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Canning White Chicken Chili

Author: Ashley Adamant

Ingredients

  • 1 lb 450 g great northern beans, pre-soaked overnight
  • 12 cups 2.8 L chicken broth
  • 2 lb 900 g chicken breast, cooked and shredded
  • 4 cups 650 g onions, diced
  • 4 cups 600 g corn kernels
  • 1 1/2 cups 220 g peppers, diced (see note)
  • 4 cloves of garlic minced
  • 2 tsp 12 g canning salt
  • 1 tsp black pepper ground
  • 1 Tbsp 6 g cumin, ground
  • 1 Tbsp Mexican oregano
  • 1 tsp cayenne powder optional

Instructions

  •  Prepare pressure canner, jars, and lids. If using quarts, you’ll need 7 (1L) or 14 pint jars (500 ml). Add a few inches (about 8 cm) of water to your canner, following the manufacturer’s recommendations, and place it over a low-heat burner with the jars inside, keeping them hot for this hot-pack process. The water should register 180 degrees F (82 degrees C)
  •  Drain soaking water from the beans and add them to a large stockpot. Completely cover with fresh water and bring the pot to a boil. Once they boil, remove the pot from the heat and drain.
  • Add the beans to the stock pot with chicken, broth, peppers, corn, onions, garlic, and all the spices. This time, bring the pot to boiling over a high setting to start and reduce to a gentle boil. Continue at a gentle boil for five minutes longer. (NOTE: The beans and veggies won’t be completely cooked after this five-minute period, but don’t worry. The pressure canning process will finish them.)
  • After the 5-minute boil time, remove the stockpot from the burner and carefully transfer the chili into the jars you’ve prepared and held in reserve. Make sure you add the same amount of solids into each jar and leave one inch or 2.5 cm of headspace for each jar, whether quart or pint. (NOTE: If your last jar is short on liquid, top it off with hot broth or boiling water.)
  • Wipe each jar rim with a dampened cloth, situate lids in place, and tighten bands to finger-tight. Bands that are screwed on too tightly can cause lids to buckle. Then place the jars into your pressure canner.
  • Process the filled jars: For pint jars, process for 75 minutes at 10 psi. For quart jars, process for 90 minutes at 10 psi. Adjust this schedule for your specific altitude if necessary.
  • Once processing is complete, let the canner naturally depressurize before removing the jars to the counter for cooling. Allow them to cool for 12 hours or more, check the seals, and then they’ll be ready for storage. 
  • To serve, boil chili in a pot over a medium burner for at least 10 minutes. Additions such as cream cheese or cream can be used to thicken the chili. Add them and stir until the cheese fully melts. Cilantro, chives, or green onions make a fresh, tasty garnish, and the dish is complemented best by tortillas, tortilla chips, or a nice Mexican cornbread.

Notes

Ingredient Notes

Most pressure canning recipes cannot be changed much without altering canning safety, but here are some of the allowed substitutions.

Chicken

The meat used in this recipe is precooked shreaded chicken. You can use any part of the chicken (breast, thigh, etc) provided it's pre-cooked and shreaded. Other poulty also works, including turkey, duck or goose.
You can also substitute pulled pork in place of the chicken for a pork chili.

Corn

Fresh, frozen or canned corn will work in this recipe.  If using frozen corn, you may add it to the pot frozen or thawed, but be sure to bring the pot to a boil and simmer for 5 minutes before filling jars as the recipe instructs.  If using canned corn, do not drain.  If using fresh corn, you’ll need 6 to 7 ears of corn.

Onions

It takes about 1 ½ lbs of fresh, unprepared onions as purchased to get 4 cups diced.

Peppers

You may use green bell peppers for mild results or hatch or jalapeno peppers for a bit more spice.  Any other type of pepper (hot or sweet) can also be substituted, or you can omit the peppers altogether if that’s your preference.

Spices

You're allowed to change the quantity, prepositions and types of dry spices in canning recipes without impacting canning safety.  That means you can season this chicken chili however you'd like, provided you're using dry spices. 
The original recipes both use Mexican oregano, cumin seeds (ground) and cayenne.  I've kept those, but increased the amounts for a more flavorful chili.

Broth

You can use any type of broth (chicken, beef, pork or veggie) and you can also substitute plain water, or use a combination of broth and water.

Altitude Adjustments

Canning time remains the same regardless of altitude, however, the processing pressure increases as altitude increase.  Use the following table to determine the correct processing pressure if you’re above 1,000 feet in elevation.

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