Tutorial: How To Cut Up A Whole Chicken

Keltin

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I actually did this photo spread back in April of this year, but never posted it. Since there seems to be some interest in DYI stuff, here it is finally pulled from my archives. This procedure gives you 2 Leg Quarters, 2 whole Wings, and 2 skinless, bone-in breasts.

Cutting up your own chicken can save you TONS of money……and when you get used to it, it is actually fun and zen-like.

Next time you are in the grocery store, notice that a whole chicken is about 2 bucks a pound, but breasts are 5.99 or more a pound, and wings are 4 bucks or more a pound.

Why? It’s all chicken right?

Yes it is, but any time they have to pay the butcher to cut the meat for you, the price goes up. Look at a whole pork loin that you can get for 2.99 per pound and cut your own chops. Those same boneless loin chops packaged by the butcher sell for 4.99 or more per pound…..because they pay the butcher to cut your meat.

Save that money and cut it yourself! You can buy nearly twice as much meat for the same money, and with a little practice, you get the cuts YOU want and not the cuts THEY decide to give you! Not to mention, as with a whole chicken, you get that carcass which makes great stock or soup!

How To Cut Up A Whole Chicken

Equipment

* Cutting Board
* Filet or Boning Knife
* Heavy Knife (preferably serrated)
* Kitchen Shears

Procedure

1. Naturally, start with a whole chicken. Personally, I like to use a cheap and flexible filet knife. It’s incredibly sharp, slender, and easy to guide through the curves of the bird. I’ve done this with a more rigid boning knife, and it works as well, but personally, I like the feel of a flexible filet knife.

Step_01.jpg


2. Lay the chicken on its side and grasp a wing. Pull the wing into the air and look closely at where it connects to the bird. You can easily see the “round” meat around the joint. What you want to do is use your knife and trace that circular “round” to expose the joint.

Step_02.jpg


3. Once the joint of the wing is exposed, lay the wing over to offer tension on the joint, and then slice gently through the knuckle (the spot where the two bones come together).

Step_03.jpg


4. Now it’s time to cut away a leg quarter. On the same side as you just removed the wing, grasp the drumstick and pull it up into the air. You’ll see the skin from the breast is holding on. Poke your knife through the skin to begin cutting it away.

Step_04.jpg


5. Using your knife, trace a cut from the breast up towards the backbone. When you reach the backbone, make sure to dip your cut down and remove the “oyster” as well. Always try to include that oyster on your leg quarter. If you look carefully as you do this, you can easily see the “lines” you need to trace with your cut to remove a perfect leg quarter.

Step_05.jpg


6. After cutting out the oyster, you’ll reach the thigh joint. Now is a good time to being a new cut on the opposite side of the leg quarter. Trace up to the joint so that both cuts meet and the joint will be exposed.

Step_06.jpg


7. With the joint exposed, lay the leg quarter back to give some tension to the joint. Use a little force here to aid in breaking the joint. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt anything. Now gently slice through the knuckle to separate the bone and then finish any cuts to fully separate the leg quarter.

Step_07.jpg


NOW: Repeat steps 2 - 7 on the other side of the bird. This will give you two whole wings and two leg quarters with only the breast remaining.
 
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Keltin

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8. Next, you need to remove the skin from the breast. Start by grabbing the thin strip near where you removed the leg quarter. Pull the strip up, and then cut through it. Do this on both sides so that you have a flap of skin that is only attached to the top of the breast itself (no connection to the lower portion or back).

Step_08.jpg


9. Grab that flap of skin and lift the chicken off the board. You’ll be using gravity and the weight of the bird to easily remove the skin. With your knife, gently slice where the skin and meat come together. You are basically “shaving” the skin away. With a sharp knife, your cuts need only be very gentle swipes while gravity does the rest. Once you clear the breast and reach the neck area, just cut the skin free.

Step_09.jpg


10. Now that the skin is off the breast, you need to separate the breast from the rest of the carcass. Start by cutting though the thin skin at the rear cavity that is holding the breast to the back. Do this on both sides.

Step_10-6.jpg


11. Using kitchen shears (or a heavy knife), cut up through the rear cavity close to the breast. What you are doing here is cutting through the thin rib bones to free the breast from the back. Cut all the way up to the wing joints and stop. Do this on both sides.

Step_11-5.jpg


12. Once you have cut through the ribs, grasp the back and pull it up an away from the breast. Use a little force to aid in breaking the joints. Again, don’t worry - you won’t hurt anything; man-handle it already! Next, you want to lay the back over to expose the shoulder joints which are the last bit holding the breast on. Once you expose those joints, use your knife to cut through them and separate the carcass into two pieces (back and breast)

Step_12-3.jpg


Step_13-2.jpg


13. Using a heavy knife, (I prefer a cheap “Ginzu” type serrated knife), cut through the breast bone. Start by laying the breast meat side down on the board, and then trace a thin cut down through the center of the breast to score your cut. This is your starting groove. Now, just saw through that breast bone making sure to stay within the line of your initial cut.

Step_14-1.jpg


14. Once the bone is cut through, put away the heavy knife and use your fillet knife to cleanly separate the breast into two uniform pieces. You could just saw all the way through with the heavy knife, but if you want to be sure the cut is uniform (the breast can move and “squish” up from downward pressure with a heavy knife), then use your filet knife for more precision.

Step_15-1.jpg


Step_16-1.jpg
 

Keltin

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An there you have it, two perfect skinless, bone-in breasts. As well as two leg quarters and two whole wings.

Next time I get another chicken, I’ll update this with how to de-bone the breast and easily separate the leg quarters and wings into smaller pieces.

I you are going to de-bone the breast to give yourself skinless & boneless breast meat, then you don’t need to separate the breast bones from the back but can instead simply shave the meat off the bone leaving the carcass whole. I typically bone the breast meat as it is a bit easier, and I prefer the breasts to be boneless for my cooking.

But, since some prefer bone-in breasts, I did it this way as a starting point. Bone-in breasts are far more forgiving than boneless breasts, especially when grilling. The bones diffuse the heat making it far easier to produce a tender and juicy breast that isn’t hard and dry.

Still, I’ll update this later this week if I get a chance and show the easier method of leaving the carcass whole while also de-boning the breasts.
 
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joec

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Excellent Keltin and besides the kitchen shears here is my chicken knife of choice. It is a Japanese designed knife for chicken and duck called a honiseki and they have a bit longer heavier version for turkeys and geese called a garasuki but I have used both a flexible boning knife as well as a standard boning knife. I've even broke down a chicken or two with a cleaver Martin Yan style.
 

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Keltin

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That is a gorgeous knife Joe! I'd love to get my hands on that! I bet the chicken just melts away when facing that blade!
 

joec

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Yes they are pretty thick at the spine but the tips are pretty thin. These are really great for separating the joints as well as slicing the tissue as well. This one is about 160mm but the larger version for larger birds are about 170mm to 190mm. This one I own is a Hattori HD with a custom handle by a guy no longer with us named Fish. He really was a artist in wood for sure.
 

joec

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By the way here is another method though not better just different which is kind of a Chinese style. [ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sy6P3E84Dqs[/ame]
 

JoeV

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I just picked up a 10# bag of leg quarters for $.48 per pound. I deboned half the bag and left the rest intact for soup. I also saved the bones and skin for stock.

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On Friday I went to Kmart and got bone-in chicken breasts for $.69 per pound, and started deboning them as well. We are having chicken Parmesan for Christmas dinner for 16 people, so this was an inexpensive way to get all the breasts I need, as well as a good supply of skin & bones for stock. Once learned, deboning chickens is really a simple process, and there are lots of ways of working with this boneless meat.

Thanks, Keltin, for this thread.
 

Keltin

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Awesome JoeV!!

I LOVE to de-bone thighs and leg quarters. Once boned, that dark meat becomes something completely different and wonderful!

I actually like it better than breast meat! It is marvelous in stir-fries and fast sautés! Wonderful!

And all those bones and that skin is awesome for stock! Great post!! :clap:
 

luvs

'lil Chef
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chix-deconstruction was shown differently by each Chef that taught me. i despise cutting them in front of a Chef, as they critique most of the cuts the last Chef demonstrated, who critisized HIS cuts, who didn't like the OTHER'S style, & they were each assured thst they were correct. & now i'm so scatterbrained due to too many cooks in the kitchen, that i'll probably seek the advice of one of them to re-teach me!
 

Keltin

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chix-deconstruction was shown differently by each Chef that taught me. i despise cutting them in front of a Chef, as they critique most of the cuts the last Chef demonstrated, who critisized HIS cuts, who didn't like the OTHER'S style, & they were each assured thst they were correct. & now i'm so scatterbrained due to too many cooks in the kitchen, that i'll probably seek the advice of one of them to re-teach me!

It’s as they say, there is more than one way to skin a cat! :lol:

Like Joe’s video showed, there are many ways to break-down a chicken.

I actually taught myself how to do this, and this is my way. I’ve found that, since you know how the pieces should look once they are cut away, you can actually SEE the lines you need to trace with your knife. Like JoeV said, with a little practice, it really is easy to do, and it’s incredibly economical!

Come on everyone……cut up your own chicken!! :clap:
 

Keltin

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yeah! cut your own chix!

i mean that; more economical!.

It's amazing how much cheaper it is, isn't it! I blows me away how much the price jumps once their butcher lays hands on the meat!
 

luvs

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i'd love to own a kitchen scale to weigh the trimmings, then compare. Chef assured us that it's much cheaper to butcher your own meats, & we butchered/prepped most of the food the storeroom sent to us a few semesters. meats, fish, chix, we were s'possed to recieve gamemeats & didn't recieve those, or else i was ill those days & didn't attend.
 

Sass Muffin

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Thanks Keltin.
I can honestly say, I have never cut up a whole chicken.
Now, I know how.
Fantastic tutorial, and thanks for taking the time to share it here.
 

joec

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My wife actually boned a turkey from the inside once, a bone at a time. No technique involved other than not knowing any better at the time. :shock:
 

JoeV

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i'd love to own a kitchen scale to weigh the trimmings, then compare. Chef assured us that it's much cheaper to butcher your own meats, & we butchered/prepped most of the food the storeroom sent to us a few semesters. meats, fish, chix, we were s'possed to recieve gamemeats & didn't recieve those, or else i was ill those days & didn't attend.
I did just that with the leg quarters. Finished fillets were 2.4# and the bones and fat were 2.6# Almost equal amounts of meat and bones. Now, before anyone jumps to the conclusion that the filleted meat actually cost $.99 per pound, you must factor in that you have bones and skin for making stock. Same if you fillet chicken breast. If you save enough of the bones and fat, there is no need for buying chicken for stock/soup unless you want the meat in the soup later. So, there is NO waste in this effort, as the cast-offs have value as well as the fillet. Unless you are charging yourself for your own time (yeah, right, like I'm going to send myself a bill for butchering. :bonk:), this is a very economical way to get boneless cuts of meats.
 

High Cheese

Saucier
Nice pics Keltin.:thumb:

Here's a decent video on boning a whole chicken.

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qe4qSPojwtw&feature=related[/ame]
 
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