Breaking Down and Boning Poultry

[Chris Amirault]

I have been breaking down and boning a lot of chickens and ducks lately, making stock, preparing for confit, and so on, and I realize that I don't have a set routine. Sometimes I do the index finger under the ribs to release the breast meat; sometimes I use a knife. Sometimes I start by cutting out the backbone with shears; sometimes I start with removing the thigh and leg with the boning knife.

I haven't gotten out my Pepin Techniques to see how Jacques goes about it; impressive though it is, the video below of Hung Huynh "destroying" chickens on Top Chef isn't exactly step-by-step:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnMiyBLhonE

So I'm wondering how you do it. What first? What last? What's your preferred break down?

[weinoo]

I'm into taking both leg/thighs off (chicken), then the wings. then through the cartilage separating the breast from the back. At that point, I have a whole breast, bone-in. I slit it through the membrane and pop out the keel bone, then cut down so I have two breast halves, bone-in. From there, depends on whether I want boneless or not - usually for the breast, I keep that part of the bone in.

This is a method I first saw in Merle Ellis' great Cutting Up in the Kitchen, a long out-of-print book, that can probably still be found for around $1.

[heidih]

I use the same method as weinoo. Of course a very sharp boning knife helps. I also twist the leg and wing joint to "break" the connection which usually avoids cutting through that ball joint.

[IndyRob]

Here's another video that shows him doing one chicken all the way through... Still hard to follow, but it's all there

By his look at the end, I suspect he's tired of "Break down a chicken for us Hung!"

[ojisan]

A honesuki sure does make the job easier.

[Chris Amirault]

He's using a chef's knife, to get through those joints, I think.

[weinoo]

I never use a chef's knife to go through joints. If you hit the joint just right, a paring knife will go through.

[Alcuin]

I cut up a chicken mainly like weinoo, but with some tricks gleaned from others. One thing that I learned from Pepin is, when cutting a thigh/leg off the chicken, to cut until you expose the joint. Then with a sharp knife, just cut through the ligament that holds it together and (here's the trick) just grab the leg/thigh and pull it right off of the bird. That grabs all the meat cleanly off the chicken (along with some excess skin to trim). Its a cleaner and easier way to do it and it doesn't take all that much handstrength though it does take a little. The only part of cutting up a chicken that really involves any heavy knife work is splitting the breasts. If you're not doing that, a paring knife will suffice. Otherwise, I use whatever strong enough knife is handy (boning, chef's, even a heavy chinese cleaver).

[Dave the Cook]

I never use a chef's knife to go through joints. If you hit the joint just right, a paring knife will go through.

The trick to finding the right spot -- at least until you've had a lot of practice -- is to squeeze the two sides of the joint (leg and thigh or the first two wing postions) in your non-knife hand, with the joint pointing up. With the index finger of your knife hand, feel for the ball-shaped ends of the bones. Make a cut in the space in between those, and you'll expose the joint and probably cut through some sinew. Then lay the meat down on your board and finish the cut from the opposite side. (As Mitch indicates, a smaller knife is preferable.)

[chileheadmike]

I saw an episode of Yan Can Cook where he broke down a whole chicken and fileted the breasts in 12 seconds. Really impressive.

[qrn]

I use a Henckels Poultry shears to split the breast,fingers to remove the meat, and shears to cut the wings offjust above the first joint, and the tips of the legs off...and to remove the back from therestof the bird,,, ...all other cutting with a boning knife...

Bud

[ScoopKW]

Step 1 for me is to remove the wish bone. Makes the rest a lot easier.

But I can't break a bird down in 12 seconds....

[Chris Amirault]

And you remove the wish bone how, exactly?

[IndyRob]

And you remove the wish bone how, exactly?

Here's Thomas Keller doing it for a whole roasted chicken.

This one with Zimmern shows it closer, although his hand is in the way...

[Chris Amirault]

Shockingly, when I've tried to do that in the past, it looks a lot more Zimmern, with a big, ugly gash, and a lot less Keller.

[ScoopKW]

And you remove the wish bone how, exactly?

I stand the bird up on it's legs. I peel the neck flaps open and remove any fat sticking to the skin. Then, using the back of a boning knife, I repeatedly scrape up and down each side of the wishbone. In short order, the bone is revealed -- you can tell by the change in sound.

Then I use the point of the knife to go around the back of the bone and separate it from the breast meat. Finally, I reach in and grab the top of the wishbone with my thumb and index finger. (Mostly my index finger.)

The wishbone usually pops out in one piece.

This makes removing the breasts much much easier.

I can't watch the TK and Zimmern vids, because I'm on vacation and using "borrowed" wifi. But I'm sure that's basically my procedure.

[ChrisTaylor]

I just reach into the neck hole and pull it out with my fingers. It's easy to find by feel. Snap it if you have to: just ensure you take out both pieces.

For breaking down a chicken, I dislocate the legs from the main part of the carcass and simply slice through the gap between the bones. I tend not to divide the legs into thighs and drumsticks.

Edited December 22, 2010 by ChrisTaylor (log)

[ambra]

Best way to debone a chicken thigh?

So that you are left with a steak?

And something to stuff?

Thank you!

[haresfur]

I realise that I break down a chicken quite differently from Thomas Keller's instructions in At Home. Recently I've been doing the whole process with kitchen shears which I find to be quite easy although a bit slower but the basic method is mostly the same with a knife.

 

First I hold the bird up by a leg and start cutting the skin between the thigh and breast. It pretty much comes apart to the point you can cut through the hip joint and remove the leg. I then cut the thigh and drumstick meat apart until I can see the joint and cut through that. Do the same for the other leg. I then cut all the tendons at the end of the drumstick so the meat can relax as it cooks and end up more tender.

 

The shears work well to remove the wings more or less the same way as the legs and to cut off the wing tips for the dog or for stock. I then cut between the back and breast on each side from the tail towards the neck. I never bother cutting out the wish bone.  Do you? Then the breast is flipped inside-up and cut lengthwise through the bone into two pieces. I guess you could do 4 if you really wanted smaller pieces.  The backs go to the dog or stock, too.

 

The only finicky part is the leg tendons and if it weren't for aesthetics I'd probably just whack off the end of the drumstick. So how do you cut up chicken?

[Smithy]

I use more knife than shears, but the cuts sound much the same. I separate the leg quarters from the body, slicing between the thigh and chest and pulling the leg outward, then cutting through the joint. Wings get much the same treatment. Sometimes I use shears instead of a knife to snip the shoulder joints. (I haven't decided which works better for me.) Then I cut down the ribs to separate breast from back. If I'm going to do a boneless breast dish then I remove the breast meat from the bone at this stage; otherwise I mash that piece flat to break the breast bone and slice longitudinally down the middle. (My grandmother cut laterally instead, thereby ensuring an intact wishbone.)

I've never messed with cutting the leg tendons. I'll bet your birds look better than mine. :-)

[Anna N]

I am not finicky and just wack off the drumstick ends. I find I reach for the poultry shears to remove the backbone.

[Smithy]

I'd forgotten about removing the backbone! Yes, I usually use shears for that.

[Martin Fisher]

I've cut-up WAY too many chickens in my lifetime!

We used to raise up to 1,300 chickens, on pasture, each summer.

 

Anyway, the following video illustrates my preferred way of cutting up a chicken.....sans the wishbone nonsense at the beginning.

Note the way he pulls off the leg/thigh while capturing the "oyster."

The entire process shouldn't take more than 60 seconds, with practice. 

 

[dcarch]

You can tunnel bone a chicken. Taking out all the bones, including wing bones, without opening up the chicken. It makes a great stuffed chicken.

 

dcarch

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave W]

Dcarch brings the on topic thunder. Nice post.