Canning turkey meat is a tested pressure-canning process, not a water-bath project. Packed as boneless pieces, it is processed for 75 minutes in pints or 90 minutes in quarts. Bone-in pieces take less time because heat moves through the jar more easily. Salt is optional. Liquid is added only for hot pack or leftover cooked meat—not for raw pack.
That is the core method. The rest of this guide covers the decisions that actually change quality and safety: raw pack versus hot pack, leftover Thanksgiving turkey versus a fresh bird, bone-in versus boneless, what belongs in the jar, and what should stay in the freezer instead.
Why Turkey Has to Be Pressure Canned
Turkey is a low-acid food. In a sealed jar at room temperature, Clostridium botulinum can produce toxin if the contents never reach a high enough temperature. A boiling-water canner tops out at 212°F. A pressure canner reaches 240°F and above—the range needed to make meat shelf-stable.
There is no safe “shortcut” time, oven-canning method, or water-bath workaround for turkey meat. If the only canner in the house is a water-bath canner, freeze the turkey.
What You Need Before You Start
Equipment
- A pressure canner with a working dial or weighted gauge (not a pressure cooker unless the manufacturer states it is also a canner and gives tested times)
- Pint or quart canning jars, two-piece lids, and rings
- Jar lifter, bubble remover, and a clean damp cloth for rims
- Your elevation, written down—pressure changes with altitude
Have the dial gauge checked yearly if that is the type you use. A gauge that reads low under-processes meat.
Turkey that works well
- Fresh or fully thawed raw turkey parts
- A whole bird broken down into pieces that fit the jar
- Plain leftover cooked turkey: roasted, smoked, or simmered, with skin and stuffing scraped off
Remove as much visible fat and skin as practical. Fat that climbs the rim is a common reason lids fail to seal.
Do not can giblets in the same jar as the meat. Their flavor spreads through the jar.
A rough packing estimate: about 1 pound of meat per pint, or 2 pounds per quart, plus broth if you are hot packing. Yield varies with how tightly you pack and how much bone you leave in.
Choose Your Pack Method First
This choice matters more than most people expect. Processing time is the same for raw and hot pack. Texture and how full the jar looks after cooling are not.
Raw pack
Fill jars loosely with raw pieces. Add optional salt. Do not add liquid. The meat releases juice during processing.
Raw pack is faster on prep day and keeps more of the meat’s own flavor. The tradeoff: poultry often does not release enough liquid to cover the pieces. Meat that sits above the liquid after cooling is still safe if the jar was processed correctly, but the exposed pieces can dry and darken in storage. That is why official directions prefer hot pack for poultry quality.
Use raw pack when you want speed and you accept that some jars may not look fully covered.
Hot pack (preferred for quality)
Cook the turkey until it is about two-thirds done—baked, steamed, or simmered, not fall-apart finished. Pack the pieces into hot jars, then cover with boiling broth, leaving 1¼ inches of headspace.
Hot pack gives better liquid coverage and usually a more even texture after a year on the shelf. It also uses the carcass broth you were going to make anyway.
Leftover cooked turkey
Plain leftover turkey can be canned as a hot pack using the same poultry times. Debone it, cut or shred it, pack it, and cover with boiling broth or water to 1¼ inches headspace.
Quality is the limit, not a separate process. Meat that was already roasted dry will be drier after 75–90 minutes under pressure. Dark meat and pieces packed in broth hold up better than leftover breast that sat uncovered in the fridge.
Do not treat “Thanksgiving leftovers” as one product. Stuffing, gravy thickened with flour or cornstarch, cream sauces, and mixed casseroles are not the tested poultry pack. Those belong in the freezer. Mixed soups have their own tested rules (see below), and many holiday leftovers still do not fit them.
Bone-In or Boneless Changes the Clock
You can can turkey with or without bones. Do not mix the two schedules in one jar.
| Pack | Jar | Process time |
|---|---|---|
| Boneless, hot or raw | Pint | 75 minutes |
| Boneless, hot or raw | Quart | 90 minutes |
| With bones, hot or raw | Pint | 65 minutes |
| With bones, hot or raw | Quart | 75 minutes |
Bone-in pieces heat faster, so the tested time is shorter. If a jar contains both bone-in and boneless meat, use the longer boneless time.
Bone-in thighs and wings are convenient if you plan to pull the meat later for soup. Boneless chunks or shredded meat are easier to dump straight into tacos, enchiladas, pot pie, or salad.
Step-by-Step: Pressure Canning Turkey Meat
- Chill and cut. If you started with a freshly dressed bird, chill it 6 to 12 hours before canning. Cut pieces to fit the jar with room for headspace. Remove excess fat.
- Prep jars. Wash jars, lids, and rings. For pressure canning you do not need a separate sterilizing boil if the process time is over 10 minutes—which this one is. Keep jars hot so they do not crack when filled.
- Pack.
- Raw pack: loose raw pieces, optional ½ teaspoon salt per pint or 1 teaspoon per quart, no liquid, 1¼-inch headspace.
- Hot pack or leftovers: pieces plus boiling broth, same salt option, 1¼-inch headspace.
- Degas and wipe. Slide a bubble tool around the inside of the jar. Recheck headspace. Wipe the rim with a clean damp cloth until no fat or broth remains. Apply lids and rings fingertip-tight.
- Load the canner. Add the amount of water your canner manual specifies, usually 2 to 3 inches. Place jars on the rack. Lock the lid.
- Vent, then pressurize. Exhaust a steady stream of steam for 10 minutes before putting the weight on or closing the petcock. Then bring the canner to the pressure required for your elevation and canner type.
- Time only at pressure. Start the 65/75/90-minute count after the canner reaches the correct pressure. If pressure drops, bring it back up and restart the time.
- Depressurize naturally. Turn off the heat. Do not quick-cool, run water over the canner, or jiggle the weight. When the gauge reads zero (or the weighted gauge no longer holds pressure), wait about 10 minutes, then open the lid away from your face.
- Cool and check seals. Lift jars out. Leave them undisturbed 12 to 24 hours. Remove rings, check that lids are concave and do not flex, wash the jars, label with contents and date, and store.
Any jar that fails to seal can be refrigerated and eaten within a few days, frozen, or reprocessed within 24 hours with a new lid and the full process time.
Pressure by Altitude
Process time stays the same. Pressure changes.
Dial-gauge canner
| Elevation | Pressure |
|---|---|
| 0–2,000 ft | 11 lb |
| 2,001–4,000 ft | 12 lb |
| 4,001–6,000 ft | 13 lb |
| 6,001–8,000 ft | 14 lb |
Weighted-gauge canner
| Elevation | Pressure |
|---|---|
| 0–1,000 ft | 10 lb |
| Above 1,000 ft | 15 lb |
These are the same poultry pressures used for chicken. Turkey follows that schedule.
How to Can Turkey Stock From the Carcass
After the meat is packed, the bones still earn a second batch of jars.
Official chicken-or-turkey stock directions:
- Cover large carcass bones with water.
- Simmer 30 to 45 minutes, or until remaining bits of meat fall off.
- Remove bones, cool the broth, and skim the fat.
- Add any tiny meat trimmings back if you want.
- Reheat to boiling and fill jars with 1-inch headspace.
Process stock for 20 minutes (pints) or 25 minutes (quarts) at the same pressures listed above.
That shorter time applies to broth, not to jars packed with a full load of meat. If a jar is mostly turkey pieces with some liquid, use the meat times (75/90 or 65/75), not the stock times.
You can simmer bones longer than 45 minutes for a richer stock before you can it. The tested part is the fill, headspace, and process—not how long you extracted flavor first. Skim well. Cloudy stock is fine; a thick layer of fat is not.
What Does Not Belong in a Turkey Jar
These additions change density, heat penetration, or pH, and they are not part of the tested poultry pack:
- Flour, cornstarch, gravy, cream, milk, cheese, or sour cream
- Stuffing, bread, rice, pasta, or dumplings
- Butter or large amounts of fat
- Unreconstituted bouillon cubes or paste dropped into the jar
- Random “meal in a jar” combinations that were never lab-tested
Tested soup directions exist separately: cook the meat and vegetables, do not thicken, fill jars only halfway with solids, cover with broth, leave 1-inch headspace, and process soups for 60 minutes (pints) or 75 minutes (quarts)—longer if seafood is in the pot. Brunswick stew and similar mixed holiday leftovers still have no tested home-canning process and should be frozen.
Sage in the cooking pot can turn bitter after canning. If you want poultry herbs, add them when you open the jar.
Ground turkey is a different product. Follow the hot-pack directions for ground or chopped meat (pints 75 minutes, quarts 90 minutes), not the raw-pack poultry piece directions.
Mistakes That Show Up Months Later
Using a water-bath canner “just this once.” That is the safety failure that matters most.
Treating a pressure cooker like a canner. Unless the unit is sold as a canner and the manufacturer provides USDA-aligned times for meat, do not use it for shelf-stable turkey.
Skipping the 10-minute vent. Trapped air lowers the temperature inside the canner even when the gauge looks right.
Overpacking raw meat. Raw pack is supposed to be loose. Cramped raw meat plus no added liquid makes uneven heating more likely and ugly jars more common.
Leaving fat on rims. One greasy fingerprint can keep a lid from sealing.
Starting the timer before pressure is reached, or ignoring a pressure drop. The published minutes assume continuous correct pressure.
Canning meat that sat too long in the danger zone. Canning does not reverse poor handling. Start with turkey that was kept cold and trimmed cleanly.
Expecting canned breast to taste like fresh roast. Pressure canning finishes the cook. Plan to use the jars in dishes with sauce, broth, or dressing—not as a holiday platter substitute.
How to Store and Use Canned Turkey
Store sealed jars in a cool, dark place. National Center for Home Food Preservation guidance is to plan on using home-canned food within a year for best quality. A sealed, correctly processed jar can remain safe longer, but flavor and texture fade.
Before opening:
- Lid should be firm and concave
- No leaks, spurting, or rising bubbles when the jar sits still
- No off odor when opened
If anything looks or smells wrong, discard the contents without tasting. Botulinum toxin is not something you “try a bite” to check.
After opening, refrigerate and use within 3 to 4 days, the same window as other cooked turkey.
Canned turkey is already cooked. Heat it through and use it where you would use canned chicken: enchiladas, soup, pot pie, tetrazzini, salad, sliders, fried rice, or a quick gravy over biscuits. Drain or keep the broth depending on the recipe. The liquid in the jar is usable stock.
A practical household pattern after a sale bird or a holiday roast is pint jars of boneless meat for weeknights, plus a separate canner load of stock. That split keeps process times correct and makes the pantry easier to cook from.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you water bath can turkey if you add vinegar or lemon juice? No. Acidifying a jar of meat at home is not a tested substitute for pressure canning.
Is salt required? No. Salt is for flavor only. You can can turkey with none.
Can you can frozen turkey? Thaw it first in the refrigerator so you can trim fat, cut even pieces, and pack jars correctly. Do not put a frozen block in a jar and guess at headspace.
Why is meat sticking out of the liquid after the jars cool? That is common with raw-pack poultry. The jar can still be safe if it was processed at the right pressure and time. For better coverage next batch, use hot pack.
Can smoked turkey be canned? Yes, as hot-pack leftover meat: remove skin, cut or shred, cover with boiling broth, and use boneless poultry times. Smoke flavor holds; texture still depends on how dry the meat was going in.
How many jars from one turkey? It varies by bird size and how much you eat before canning. A common home-canner report is roughly 6–8 pints of meat plus a batch of stock from a mid-size bird, but treat that as a planning guess, not a yield guarantee.
Do you need to boil home-canned turkey before eating it? USDA advice for home-canned vegetables is to boil 10 minutes before tasting; meat is also a low-acid pressure-canned food. If a jar looks normal, heating it thoroughly in the dish you are making is the practical step. Never taste from a questionable jar.
Use the National Center for Home Food Preservation poultry directions as the source of record, match pressure to your elevation, and keep the jar contents simple. That is the difference between a pantry full of usable turkey and a project that only looks like canning.