Easy Chicken and Gravy Recipe | Quick Pressure Canning Meal

This easy chicken and gravy recipe gives you a complete meal base you can pressure can and store right on your pantry shelf. 

Chicken, potatoes, carrots, onions, celery, seasonings, white wine, and chicken broth are packed into jars and processed in a pressure canner, giving you a shelf-stable meal that can quickly become chicken and gravy, chicken noodle soup, chicken and dumplings, or a hearty chicken stew.

And this is one of those recipes I love, love, love having on the shelf because it takes so much of the pressure out of answering that familiar question, “What’s for dinner?”

Watch Me Make Chicken and Gravy

What Makes This Recipe Unique?

If you want to open your pantry and feel peace instead of panic when dinner time rolls around, this is a wonderful recipe to have ready.

Here’s why I think you’ll love it:

• It’s a raw pack recipe. This recipe comes from The All New Ball Book of Canning and Preserving, which is filled with some wonderful raw pack recipe ideas. There’s no need to cook the chicken and vegetables before filling the jars.
• It saves time later. A little work on canning day gives you quick meals for busy evenings. Homesteading Hack: Learn how to can beef, make this white bean and chicken chili recipe, and make canned beef stew to stock your pantry with a variety of quick-to-prepare meals for your family.
• It’s incredibly versatile. One jar can become chicken and gravy, soup, stew, or another hearty meal.
• It uses simple ingredients. Chicken, vegetables, broth, and seasonings come together into a practical pantry staple.
• It helps you build a working pantry. These aren’t jars that sit on the shelf looking pretty. They’re food your family can actually eat.
• It makes dinner feel doable. When you’ve had a long day and don’t want to start cooking from scratch, most of the work is already done.

If pressure canning still makes you nervous, I understand why. Nobody wants to waste good food or, worse, worry that they’ve made something unsafe for their family.

That’s exactly why we follow tested canning recipes and pay attention to details like headspace, processing time, pressure, and elevation. Once you understand the process and the science behind it, pressure canning becomes much less intimidating.

Key Ingredients

For a full list of ingredients and measurements, check out the recipe card below.

• Cubed Chicken - Use boneless, skinless chicken breasts or thighs. When you’re cutting the chicken, think about how you want it to eat once you open the jar. I like a nice bite-sized piece that works well whether I’m serving it as chicken and gravy or turning it into soup or dumplings.
• Vegetables - Peeled and diced potatoes, chopped onions, carrots, and celery all work great.
• Dry White Wine - The dry white wine adds wonderful depth of flavor to this easy chicken and gravy recipe.
• Chicken Broth - You’ll generally want to have about a quart of chicken broth available, although the exact amount you use will depend on how firmly you pack the jars. Homemade chicken bone broth is wonderful here, especially if you are in the habit of canning bone broth and have some on your pantry shelf.

A Note On Recipe Variations 

One of the best things about having this chicken and vegetable base on the shelf is how many different meals you can make from it after opening the jar.

But when it comes to changing a recipe before canning, we need to be much more careful.

Canning isn’t the place to start experimenting with ingredient ratios or adding thickeners simply because they sound good. The ingredients, preparation method, jar size, headspace and processing instructions all work together to make a tested recipe safe.

So if you’re making substitutions to the canned recipe itself, use substitutions specifically permitted by the tested recipe you’re following.

Want a thicker gravy? Add flour after you open the jar, not before processing.

Want chicken noodle soup? Add extra broth and noodles when you heat the meal.

Want chicken and dumplings? Open your jars, heat the chicken mixture, and add fresh dumplings at serving time.

That gives you plenty of room to make the finished meal your own without changing the tested canning process.

Recipe Instructions

Step 1: Prepare Your Pressure Canner

Fill your pressure canner with about 2 inches of water, or the amount specified by your pressure canner manufacturer.

Place clean jars in the canner and begin gently warming the water and jars.

Step 2: Prepare the Vegetables and Chicken

Clean, trim, peel, and chop your vegetables. This is an important safety step.

Botulism spores can be present in soil, which is why produce grown in or near the ground needs to be properly cleaned and prepared before canning. This is one of those little steps that’s worth doing carefully.

Cut the boneless, skinless chicken into bite-sized cubes and add it to a large bowl with the prepared vegetables.

If there’s liquid left over from defrosting the chicken, you don’t need to add it to the bowl.

Step 3: Add the Seasoning and Wine

Add the salt, pepper, poultry seasoning, and dry white wine to the chicken and vegetables.

Stir everything together so the seasonings are evenly distributed.

Step 4: Heat the Broth

In a separate saucepan, bring the chicken broth to a simmer.

Step 5: Pack the Jars

Remove the warmed jars from the pressure canner, pouring out any water inside them.

Place the jars on a towel-lined counter next to your chicken and vegetable mixture.

Using a canning funnel and tongs or another utensil, fill each jar with the mixture. Pack the ingredients firmly while leaving 1 inch of headspace.

Homestead Hack: You want to get a good amount of chicken and vegetables into each jar while still maintaining the required headspace. A good firm pack means you’ll only need a relatively small amount of broth to fill the spaces around the food.

Step 6: Add the Hot Broth

Remove the warmed jars from the pressure canner, pouring out any water inside them.

Place the jars on a towel-lined counter next to your chicken and vegetable mixture.

Using a canning funnel and tongs or another utensil, fill each jar with the mixture. Pack the ingredients firmly while leaving 1 inch of headspace.

Step 7: Clean the Rims and Add the Bands

Wipe each jar rim thoroughly with a clean, damp cloth.

A clean rim helps the lid make proper contact with the jar and form a good seal.

Place the lids on the jars and screw on the bands until fingertip tight.

Transfer the filled jars to the pressure canner and secure the canner lid according to your manufacturer’s instructions.

Step 8: Bring the Pressure Canner to the Correct Pressure

Gradually bring the canner up to temperature over approximately medium to medium-high heat.

Once a strong, steady stream of steam is escaping from the vent, vent the canner continuously for 10 minutes.

After 10 minutes, add the regulator or weighted gauge as appropriate for your canner.

Allow the canner to reach the correct pressure for your elevation and the type of pressure canner you’re using.

Always use the pressure specified for your altitude and canner. (See chart below)

Step 9: Process the Jars

Once the canner reaches the required pressure, start your processing timer.

Process:

• Quart jars for 1 hour and 30 minutes
• Pint jars for 1 hour and 15 minutes

Maintain the required pressure for the entire processing time.

If your pressure falls below the required level during processing, follow current safe canning guidance for bringing the canner back to pressure and restarting the processing time.

Step 10: Allow the Canner to Depressurize Naturally

When processing is complete, turn off the heat.

Do not jiggle the weight, force the pressure down or cool the canner with cold water.

Let the pressure return naturally to zero.

Once the gauge reads zero, carefully check that pressure has been completely released according to your canner manufacturer’s directions. Remove the regulator when appropriate, then wait another 10 minutes before opening the canner.

Step 11: Remove and Cool the Jars

Open the lid carefully, directing the steam away from your face.

Using a jar lifter, transfer the jars to a towel lined counter.

Leave them completely undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours.

Step 12: Check the Seals

After the jars have cooled, remove the bands and check every seal.

Wipe the jars clean, label them with the contents and date, and move properly sealed jars to pantry storage.

And there you go.

You’ve taken chicken, vegetables, and a few simple seasonings and turned them into ready-to-use meals sitting right on your pantry shelf.

That’s the kind of food preservation I love. It isn’t about filling shelves just for the sake of filling shelves. It’s about making tomorrow’s dinner easier.

Tips and Troubleshooting

Storage Instructions

Once your pressure-canned chicken and gravy jars have rested undisturbed for 12 to 24 hours, remove the bands and check each seal.

Clean the outside of the jars as needed, then label each jar with the recipe name and date.

Store properly sealed jars in a cool, dark, dry location according to current home canning storage recommendations.

Before using any home canned food, inspect the jar carefully. If you notice an unsealed lid or anything else that makes you question the integrity of the jar, don’t taste the food to determine whether it’s safe.

When you open a properly stored jar, you can heat and serve it immediately or use it as the base for one of the meals above.

Once opened, refrigerate leftovers promptly in a covered container.

Free Canning Training

If the thought of using a pressure canner makes you nervous. Check out my free canning training called Meals On Your Shelf.

Together in this four-part workshop, we go over all of the safety aspects of canning so you get a firm grasp on the scientific principles behind it. We then work together in the kitchen to can an entire meal in the water bath canner before we jump into the basics of pressure canning.