Meals in a Jar Ideas??

[Old Fashioned]

I know some of you have canned meals in a jar to have on hand and IIRC, it's mostly stuff like chili, stew & soups, which are great things to have all ready to go........but I'm wondering about other stuff as well. My freezer is full and I still have those chickens to deal with and thinking of trying to can them as seasoned meals instead of plain.

I'm thinking of something like jars of hot wings (or other preseasoned option), maybe sweet & sour chicken, teriyaki, etc........it may not be a complete meal in a jar, but the meat would already be done & ready to go, just add whatever you want for sides.

I am open to other ideas as well.......as long as it's a 'dump & go'

[patriceinil]

I’ve done both complete dump and heat meals in jars as well as meats to dump and heat.

I’ve canned shredded beef Sloppy Joe’s

Shredded pork that was cooked in salsa for tacos or burritos

Beef roast pieces in beef broth to use in a multitude of ways

Chicken breast chunks, dark meat chunks, no broth added

Turkey breast chunks and dark meat chunks, no broth added

Italian sausages in casings no broth added

Breakfast sausage patties in water with the sausage drippings

Ground beef with tomato sauce added

Ground beef without any broth added

I say give it a shot, if it makes meal time quicker to prepare, then it’s worth the time to can the meats as you would use them for meals. You might want to go easy on any spices since some can intensify during the canning process.

In the case of the chickens, I think I would just raw pack them in jars and can them without any added seasonings. That way you have cooked chicken that you can then use a million different ways instead of having limited choices because they are pre-seasoned like hot/Buffalo or sweet and sour. Those sauces can be added when you heat the meat up and would probably be fresher tasting vs pressure canning the chicken in the sauces.

[HybridHomesteader]

I have a bunch of canning cookbooks. I’ll look through the recipes tomorrow. See if there is anything that sound good.

G

[Old Fashioned]

G.....yes please!!

Patrice........I have a bunch of canned meats to use as ingredients to meals, but very few that are pre-seasoned or prepped for a heat & eat. I do have some meatballs in marinara, some Swedish meatballs and some taco seasoned burger, and some chili of course......but was looking for more of those kinds of ideas.

My store had big packs of the thin sliced beef ribs (flanken style?) I was thinking of getting and canning with teriyaki.........just heat the ribs and serve over rice and veggies on the side, or something like that. Also considering how to pre prep the meat of those chickens for similar style. Though I'm unsure about canning the wings with bones. I did try canning drumsticks with bones once and it was kind of a pain to get them out of the jar but wings should be easier.

[Farmfresh]

Definitely the wings should work great in a jar. Especially if you clip at all the joints ... like they do when they serve you hot wings at a restaurant. I think bone in thighs also work well in a jar. The bone to meat ratio is better and the bone is typically not as long.

[patriceinil]

I would imagine it would be easier to get any meat with a bone in out of a jar if you use wide mouth jars instead of regular mouth jars.

I think canning the wing sections in a hot or buffalo sauce would work out okay. I think I would raw pack them with the skin on so that you could either broil them or use an air fryer to try and crisp the skin up when you heat them.

The chicken in teriyaki or sweet and sour sauce would probably be good too. You could just thicken the sauce when you heat it up. Just be careful about the spices since some get stronger or bitter after canning. Also don’t add too much sauce because of the chicken giving off its own juices during processing.

I would also raw pack the ribs in wide mouth jars with the sauce. The meat’s natural juices would thin the sauce so don’t add a bunch of sauce to the jars.

[patriceinil]

She put together hamburger helper clones of lasagna, cheeseburger macaroni and stroganoff

[Farmfresh]

It looks like you could make just the seasoning packets and add the burger and the noodles at the cooking time. This would save space and jars if you are doing it for home use.

[HybridHomesteader]

Heck, looks like I dropped the ball on this one.

I was watching Little Mountain Ranch and she did a bunch of baking mixes in jars, vacuum sealed. The only thing I ever do in a jar that’s dump and go is hamburger stew, veg soup.

I need more ideas also.

G

[patriceinil]

FF I was thinking the same thing, make up a bunch of packets of the seasonings and store them in a jar. You could use sandwich bags to hold the seasonings.

G, this lady does a bunch of meal in a jar things, go check her channel out.