How to properly carve chicken: 9 ways

In the preparation of poultry dishes, the most difficult thing is probably to cut the carcass. Not every housewife can easily cope with this task, because it is important to have certain skills and knowledge. If you cut the meat carefully, then most of it will be part of the dish and not go with the bones to waste.

If you buy a whole bird, it is better to cut it in portions right away. Different parts of the bird can be used for different dishes. The head and neck and back make for rich chicken broths, while the legs are good for appetizers and hot dishes. The fillet is the tastiest and leanest part of the chicken. If the bird is gutted, you can prepare liver, hearts or stomachs.

What tools are needed to cut the chicken

Before cutting the chicken, you need to prepare the kitchen countertop for this. It is desirable to cover it with oilcloth.

1. The basic tool is a cutting board. It is better to give preference to plastic, because wood is good at absorbing unpleasant odors, and glass will not withstand strong pressure. It is better to allocate a separate board for cutting the chicken, as well as periodically replace it with a new one. If there are only wooden boards in the house, you should wrap them in cellophane before gutting the bird.
2. For bones, skin, giblets you need to prepare some container - a bowl or a pot. It is desirable to wrap the dishes in cling film, too.
3. To cut the bird, a certain knife is used: it should be narrow, steel, with a curved end and a firm handle. Another option is called a bone knife. It is easy to distinguish among the others, because the tip of the blade has a triangular shape. The sharpening can be unilateral or bilateral. The length of the blade is usually up to 21 cm. If the bone knife blade is short (10-15 cm) - it's not meant for poultry, but for fish.
4. If the chicken has to be gutted, a cutting fork comes in handy. With its help you can get all the by-products (stomach, heart, intestines, lungs, liver) without damaging the carcass. This is very important - if the meat becomes soaked with fluid from the organs, becomes bitter and has an unpleasant odor - it will definitely spoil the impression of the dish. A cutting fork guts without much effort and dirt.
5. Professionals also have kitchen scissors in their arsenal. They easily cut skin and sinews. But if there are no scissors in the kitchen, one can use a carving knife.

Preparing the carcass for cutting

Before the chicken is on the store counter, it goes through the following stages of preparation.

1. Slaughtering. The bird is watered to clean its internal organs. Today, electric shocks are used for slaughtering in most cases.
2. Exsanguination. The carcass is hung over a container, and all the blood drains out.
3. Plucking. Carried out manually or mechanically.
4. Gutting. Before starting to gut the chicken, rinse well under running water. Carefully extract internal organs.
5. Cutting. Sometimes the store sells ready-made half-finished products, such as just fillets (white meat), shanks, or wings.

If you buy it from a farmer, you will have to gut it and cut it up yourself.

1. Amputate the head and limbs. A household hatchet or sharp knife will come in handy for this.
2. Remove the anus. Make a cut, it is important not to touch the intestines, so there is no need to hurry, especially if cutting the chicken for the first time. When it is necessary to prepare a rooster, small incisions are made on the goose to expose the special glands, they are also necessarily removed.
3. Carefully pull out the goiter. After it, the esophagus and the larynx immediately come out. If the slaughter is performed according to the rules, the intestines will not show any remnants of food.
4. Cut open the skin. Make an incision from the removed anus along the entire torso. The skin should crack itself, if it does not, it can be torn by hand.
5. Remove the ventricle, liver and spleen. Tear the junction with the pulp with a knife so as not to puncture it. Do not remove the spleen from the liver, separate them later. This way the bile is guaranteed not to get on the meat.
6. Remove the heart and lungs. Before taking them out, the surrounding fibers and arteries should be cut.

How to cut the chicken

The option of cutting depends on what will be done with the meat later. The whole bird after gutting can be sent to the oven. In all other cases, it will have to be cut into portions.

One of the most economical methods is cutting without waste. This is how housewives make preparations for different dishes, a set for broth. You can simply divide it into separate portions. This method is suitable if the carcass needs to be fried on a grill, pan or baked. All unnecessary stuff is thrown away by the cook. There is also boneless cutting. The flesh is cut from the bones to make mince or rolls.

To separate the chicken without waste, it should be well washed and dried. Then do this:

1. Arrange on a board so that the breast is toward the top. Notch the chicken at the junction of the torso and thighs. It is not difficult to separate the joint, just pull the ham, turn it out slightly, cut it off.
2. Move on to the wings. Each wing pull on itself and twist, only then cut off.
3. Separate the white meat from the bone. Should turn out two sirloin parts. Only back is left on the bone. It can also be removed from the ribs, if necessary. But for soup it is advised to leave it on the bone, so the broth will be more rich.
4. If desired, divide the chicken legs into several pieces, remove the fat from the meat. It can be useful in frying.

Into portions

To do so is not always possible at once. To be even appetizing slices, you will have to try hard. The result will be 8 pieces.

1. Separate the thighs. Put the bird on its back. Pull the thigh, twist it and cut it off when the bone pops out of the joint.
2. Turn chicken, cut lengthwise around thigh line. Separate the thigh and shin. A clue will be the fat layer in this area.
3. Under the breast, find the joint that connects the wings to the sirloin by touch, cut it off with a knife.
4. Put the carcass on its side, take kitchen scissors. Cut along the fat strip and separate the breast from the back. Repeat on the other side. If there are no scissors, you can do it with a knife, but in the first case the pieces will be neater.
5. To clean the breast from the bone, turn the meat skin side down, cut along the cartilage on both sides. Through the cuts, feel for the bone and pull on yourself with effort. As only the sirloin remains, turn the breast the other side and divide in half.

For frying.

There is another way to portion the chicken, but it requires more skill:

1. Lay the carcass on the back.
2. Cut off the legs.
3. Divide the thighs into thighs and shins.
4. Cut the rest of the bird in two pieces along a vertical line along the breast and back.
5. Divide the resulting pieces in half horizontally.

As a result you have 2 shanks, 2 thighs, 2 lower breasts, 2 upper breasts with wings. The back also separate and throw away. This way of cutting looks very effective when grilling, barbecue, griddle.

For shish kebab

Chicken kebab is considered not only economical, but also a dietary option. For the kebab to turn out delicious, it is important not only to marinate and fry it well, but also to cut it.

1. Put the carcass on the back. Pull back the wing and cut it along the joint that connects it to the torso. Remove the outermost phalanx of the wing, as it easily burns while grilling and does not contain anything useful and delicious.
2. Separate the chicken thighs. They can be further divided into several parts, depending on the size of the chicken. If the bird is small, the legs can be roasted as a whole. If the chicken is large - divide the thighs into 2-3 parts and cut off the shins.
3. Separate the breast with a knife from the bone, divide into 4 equal parts.

It is important to note that the back does not go on a kebab. Then pierce the pieces with a skewer so that the meat is not torn, because the flesh is very tender. Portions of pieces on the skewer should be placed close to each other.

For the roll

Such a dish is made from pitted chicken flesh. You can use not only white meat, but also whole meat. For this, you will need a narrow deboning knife of small size, but it should be well sharpened beforehand. It is not necessary to cut off the skin, as it is necessary in this recipe.

1. Along the breast, make parallel cuts along the bone, and then open the body of the bird.
2. Separate the wings from the body.
3. Remove the back bone.
4. Remove the meat from the chicken thighs and shin. It is important not to miss a thin bone in the leg.
5. The large part of the wing, too, let on the roll after removing the bare bone.

For soup

A soup set is traditionally used to cook chicken broth. It consists of the skeleton, back, cartilage, neck and extreme phalanx of the wings. To cook the soup it is impossible to use only the bones, the dish will turn out rich, but tasteless and deprived of many useful microelements. As a rule, all the components of the soup set remain after the standard cutting of the chicken.

If you need to cook a soup for a baby or a diet version, it is better to use white meat. To do this, you should put the carcass on the back, make a vertical incision in the center. Then change the knife to a narrow boning knife and cut off the flesh from the bone.

Cook soup and from separate parts of the chicken, such as thighs, shanks, wings, or just the back. To separate these parts from the torso, you need to cut along the joint, rather than trying to saw through the bone. Preliminarily pull the limbs toward you and turn them out. This is done so that the bone comes out of the joint.

To bake.

It is possible to bake a whole chicken. There are many recipes for stuffing the bird with fruits, herbs and various spices. The finished dish turns out insanely delicious and fragrant. But sometimes you want to make a variety in a family or holiday dinner and bake individual portions.

You can bake chicken thighs, breasts and wings, or just fillets. The back and neck are not suitable for baking.

1. Separate thighs, if desired, cut along the fat layer in the knee into shank and thigh.
2. Separate wings from carcass if necessary. If baking them separately, it is worth removing the first phalanx of the wings and leaving it to cook the broth, as this part can burn in the oven.
3. Leave the breast and back. Separate the back along the backbone with a knife. The breast can be baked on the bone with the skin or separated from the ribs and leave the fillet.

The whole cutting process usually takes no more than 10 minutes. A professional chef does it even faster - in 5 minutes.

For chops

Chicken schnitzels are usually made from the sirloin part. Therefore, to prepare the dish, separate the chicken breast from the rest of the carcass, then remove the bones and cartilage, and skin. Divide the breast into two equal halves. From each cut off a small filet, it too will go on chops. To make a schnitzel from a small fillet you need to make an internal cut and open a piece accurately. The remaining flesh from the breast should be cut in thin slices, starting from the thick edge, lengthwise to the end.

Newcomers to cooking do not always manage to do this right away. Because it requires not only quality meat, well-sharpened knives for cutting, but also a certain skill. There is a little trick to cut a chicken breast into even thin slices for chops. To do this, you need to freeze the fillet a bit beforehand, so it is much easier to cut it with a sharp, thick knife, the pieces will not tear.

For stuffing

Stuffing of poultry is made only of meat. All bones, gristle, skin is better to remove, otherwise the product will turn out wiry, non-uniform and unpalatable. You can mince the meat from the whole chicken for tender and juicy cutlets. Some housewives make minced meat from the individual parts of the carcass to their liking. It is generally believed that the best mince from white meat, but this is not true, the dishes from it turn out dry, it is more difficult to give them the desired shape and consistency. However, this is easy to correct. If the mince turned out steep, it is mixed with an egg, and if liquid - with bread crumbs.

People who suffer from gastrointestinal diseases, and young children are still advised to eat white meat, it is dietary and there are more useful substances. To twist the chicken flesh, you need a meat grinder or food processor. To do this, separate the breast from the entire body: cut off the wings, legs, put it on its side and make longitudinal cuts. This way you can easily remove bones, skin, remaining cartilage, excess fat. Cut the fillets into medium sized pieces and put them in a mincer one by one. It is best prepared from fresh minced meat, you can add salt, seasonings (black, red pepper, curry, turmeric, ginger, thyme, sage, basil), eggs, breadcrumbs, chopped onions.

Fat minced meat is obtained from the chicken leg. To do this, you need to prepare chicken thighs and shins, with them you should use a knife to separate the meat from the bone. This will be easier to do if you use a narrow, sharp knife. The resulting flesh should be cut into small pieces and put through a meat grinder or blender.

Fillet.

Getting the fillet part of the bird when cutting it is easier than it may initially seem:

1. Lay the carcass breast side up.
2. Cut off the wings along with the joints.
3. Cut the skin in the area of the chicken thighs.
4. Break the chicken in half and separate the top from the bottom with a knife.
5. Set the bottom one aside and start cutting the top piece of chicken. Incise the back on both sides along the spine, separating the scapular part from the rib part. Remove backbone and neck.
6. Remove skin from breasts.
7. Use a knife to separate the breast meat from the bone. You can make incisions and then just rip out the bone with your hands. It is better to do this if you have experience in cutting, otherwise the delicate white meat can just tear.

How to skin a chicken

Chefs use chicken skin for stuffing. Separate it from the meat is easy and fast.

1. To do this, you need to put the carcass on the back and begin to separate the skin with a knife from the breast, then you can do it with your hands. The hardest part is to remove the skin near the hole where the gutting is done and in the central part of the breast. You should move from bottom to top with your hands, periodically cutting thin ligaments and film with the knife.
2. When you manage to separate the skin on the breast, go to the thighs, free the joints from the bone, turning the knee out to the side, cut. The tibia remains inside the skin, but the thighs should be carefully separated by hand and removed.
3. Turn the bird with its back up, separate the skin along the spine with a knife. In this area, the skin is attached to the bone rather tightly, you should try not to accidentally cut through it.
4. Release the shoulder joints and cut them, the wings remain inside the skin. If the neck of the chicken is saved, carefully cut the skin from it.

Cutting a chicken is easier than it may seem at first. You only need to prepare a cutting board, sharp knives, and a bowl for the meat. Trying to cut the bones is useless, you should always cut the joints and soft cartilage.