How to portion a chicken on the bone? It’s not as hard as you think. This is a perfect way to prepare a chicken for a casserole, quick oven roasting, or curries. This is the cutting method I use for the barbecue or making my Tandoori Chicken joints. I much prefer to have my chicken on the bone, when possible, it gives the meat a better flavour and helps keep it juicy. I’m using a free-range bird to get the best flavour from the meat.
The advantage of doing this yourself is that you have control over the type of chicken you use. It also works out cheaper to buy a whole bird and dissect it yourself rather than buy chicken joints of an unknown origin ready prepared. And as a bonus to get the bits to make a great stock. This method of cutting will provide me with ten pieces of ready to cook meat. And the ability to give each guest both white and dark meat if wished.
Get friendly with your chicken
The last thing we want is to have bone fragments floating around in our food. You can avoid this by cutting naturally though the joints as much as possible. Before you start getting your hands dirty have a look at the bird and familiarise yourself with the layout of the bones.
I find the best way to explain this is to compare the bird with your own body. Now imagine the bird sitting up on its parsons’ nose. From the top you have the neck, down to the shoulders, then the chest with the spine at the back. Right down to the hips leading on to the thighs, knees and finally shins.
Looking at the bird in this way it’s a lot easier to find the joints and separate them rather than trying to hack through bone. These instructions are for a right-handed person. If you’re left-handed simply reverse your starting point.
Getting organised.
You will need a sharp knife; I am using a small cook’s knife and a pair of strong kitchen scissors. Always use a separate board for cutting meat and place a damp cloth under the board to avoid it slipping when you are working. Wood is not ideal surface for meat as meat juices can seep into the wood. I use a red plastic board that is easy to clean and can go into the dishwasher.
Have a tray large enough to take all the chicken pieces and carcase. And it’s a good idea to always wear a pair of disposable gloves to keep your hands clean. Before you start read through the instructions twice and have a look at the video. If you are on a laptop follow the pictures for reference.
Hygiene
We need to be aware that while eggs are safe to eat underdone. The chicken meat itself may well be harbouring bacteria which are dangerous to us, unless cooked through. The last thing we want to do is spread these bacteria all around the kitchen. When dealing with raw meats, always do this before, and separately to any other cooking you may be doing.
And the big no-no DO NOT WASH YOUR POULTRY!!!! Washing the bird particularly in your kitchen sink will simply transfer the bacteria all around the kitchen. I mean would you take the raw bird and rub it all over the worktops and utensils in the kitchen? Of course not, but washing the bird will have the same affect. It the bird is damp or has juices inside dry it off with kitchen paper and immediately throw it away. Make sure you dispose of any packaging as well and don’t leave it hanging around.
OK, less of the lecture. Let’s get started.
First the legs.
Take the bird and place it on the board with the legs facing towards you. Pull the left leg away from the body and slice down through the skin between the leg and the breast. Using the left hand, bend the leg downwards away from the breast then twist the bird on its side.
This will allow you to bend the leg right back and dislocate the hip joint. To remove the leg from the carcase we simply slice the skin away between the thigh and pelvic bone. If you can, try to capture the piece of meat known as the ‘oyster’. This sits on the pelvic bone in a small depression at the head end of the bone. It’s a shame to leave good meat on the carcase and boosts the size of the thigh. Rotate the bird and remove the other leg. Then place both legs on your tray
On to the wings.
Open out the wings but don’t pull them right out or they will be more difficult to cut. Place your knife on the left-hand wing (assuming you are right-handed) just on the tip of the first joint out from the body and slice downwards. Your knife should slice though between the bones removing the wing and wing tip.
If it won’t go, don’t push harder, try repositioning the knife making sure you’re not pulling the wing outwards. Put the wing onto your tray, we can use these for the BBQ, have them spiced as a party snack or use then to boost a stock. Rotate the bird around and repeat the process on the
Make a wish!
Turn your attention to the breast meat. One of the key skills to learn with poultry is removing the wishbone. It’s a small bone running from one side of the neck to the other and down to the breastbone. It’s quite small but if not removed will trap quite a bit of good meat on to the carcase. Even if you’re just going to roast the bird whole, remove the wishbone. If you are picking up your Christmas turkey from the bitcher, ask him to do it, it makes the carving so much easier.
At the neck end of the bird, trim off any excess skin and examine the cavity. You should see a faint line just under the meat at both sides of the breast. Use the point of your knife to scrape back the covering and you will see the bone below. With the bird flat on the board carefully place the tip of the knife under the bone and cut down. The knife should slice down with very little resistance. Repeat this on the other side, then with index finger and thumb you should be able to twist the bone out.
Almost there!
All that’s now left to do is deal with the breast meat, we are going to remove two mini chicken Supremes first. Put the bird with the neck end towards you. Each side of the breast will still have a wing bone attached. Place your knife on the left-hand side of the bird sitting on the skin where the wing bone joins the carcase. The knife should be slightly angled out from the breastbone, then slice down.
Once again don’t use pressure to cut through, let the knife be guided by the carcase. All been well the knife should find its way down to the wing joint when we can cut though. Release the supreme and add to the tray.
To remove the second supreme, it’s the same process but don’t rotate the bird, keep it facing towards you.
The centre section.
The next thing is to cut off the centre section of meat still on the carcase. If you are skilled with the knife that will do the job. If you’re not 100% sure use a good pair of kitchen scissors for this.
Put the carcase on its side and snip down the bones from the parsons’ nose end to the neck just where the meat finishes. Turn the bird over and repeat, lift off the meat section and one or two small snips should release it.
Place the section horizontally on the board skin side up and simply cut straight down across the joint to create two equal pieces. Then add to your tray.
Separating the legs
It’s a good idea to separate the thigh and drumstick of the legs. The meat on each cooks differently and benefits from been used correctly. The drumsticks again can go on the BBQ, roasted, or be poached, skinned, breadcrumbed, and fried for the classic fried chicken. The thighs are the best part of the bird. If you are looking to make a chicken casserole or curry, its thighs every time. Breast meat is dry and stringy by comparison.
Take one of the legs and lay it on the board skin side down. Place your finger on the hip joint of the thigh and slowly run it longways towards the middle of the leg. You will notice a line of fat following the same line. This directly over the thigh bone and is a major help in locating the bone if you wish to remove it later. Where this line finishes is the ‘knee’ joint. There, you should then see a second line of fat running across the leg. This indicates the line of the joint between the bones.
Place your knife on this line and slice down. With luck you will separate the drumstick and thigh without cutting through any bones. If you can’t get through, try a slight repositioning of the knife. Make sure you are slicing, not just pushing the knife through. When done add to your tray and bingo – you have just mastered dissecting a chicken.
Congratulations! You made it.
Well, that’s a very long explanation of a reasonably straightforward job- honestly! Do try it you wont regret it and after a couple of goes you will do it without thinking. There are other options in breaking down the bird, ill cover these on other pages or its just toooooo much information.
But here’s the good news, the configuration of all poultry and feathered game is similar. So once you have mastered a chicken you are set up to tackle a duck, pheasant, pigeon, or turkey, its just a matter of scale.
Enjoy Life,
John