# Why does my canned chicken smell like tuna... and...



## Ark (Oct 5, 2004)

...and it doesn't taste all that great either. It has a really strong flavor that we don't care for. It is store bought chicken breasts that I bought for $1/lb, so understandably it's not going to taste as good as home raised chicken would!

BUT, surely there is a way to can it without this strong flavor?

I do drain it and even rinsing it seems to help a little. 

Maybe I should not can it plain anymore. I need some recipes for canning chicken that uses spices, etc.... if that would help? 

TIA!!


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## PaulNKS (Jan 11, 2009)

Maybe if you explain the process you use for canning, will help. 

I'm assuming you bought skinless? If so, there's not enough fat or anything to flavor the chicken.

Here's what I do with home raised chickens.

I dress the birds, leaving the skin on. I put them in two canners and pressure cook. When cooled down enough to handle, the meat literally falls off the bone. The fat and skin flavors the meat and the stock. I discard the bones and the skin. I discard the bones because I don't want to use up valuable jar space with bones that we won't eat. 

I pack the meat in the jars, add the liquid from the stock. After my jars are full, I can up the remainder of the stock to use in general cooking. I usually have as many jars of stock as I do of meat and stock.

The chicken is always flavorful. If you don't have a problem with salt, add a little to the jars when canned.

If you are canning store bought skinless, you need to try using store bought (or homemade) stock to can in and not just water.

There really is no comparison between home raised and store bought chickens. It would be worth it to buy home raised chickens and do it all yourself.


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## Rita (May 13, 2002)

I've had the same problem Ark. It really smells but it tasted alright and we didn't get sick, but I wouldn't do anymore if it is going to have that smell!


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## Bret (Oct 3, 2003)

Because it is Tuna of The Land.


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## Ark (Oct 5, 2004)

Or the chicken of the sea... one or the other! 

OK, I bought chicken breasts with the skin on. Deboned them and removed the skin, cut in pieces and raw packed with a little salt. 

They sorta made their own (nasty tasting) broth. 

Last night I deboned another 20 lbs and threw all the bones in a huge pot with onions, celery, salt, etc and let it cook on low all night long. This morning I used the delicious looking and smelling broth to pour over the raw chicken pieces in the jars. I am HOPING that this will improve the taste of the chicken! If it does not, I will be very upset and never can chicken again. LOL

For $1/lb, this is a great way to stock up on chicken since I don't have the freezer space needed to keep it all frozen. 

Thanks everyone for the help!


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## Paquebot (May 10, 2002)

If you buy canned tuna and canned chicken, you'll find that the taste is pretty much the same. Wife will sometimes make a quick casserole using one or the other and it takes a few moments for my taste buds to register which it is. The canning ingredients are the same and that's where the main taste comes from. 

Martin


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## stef (Sep 14, 2002)

How did the chicken smell when you first took it out of the package? Did it smell 'clean'? If it was previously frozen that might account for the 'off' smell. 

I've never had that happen and I can store purchased chicken all the time. It smells and tastes delicious and certainly not like tuna. * *


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## Ark (Oct 5, 2004)

Paquebot said:


> If you buy canned tuna and canned chicken, you'll find that the taste is pretty much the same. Wife will sometimes make a quick casserole using one or the other and it takes a few moments for my taste buds to register which it is. The canning ingredients are the same and that's where the main taste comes from.
> 
> Martin


Are you saying there is NO HOPE FOR MY CANNED CHICKEN??? 


Nooooooooooo............


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

My best guess:

I buy the really cheap chicken breast and make dog food out of it. It is injected with "broth" that tastes foul. Back in the days that chicken was water injected, it was just wasted $ for water weight. But the packers seem to think that the consumer prefers "Broth added" to "water added".

My family refuses to eat the "Broth added" chicken because it tastes just flat out nasty.

In my local area Foster Farms does a decent whole fryer, and those go on sale. It's not home raised, but it is fine in recipes. The no name brand boneless skinless chicken breasts are simply too awful to feed to anything but my dogs.

The dogs like them, but then, the dogs will also eat road kill.


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

The chicken my family won't eat is coming from Wally World. One of the more local grocery stores sells boneless skinless chicken breast that is edible and they put that on sale sometimes. Not as cheap as Wally World, but it is edible. It comes in full breasts, not half breasts.

However, I bought chicken thighs there that were in a frozen package, really cheap, that smelled like diesel fuel. That went into the garbage. I didn't want to risk it on the dogs.

The only thing I can suggest is to cook and eat one of the pieces of chicken to see what it tastes like before you go to all the work of canning it.


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

I guess I am feeling chatty today. The chicken "broth" is a soybean product, and the canned tuna is also canned in a soy bean broth. So maybe it is the broth that tastes the same to you. Possibly.


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## netskyblue (Jul 25, 2012)

In my experience, that's just what canned chicken smells like. I, personally, think that's what *chicken* smells like, only intensified during canning. I drain, rinse, and use in a sauce that helps to mask it.

I can't speak for home-raised chicken, as I've never tasted it.


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## Ozarks Tom (May 27, 2011)

We add chicken base to our broth, before adding it to the jars. Gives a stronger chicken taste.


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## SA Canner (Aug 14, 2020)

Ark said:


> ...and it doesn't taste all that great either. It has a really strong flavor that we don't care for. It is store bought chicken breasts that I bought for $1/lb, so understandably it's not going to taste as good as home raised chicken would!
> 
> BUT, surely there is a way to can it without this strong flavor?
> 
> ...


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## SA Canner (Aug 14, 2020)

Don’t give up. I pressure canned raw chicken with skin and bones. The chicken ended up having a tuna taste. The other day I opened a jar of canned chicken my mom made that tasted like heaven. It tasted like she just freshly boiled a chicken with a little salt. It was canned August 2014 and I opened it August 2020. I noticed it had no bones or skin in the meat and there was a thin layer of fat from the chicken resting above the broth. It appeared to be boneless skinless chicken thighs. I figured no bones or skin was the reason it came out better. I don’t know for sure if that will fix the issue but I KNOW canned chicken can taste AMAZING and I’m not giving up. I’m going to try it without bones now.
I believe we are headed to tough times. We can’t stop trying til we get it right. My kids HATE and refuse to eat the canned chicken that tastes like tuna. I can’t afford to waste it. I’m going to can a test batch with each can different and see which one works. I will can precooked chicken without bones, precooked chicken with skin and bones, raw packed with bones and skin, and raw packed without skin and bones. Keep trying.


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## oregon woodsmok (Dec 19, 2010)

Try a recipe for Coronation Chicken. Unless your canned chicken is really foul flavored (instead of fowl flavored) you should get a good meal out of it. Also, any decent chicken curry recipe should do the trick of fixing the taste. A chicken enchilada recipe with green chili enchilada sauce and cumin should cover the taste. Cumin is good for overcoming off flavors in meat.

Google for Chef Paul Prudhomme's recipe for Country Captain. Your chicken will work in that and the recipe has lots of delicious spices.

I buy 40 pound boxes of boneless skinless chicken breast for under $1 a pound to feed to my dogs. Flavor is weak, but OK and the meat is tough. It's possible that the bargain chicken just wasn't first class chicken to begin with. if the chicken you bought was "broth added" that stuff they add to chicken is sometimes really nasty tasting.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

To me plain chicken breast just tastes tuna"y". It's got to have some broth or even a bit of soup base added before canning to make it taste better. The best canned chicken is made from cooking the whole chicken, IMO.


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