Homemade Chicken Soup: Safe Recipe for Home Canning

With Sharon Peterson

Homemade chicken soup recipe ~ combine ingredients, simmer until the kitchen smells wonderful, serve with homemade bread, and add a dose of Love!

If you want to can your chicken soup, you will need to know how to use a pressure canner. The pressure canning page has more detailed information and step-by-step instructions, while you can find instructions for how to make chicken soup on this page.

Prepare for Homemade Chicken Soup

Would you like more details and video instruction on how to can chicken soup?

My canning classes at CanningSchool.com includes step by step video tutorials on Canning Chicken Soup and more.

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Gather Your Canning Supplies:

pressure canner
canning jars
canning lids and rings
jar lifter and canning funnel
stock pot
bowls
large spoons
sharp knife
towels and dish cloth
ladle

Ingredients:

4 quarts chicken broth – homemade chicken broth is best!
3 cups chopped chicken – cooked
4 cups vegetables – I use 1 cup celery, 2 cups carrots, 1 cup onion. Adjust this to taste.
Salt and pepper to taste
If you like other seasonings, you can add them. Remember, they will be stronger by being canned.

Note: This recipe yields 4 quarts of homemade chicken soup.

Canning Homemade Chicken Soup Procedure

Place chicken broth and chopped chicken in a stock pot, bring to a boil. Homemade broth makes superior homemade chicken soup.

Chop all your vegetables. I use about 1 cup each celery and onion and 2 cups carrots. You can alter the types of vegetables as long as you end up with about 4 cups total.

Add vegetables to stock pot and bring to a boil.

Add salt and pepper. I use about 1 T salt. I don’t really measure my pepper, just shake some in.

Add any seasonings that you prefer. We like ours with just the ingredients listed.

You might like to add dill or basil. Remember that fresh seasonings may get stronger as they are canned. If you add bay leaves, let the soup simmer for a bit to get the flavor throughout, but remove the bay leaves before filling jars. The only herb I read that is not a good idea for canning is sage. Apparently it gets very strong in the jars. But I’ve never heard of adding sage to chicken soup anyway.

Using a slotted spoon, add your solid ingredients to the jars. Aim for no more than 1/2 filled with solids. Then go back and top off each jar with the cooking broth.

Leave 1-inch headspace.

Place your lids on and process according to pressure canning instructions.

Canning the Homemade Chicken Soup Recipe

How to Make Chicken Soup: Canning Processing Times

Pints – 1 hour and 15 minutes

Quarts – 1 hour 30 minutes.

You might notice a difference in processing times compared to my canning soup page here. THAT page discusses adapting your own soup recipe. Many variables are involved so the processing times will be different, and it is important to fill your jars half full of solid ingredients as well as follow the processing instructions provided.

These are both tested recipes from two different sources. I always recommend following tested recipes. The source for this recipe is this – Ball Blue Book. That book is a older version and is often not available. If you are looking for a more recent version, try this one here: Ball Blue Book 37th edition.

Adjustments for Pressure Canner
Altitude in Feet	Dial Gauge Canner	Weighted Gauge Canner
0-1000	11	10
1001-2000	11	15
2001-4000	12	15
4001-6000	13	15
6001-8000	14	15
8000-10,000	15	15

FAQs – Can You Can Soup Without a Pressure Canner?

One of the most frequently asked questions I get is, “Do I really need to use a pressure canner?” The answer? Yes, you really do need a pressure canner. Chicken soup is a low-acid food, and a pressure canner is the only safe processing option.