Sweet & Sour Chicken

My family loves many various foods served over rice.  This sweet tangy chicken is delicious.  Just heat up and serve over hot rice and dinner is ready in not time at all.  

I do mine in quarts but you can use pints or pint -n- half size jars as well.

Recipe yields 7 quarts

Ingredients needed:

6 ½ pounds of white cubed chicken

2 large green peppers

2 large red peppers

7 jalapeno peppers

3 large onions

3 of the 20 ounce cans of pineapple tidbits (in 100% juice, unsweetened)

1 cup of brown sugar

1/2 cup of white sugar

2 ½ cups of white vinegar

1 cup of soy sauce

2 cups of chicken broth or water ( I use what the chicken cooks in)

1 cup of ketchup  (use homemade if you have it or use Heinz since it has no thickeners)

2 tsp of ground ginger

Wash your jars and keep them warming in your canner until ready to fill.  Put your lids and rings in a pan of simmering water.   (You can just wash your lids and rings if you prefer).

Cut any fat off of your chicken and then cut it into 1 inch cubes.  Put chicken in a large pot and cover in water.  Boil until about ½ done. 

While chicken in cooking go ahead and cut up your peppers and onions. 

I cut mine into slices and then into about 
1 inch pieces. 
Drain the juice off of the pineapples and reserve it for you sauce. 

In a medium stainless steel pot, combine your sugars, vinegar, soy sauce, chicken broth, ketchup, pineapple juice and ginger.  Bring to a boil and turn heat to low to keep warm until you put in your jars.  I like to taste my sauce and if it needs a little something, add it then.

Evenly distribute your chicken into 7 quart jars.  You should have about 1 to 1 ½ cups in each jar. Layer your onion and peppers on top of the chicken and then put ½ cup of pineapples on the top leaving 1 inch head-space.  If you need more food, add more peppers or onions.  Save the leftover pineapples for a smoothie.

Add your sauce to the jars leaving one inch head-space.

Remove all air bubbles from your jars.  Adjust head-space if needed.  Wipe the rims of your jars with a paper towel dipped in vinegar. 

Put on lids and rings and tighten them finger tight.  Process according to charts. 

The time on these charts are for meats

Table 1.                           Process time for Sweet & Sour Chicken in a dial-gauge pressure canner.
			Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	Process Time	0 - 2,000 ft	2,001 - 4,000 ft	4,001 - 6,000 ft	6,001 - 8,000 ft
Hot and Raw	Pints	75 min	11 lb	12 lb	13 lb	14 lb
	Quarts or Pint & Half size jars	90	11	12	13	14

Table 2.                     Process time for Sweet & Sour Chicken  in a weighted-gauge pressure canner.
			Canner Pressure (PSI) at Altitudes of
Style of Pack	Jar Size	Process Time	0 - 1,000 ft	Above 1,000 ft
Hot and Raw	Pints	75 min	10 lb	15 lb
	Quarts or Pint & Half size jars	90	10	15

Label and Store in a cool dark place.