Chicken Wing Surgery

[scott123]

I make a LOT of chicken wings and find myself spending quite a bit of time separating the wing from the drummette with kitchen shears. I initially thought that I could figure out some anatomical insight that would allow me to make quick work of it, but the more I understand the anatomy, it seems like brute force is the only way.

I've tried a knife and it seems to take even more time than shears do. A cleaver would probably make quick work of it, but I like to cut the wing right at the joint and I feel like my cleaver technique would be too imprecise and I'd end up cutting on the bone instead.

There has to be a better tool out there. I think a longer pair of kitchen shears would be ideal. The ones I have are 8" and they just don't give me the required torque. I've looked around for longer shears and it seems like they're all pretty much the same length. A pair of stainless steel tinsnips, if such a thing exists, would be fantastic. Regular tinsnips would work, but having to worry about rust would be a huge hassle.

Any ideas?

[mtigges]

heavy chinese cleaver, and lots of practice.

[divalasvegas]

I only use my trusty chef's knife. I lay the wing out on the chopping board, position the knife at the joint between the drummette and "long" part, and slice down hard, with the tip of the knife pointing down and touching the board and the backend of the knife resting on the wing. This takes all of 2 seconds. Then, also taking only another two seconds, since I always start off with whole wings, I do the same with the joint between the wing tip and that long part. In both cases my right hand is holding the knife and my left hand is on top keeping the wing spread apart and steadied, and especially to make sure I don't slice through anything I intend to keep. Toss the finished wing pieces into a waiting bowl (wing tips tossed into another bowl or freezer bag for later use to make chicken stock) and out of the way and grab the next one, maybe another 4-5 seconds? So that's 8-9 seconds per wing; pretty quick work I say. I think the trick is to hit the connecting joints at the right place. The more you do, the faster you'll be. Frankly, I couldn't imagine using kitchen shears for this.

Good luck.

[BarbaraY]

divalasvegas has the answer so far as I'm concerned. A sharp knife is the tool of choice for me, too. Would never have thought of using shears.

[I_call_the_duck]

Knife for me too--either my chef's knife or my cleaver.

[jsolomon]

A good chef's knife and a small mallet would be my tools of choice. Set the blade on the joint you want to cut and then whack through with a blow from the mallet.

Be careful not to do this simply on a bone, or you'll create bone fragments.

[mcattaneo23]

Its all practice man...a chef's knife and practice. When u can get that joint every time it becomes very easy and quick!!

[bradyjr]

There is a good line of separation right at the joint where the wing meets the drumette. Every restaurant that I have worked in served the boneless breast with the drumette attached. This means that the first step when cutting up a chicken is to cut through this joint. An accurate slice with a thin, sharp boning knife will separate the joint with almost no force. If you require force, then you are cutting through pieces that can cause bone unnecessary fragments. The way to find this line in the joint is practice.