40 LBS of Chicken!

All of the sudden I have had a very strong impression to get my food storage in order. I am not sure if it is the economy that has finally pushed me over the edge or if I am just finally listening to the Prophets council. 

I have been looking at a wonderful blog everythingunderthesunblog.blogspot.com and this website theideadoor.com. It really has inspired me, I realized food storage does not have to be as expensive and complicated as I am making it.  Then last week Lin's came out with a one day meat sale where boneless skinless chicken was on sale for $1.29 lbs. It was a total smoking deal, so I knew it was time to bottle chicken!

I borrowed a neighbors pressure canner (I wasn't quite ready to take the complete plunge, I thought I better do it once before going out and buying a $200 canner!) and planned on going to Lin's first thing the next morning to buy my chicken. Well, here is where my plan changed, Addie got croup (Satan working against my food storage plan) she was up all night with that awful seal like cough. I didn't end up making it to Lin's in time for the chicken, it was gone pretty quick. Then Gavin swooped in and saved me, (thank you Sysco!) he ordered me chicken tenders (40 LBS of it) that were more money, but totally worth it. When I started bottling all I had to do was slip those tenders in the bottles, add a little salt and then pressure can it. It took me two days of cooking, but I now have 28 bottles of chicken! I will totally do it again, it really was not hard at all. 

The picture above (Hawaiian Haystack's) was the first meal that I made with the chicken. From start to finish this meal took me a total of 20 minutes and that was just because I had to cook the rice. Having bottled chicken in my pantry is now a MUST!