie canning recipes online (yet at least, I hope to get one posted shortly).  

My chicken pot pie filling recipe works well with turkey, though. Swap in the same weight of cubed turkey and change nothing else.

• Chicken Pot Pie Filling

Turkey Meal in a Jar Canning Recipes

Since there are a few specific turkey meal-in-a-jar canning recipes available, I’ve included all I can find. My chicken canning recipes list has easily a dozen meal-in-a-jar recipes where you could substitute turkey.

I hope to add a home-canned turkey tetrazzini recipe shortly, which you’d serve over pasta.  That’s a classic leftover turkey dish, and so common that Mountain House used to have a freeze-dried version.  Soon, I’ll have the canned recipe up for y’all.

• Turkey and Gravy Meal in a Jar
• Turkey Goulash

My own canned chicken meals all take turkey too. Cube it and swap it in by weight.

• Chicken and Gravy Meal in a Jar
• Chicken Taco Meat
• Chicken Marsala
• Chicken and Mushrooms in Garlic Sauce

Curry is what I make when we’re tired of turkey plain. The vindaloo is the hottest of these four, and the korma is the mildest.

• Chicken Korma
• Chicken Curry
• Thai Red Curry
• Vindaloo Curry

Turkey Broth Canning Recipes

A turkey carcass works in place of chicken in any broth recipe, and I still like having one written for turkey. Add a little sage, and some extra celery and carrots. It’s satisfying to turn the bones into the base for meals all winter.

You need turkey broth on Thanksgiving, and you don’t have the carcass until the day after. Canning it this year solves next year.

• Canning Turkey Broth

Turkey Canning FAQs

Turkey questions turn up in my comments the same week every year, right after Thanksgiving, and they’re almost always about leftovers.

Here are the ones that come up most. If yours isn’t here, leave it below and I’ll answer you there.

Meat Canning Recipe Lists

Turkey shares a shelf and a pressure canner with the rest of my meat. Most of these recipes cross over in both directions. Chicken especially, since turkey substitutes for it pound for pound.

Putting up a whole winter’s worth of protein rather than working through one bird? These are the lists to work from next.

40+ Chicken Canning Recipes (Soup, Chili & Meal in a Jar Recipes)

30+ Beef Canning Recipes (Stew, Chili and Meal in a Jar Recipes)

20+ Pork Canning Recipes (Soup, Chili and Meal in a Jar Recipes)