Life of Val

How to Cut Up a Chicken

1. With chicken breast side up, pull each leg away from body, then slice through skin between breast and drumstick.

2. Turn chicken on its side. Bend each leg back until thighbone pops out of its socket. Cut through joint and skin to detach leg completely.

3. With chicken on its sdie, pull each wing away from body. Cut through joint and remove wing.

4. Lift up chicken and cut downward through rib cage and then shoulder joints to separate breast from back (save back for stock).

5. Place breast skin side down. Split center bone using a chopping motion, then slice through meat and skin to separate into 2 pieces.

6. To cut breast havles into quarters, turn each skin side up and cut in half diagonally through bone.

7. To divide the legs, turn each skin side down and cut through joints (along with fat line) to separate thigh from drumstick.

8. You should end up with 6-10 parts, depending on whether you divided the breast halves and legs.

Traversing the anatomy of a chicken sounds easier than it is. But if you practice a little, you’ll be guest starring on Good Eats in no time. I suggest buying a couple whole chickens and setting aside the time and counter space to do them both at once. You will have a much easier time with the second one once you’ve practiced with the first. Freeze the parts you don’t use. Or, apply any of these steps to individual pieces and notice how much you save. Last week, I made a pasta recipe that called for boneless skinless breasts and bought double the amount of breasts with ribs and skin for half the price.