Whole chicken, cut up

[Petek]

I usually buy either whole chickens (to roast), or packaged chicken parts of the same kind (all thighs, drumsticks or breasts). Yesterday, I wanted to buy a package of cut up chicken parts from a whole hen. I was surprised to find that the store (a large chain) didn't have such an item. Fortunately, I found a butcher who offered to cut a chicken up for me.

Is this a trend that I missed? I clearly recall that grocery stores used to offer packages of whole chickens, cut up. I should have asked that the butcher, but didn't.

 

[sattie]

Have you thought about cutting up your own? I don't buy chicken pieces anymore, I buy them whole and whack em up myself. It's really easy to do provided you have the right tools.

 

[CharlieD]

what's that chef name? Yang or something? Yang can cook show. On the show he would recomend to buy the hole chicken and cut it at home. he would also show how it is done and how fast. I do no remember exactly, but for sure he'd do it in under a minute.

 

[CharlieD]

P.S. Where I shop chickens come almost always cut up. I hate that. I love cutting my own chicken.

 

[Katie H]

I haven't seen packaged (whole) cut up chickens in the grocery store/market in too many years to count. I just cut my own.

 

[Andy M.]

Next time, buy a whole chicken and try the following:

Chicken Surgery

It’s really not all that difficult.

Start with the wings. Cut through the skin and flesh around the joint where the wing meets the body. Lift up the chicken by the wing to make this a little easier. Grab the wing in one hand and the body in the other and bend the wing back to crack the joint. This will expose the location of the joint, making it fairly easy to spot. Using a sharp knife, cut through the joint, moving the knife around to find the path of least resistance. Repeat on the other side. Cut off the tip sections of the wings and save them for stock.

The process for the leg/thigh is generally the same.

Once the two leg/thighs are off the carcass, you can separate them at the leg/thigh joint. Look for a line of fat on the skinless side of the leg/thigh where the drumstick and thigh meet. This strip of fat marks the location of the joint. Cut along the line through the joint.

Using kitchen shears or a sharp knife, cut along both sides of the backbone to separate it from the whole breast. Save the backbone for stock.

Place the chicken body on a cutting board, backbone side up, and spread the breasts apart and press them to the cutting board, so the carcass is flat and bone side up. Cut along the line where the ribs meet the breast (keel) bone and cut through the meat.

This will give you eight pieces (two each wings, thighs, legs and breasts.)

The key is to locate the joints so you can cut through them easily. Bending the joints back so they “break” makes that easier.

 

[sattie]

And don't forget to save the carcass for stock!

 

[Dave Hutchins]

Andy M is right on track. If I had a nickle for every chicken I cut up I would be sitting on the beach drinking those funny drinks with a umbrella in them

 

[stinemates]

Funny drinks with the umbrella are fun to drink, Dave!

There's nothing I like better than butchering 2 chickens every weekend. I go to Whole Foods (or similar) get freshly slaughtered organic chicken, and butcher them that afternoon. A sharp boning knife is EXTREMELY recommended, the difference is night and day.

If you're looking to spend a bit of money on a quality boning knife, I would suggest the following: Hattori Forum High End Chefs Knives Japanese Knife,Japanese Kitchen Knife,Japanese Chef's Knives.Com

Or, for a bit cheaper:
VG Series Japanese Knife,Japanese Kitchen Knife,Japanese Chef's Knives.Com

The boning knife's are marked as such

 

[Ask-A-Butcher]

To add to Andy's post, here is a video

Basic cut-up chicken and Spatchcocking combined*

Video of chicken cutting

* the quality of this video has been decreased for broadcast over the internet. The full video on DVD is of a better quality. Thanks for your understanding.

 

[LadyCook61]

what's that chef name? Yang or something? Yang can cook show. On the show he would recomend to buy the hole chicken and cut it at home. he would also show how it is done and how fast. I do no remember exactly, but for sure he'd do it in under a minute.

Martin Yan can cut up anything real fast.

 

[Robo410]

I cut my own...make stock with the backs necks etc. It's part of my knife skills maintanence program...I use a cleaver. One of my chef instructors at the Culinary is the Asian chef...she can take a chicken from living to served in 4 minutes or less...I've heard she could do it in 3!

 

[pacanis]

To add to Andy's post, here is a video

Basic cut-up chicken and Spatchcocking combined*

Video of chicken cutting

* the quality of this video has been decreased for broadcast over the internet. The full video on DVD is of a better quality. Thanks for your understanding.

Very nice. Thanks for posting that.
I don't like handling raw poultry, but I just might give that a try and become accustomed to it. The gloves were a nice touch, too.

Are poultry scissors the same as kitchen scissors?

 

[CharlieD]

I was not that impresed with chicken cutting. The first thing one should not do is to wash chicken anyway.

 

[Constance]

I had to teach myself to cut up a chicken when I was a young bride. Back then, I could get small whole chickens on sale for 25 cents a lb. We were poor, so we ate a lot of chicken.
You can feel your way through most of it. I remembered my grandma's fried chicken, and what the pieces looked like, and had no problem until I got to the breast. Grandma cut her chicken breasts into three pieces, and I didn't know how to do that.
I went to the neighbor lady for advice, and she said just take a sharp knife, stick it in the bone, and cut it right down the middle.

I later found out how Grandma got three pieces out of the breast; The first, and best piece is the pulley bone (wish bone), which is surrounded with the prime white meat. Find the v-shaped bone, and cut that portion out.
Once the pulley bone is removed, cut the remaining portion in half, right through that gristle in the middle. It's very easy then to remove that gristle, if you want.

 

[auntdot]

Yes Charlie, I remember Martin Yan cutting up a chicken in gosh, thirty seconds or so. I got a cleaver and could do it in about two minutes. It was a bunch of fun.

That was a great video Ask-A-Chef - unfortunately I can only get dial up and it took half a week to load, but it was worth it.

But there are other ways to cut up a chicken. If you want the half breasts with the wing attached and the legs and thighs together as separate pieces it is a fairly quick process.

Actually I prefer the half breast with bone and keel with skin to the boneless, skinless breasts that are so popular today.

They seem to have so much more flavor.

Anyway the way to learn to cut up fowl is to watch someone else do it - I learned as a kid in a supermarket before they put me to work doing it. It was against the union but the butcher needed the help and heck, I was only a kid.

Look at some videos or on TV. And look at the bird. Move the leg. You will get an idea where the leg and thigh are attached to the bird. Cut through the flesh. You will find a bone and socket joint. Aim through the space between the two bones of the joint and you will have separated the two. Finish off cutting the meat.

The breast is a bit touger so look at videos.

But cutting up a chicken is a cooking technique that once leaned you will find very useful.

And it leaves a lot of chicken for stock.

 

[Petek]

Thanks for all the replies. Really interesting information!

 

[CharlieD]

Aundot, speaking of the half breast with the bone atached. That is the exact piece one should use for chicken Kiev, unlike some ground meat kutlets in frozen section.

 

[suziquzie]

Lately at the bigger stores here I have a harder time finding a whole chicken than a cut up one. If they do have sime they are all 3 lbs. How does one feed a family of 5 with a 3 lb chicken? At super WalMart I have better luck, they have 4-5 lb whole chickens there, and usually much cheaper than the others.

 

[CharlieD]

I hate those pigion size chickens. Nothing like a good 5-6 pounds roaster.