My husband and I love Mexican food – any kind and all types really. So, I was stoked when I came across this cool option of having canned chicken fajita as a whole meal in a jar. Plus, it was important that we were able to have this comfort food in our pantry in some way.
Wow – how cool is that?
I have been having a great experience learning more and more about canning, preserving and creating a sustainable pantry that will provide our family with needed meals. This includes learning about the amount of food to have for our family as well as the kind of food to stock up on.
One of the most important lessons I’ve learned is to make sure you stock up on items that you and your family like and will consume, because if you don’t like something now, you won’t enjoy it later, even if something happens and you need to live off of your food storage, you don’t want things in your emergency pantry that you dislike.
So, if you love fajitas, make sure you put this one in your food storage pantry!
Canned Chicken Fajita
This recipe filled up 5-quart jars (or it can fill 10-pint jars).
When you’re ready to use, just pour all ingredients out into a skillet and fry up until warmed through. I like to heat on high, and sizzle it to give a bit of a charcoal crisp on its edges. It’s so good, just like fresh fajitas! Serve on tortillas with some sour cream and fresh cilantro if you have!
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Ingredients
- 4 cups dried black beans
- 2 cups dried pinto beans
- 2 1/2 cups sliced peppers (green, red, orange or yellow or any combination)
- 2 1/2 cups sliced sweet onions
- 5 Roma tomatoes
- 5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
- 5 small boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- 5 tablespoons homemade Fajita spice blend
- 8 cups chicken broth
Instructions
- Using clean wide-mouth jars, be sure each jar is room temperature seeing we will be raw stacking each cold ingredient.
- Mix the black and pinto beans together in a bowl and set aside. Using a measuring cup and funnel, add 1 cup of mixed beans to each jar.
- Next, place 1/2 cup of peppers in each jar, then add a 1/2 cup of onion slices right after. Gently tamp down the pepper and onions using your headspace measuring tool, to ensure room is made for the remaining ingredients.
- Core and dice one Roma tomato at a time and add to each quart. If using pints, a half of diced Roma tomato is added to each pint.
- Slice one chicken thigh and slice one small chicken breast and add to each quart. To tenderize the breast meat, mix the thigh and breast meat together in the jar before adding the spices and broth.
- Add 1 generous tablespoon of the fajita spice blend to each quart jar.
- Next, slowly add chicken broth until it stops filling. Using the flip side of the headspace measuring tool, remove air bubbles by sliding the tool down the sides of the jar and pressing into the jar’s center mass. Add additional broth and repeat until there are no air pockets remaining and the broth is at 1-inch of headspace. Complete this step for every jar.
- Wipe the jar rims with a wet washcloth dipped in vinegar. Add a canning lid and ring to each jar and hand tighten.
- Process in a pressure canner at 10 PSI or according to your elevation; 90 minutes for quarts and 75 minutes for pints.
Fajita Spice Blend
- 6 tablespoons chili power
- 3 tablespoons ground cumin powder
- 2 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons smoked paprika (or regular if that is all you have on hand)
- 2 tablespoons garlic powder
- 2 teaspoons ground mustard
- 2 teaspoons of sea salt (omit if you are watching your sodium intake)
- 1-3 teaspoon cayenne pepper, depending on the heat you prefer
- 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
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