How to cut up a chicken. All types of chicken carcass cutting with step-by-step instructions

Details and nuances are in the text below.

For those who choose chicken on store shelves, I advise you to choose chilled chicken, but not frozen. The fact is that the shelf life of chilled chicken is 3-5 days. If the chicken has not been purchased by this time, it is frozen, which significantly extends its shelf life. But we know that now this chicken is no longer of the first, but of the second freshness.

In addition, the chilled chicken can then be frozen in the freezer itself. And if the chicken is first defrosted, cut up, and then re-frozen, its taste will deteriorate significantly.

Let's start with the legs. The leg needs to be pulled towards the body and cut through the skin with a knife, and then the meat to the knee joint.

Next, the thigh needs to be turned to the side so that the two bones are separated. Cut off the leg from the body. Repeat the same with the other leg. Now you need to separate the thigh from the leg, straightening each leg and cutting it at the junction of the bones.

As a result, you should get the first 4 pieces.

Using a knife, cut down the middle of the ribs and separate the breast and wings from the bottom of the chicken. A guideline for the incision site can be a fatty streak in the form of a line that visually separates the back and chest.

Where this vein ends, we act “by eye” and by touch. As a result, we should have two parts: the chest and the back (from the “butt” to the neck inclusive)

Some housewives also serve the back on the table, but I advise you not to waste time on trifles. This part of the chicken is too bony; it is unlikely that any of the guests will be very happy if they get this piece. It’s better to boil the back and get a wonderful chicken broth.

Place the breast on a cutting board, skin side up, and cut off the skin at the neck area.

Now the breast needs to be cut into two halves.

Usually, most housewives cut up a chicken carcass as is customary in their family. But not everyone knows that there are general rules that allow you to do this faster and more rationally. Information on how to properly gut and cut up a chicken will be useful for both experienced housewives and those who are just starting to try their hand at this business.

After slaughtering and plucking a chicken, it should be gutted. Moreover, this must be done as soon as possible, since the insides quickly disappear. To work, you will need a medium-sized sharp knife or scissors for cutting, oilcloth, plates or bowls where you will need to put offal and waste, a cutting board made of wood or plastic.

In order to gut a chicken at home, follow the following sequence of actions:

1. Cover the table on which the carcass will lie with oilcloth so as not to smear it with grease.
2. Place the carcass back down, cut off the legs: bend the legs at the knee joint and cut the tendons with a knife.
3. Cut out the anus in a circular motion. This must be done carefully so as not to puncture the intestines.
4. Then cut the skin of the bird from the anus to the keel along the center line of the abdomen. You need to cut shallowly so as not to touch the abdominal organs.
5. Remove the entrails and place them in a bowl: the intestines separately into the waste, the stomach and liver into another container. When cutting out the liver, you must be extremely careful not to accidentally damage the gallbladder and spleen. It is easier to remove them when the liver is already removed from the carcass.
6. Remove the goiter with the esophagus. To make this easier, the crop should be empty. To do this, before slaughtering, the bird must not be fed for about 12 hours. If for some reason the crop is full of food, it can be removed through an incision in the skin.
7. Remove the genitals: cut out the testes of roosters and the ovaries of chickens.
8. Remove the lungs and heart.
9. Clean the stomach: cut it open, turn it inside out, remove any remaining food and peel off the inner lining.
10. Rinse the carcass and giblets with cold water.

Once you've finished gutting the chicken, you can start cutting it up.

How to choose a carcass in a store

When purchasing a chilled chicken carcass, you need to pay attention to its freshness. You can identify fresh chicken by the color of its skin, the elasticity of its muscle fibers and its smell. How to do it:

1. Inspect the carcass. If it shows bruises, damaged skin, and is yellow-gray in places, it is better not to buy it. The color of the skin and its thickness will indicate the age of the bird. In young chickens it is thin and pink, in old ones it is thick and yellowish.
2. Touch the carcass, press with your finger. If it is fresh, there will be no indentation from the finger, the fibers will quickly return to their previous state.
3. Smell the chicken. Fresh meat has a pleasant aroma, but stale chicken does not have it and acquires foreign odors.

This is enough to choose a fresh carcass in a store or market.

Chicken cutting procedure

If you do not intend to cook the carcass of an adult chicken or broiler whole, they need to be cut into small portions. There are several ways to cut up chicken carcasses for various dishes.

No waste

This method allows you to cut the chicken most profitably, so that waste is minimal. Step by step instructions:

1. Place the bird on its back, take it by the leg, pull it to the side and cut it to the joint. Turn the joint to the side and cut off the leg completely. Do the same with the second leg.
2. Separate the wings from the carcass: cut the shoulder joint, move the wing to the side and cut it off with a sharp knife.
3. Cut the bird carcass in half along the spine.
4. If the chicken is large, then its halves can be cut into 2 more parts.

Wash the resulting pieces and put them in the refrigerator freezer for storage.

For portioned pieces

This method allows you to cut the chicken into portioned pieces, almost identical in size, which can be served after cooking. Here's how to do it step by step:

1. Place the carcass on its back and make a longitudinal cut from the lower abdomen to the neck.
2. Use a large knife to separate the halves of the carcass from the back bones, cutting through the ribs on both sides. Set the ridge aside (later it can be used for broth).
3. Take one half, place it on the board, cut off the upper part of the wing to the first joint (send it into the broth), then the part to the next joint, and then the rest of the wing along with part of the carcass.
4. Cut the breast into 3 parts.
5. There is a leg left that needs to be divided into thigh and drumstick at the joint.
6. Do the same with the other half of the chicken.

This way you can get 12 portions. Cut up chicken breast will be used as fillet. You can make chops, cutlets from chicken fillet, boil it and put it in a salad.

Boneless

From chicken cut according to this scheme, you can prepare various dishes, including minced meat, rolls, and semi-finished meat products. But in the process of cutting chicken this way, you need to be able to not only accurately cut the meat from the bones, but also do it in such a way that the pieces retain an attractive appearance. To do this, be sure to take a thin, well-sharpened knife.

There are two ways to remove bones from a chicken: open and closed. If you follow the first one, then you need to do this:

1. Cut the skin vertically along the entire back.
2. Gradually separate the meat from the bones, moving upward from the tail.
3. Break the ischium, hip and wing joints.
4. Use a knife to score the meat and remove it from the bones.
5. Having reached the upper joint, break it too.
6. Turn the meat inside out and do the same with the other leg.
7. Cut off the ribs, keel and fork bones, and wings with scissors.

Closed way:

1. Cut the tail and remove the meat from the seat to the upper cartilage of the thigh.
2. Cut the joint and veins around the circumference of the leg.
3. Break the joint where the shin and thigh meet.
4. Do the same on the second side of the carcass.
5. Trim the meat together with the skin with a sharp knife from the ribs to the neck, cut off the neck.

This method is suitable for preparing stuffed chicken and chicken rolls.

For roll and stuffing

To prepare a roll from a whole carcass, you need to remove the bones and separate the meat from the frame, gradually turning it inside out. Then it can be boiled, wrapped in cling film, or baked in the oven, stuffed with vegetables, mushrooms or other suitable filling. You can even skin the whole chicken, minus the meat, and stuff that too.

Poultry meat is often used in home cooking. It makes excellent dishes for the dietary, daily and holiday tables. Housewives prefer to purchase a whole chicken carcass, and then divide it into parts themselves. This is more profitable, because the price for fillets is 60-70% higher than for a whole bird.

A few important points:
1. For preparing delicious broth, jellied meat, and baked dishes, poultry raised on a farm or at home is more suitable. Its meat differs in color, taste and fat content. The aroma during cooking is more rich and appetizing.
2. To prepare chopped cutlets, minced meat, and stews for the daily menu, they often use ordinary chickens raised at a poultry farm. Their weight ranges from one and a half to two kilograms.
Cutting a farm chicken carcass is somewhat more difficult, since its weight can be 4–5 kilograms. At the same time, the tendons and bones of such a bird are stronger, the flesh and skin are denser. But you can cope with this task if you know the correct deboning technology.

Preliminary preparation

How to properly cut a chicken into pieces

2018-12-12

Hello my dear readers! Recently I was very excited about the idea of ​​​​creating a small culinary guide for you. I want to collect articles in it that can be combined under the general title “How to make or cook something.” Today is another article in this series. We'll look at how to cut chicken into pieces and prepare a holiday roll.

I hope that many of you have already read my articles in this series about. And now we will learn how to “extract” this very breast from a whole raw chicken carcass. Of course, now it is possible to buy chicken fillet separately. But it costs more than using a whole chicken.

Are we zealous and thrifty housewives? From one chicken, cut into portions, we will prepare at least four dishes at once. For example, soup with dumplings - from the "frame", salad with Tiffany grapes - from boiled meat, removed from the bone after cooking the broth, chicken paprikash - from drumsticks and "legs", stuffed chicken breasts - from boneless fillet.

There are so many options for using individual parts of disassembled chicken! How do you like dishes such as chops and boiled ham (without using a ham maker)? Well, let's start looking at how to cut a chicken carcass? Let's go!

How to cut a chicken into pieces - photo step by step

How to separate legs and wings

Place the carcass breast side up.

Unfold and pull the leg away from the carcass, then cut through the skin between the breast and the “leg.” Do the same with the other leg.

Important Note

A sharp chef's knife makes cutting easier, and a separate meat cutting board helps avoid cross-contamination

Take the right leg with your left hand, and with an energetic gesture, turn it outward (to the left). In this case, you need to twist the joint so that its head pops out of the cup.

Cut the muscle and skin at the joint and separate the entire leg.

Separate the left leg by first turning the hip joint with your right hand.

If necessary, you can cut the leg into two parts, making a cut along the knee joint.

Turn the carcass on its side, move the wing away from the body, twist the joint so that the head pops out of its “nest”, separate the wings by cutting the joint.

Unfortunately, I did not capture the separation of the wings in the photo. I hope that my descriptions of how to do this correctly will help you do it correctly and without problems.

How to separate the breast

Before we fillet the breast, we need to remove all the skin from the remaining structure. Carefully pry the skin with the end of a sharp knife and remove it completely.

Note

The remaining skin can be stored in the freezer. It can be used to make chicken terrine

This is what we ended up with after cutting up a whole chicken - the skeleton along with the breast.

With both hands we vigorously break the structure in the middle. If it was not possible to completely break it, then use a sharp knife to cut what could not be broken. The separated part of the frame, on which the “tail” is located, is ready to be sent for cooking the broth.

Place the leftovers breast side down. Now you need to cut the chest part. Remove the fillet from both sides, carefully cutting it along the ribs with a sharp knife.

Along the way, we probe, trim, and with a sharp movement of our fingers remove the “bow.”

As a result, we get a whole fillet consisting of two parts.

The leftover ribs are also used to cook the broth.

It's something like in the photo.

We looked at how to cut chicken into pieces for subsequent boiling, frying, and baking in the oven. To make beautiful holiday rolls and galantines, we sometimes need a whole chicken skin in one piece. Removing the skin is not a complicated process, but it is very painstaking. I have selected a video clip for you, dear readers. It clearly, accessiblely, and to the point shows how to quickly cut up a chicken for a holiday roll.

Let's remember exactly how we were taught to cook chicken in the oven. We turn on the oven at 180 degrees. Salt, pepper and season the chicken with spices. We select our favorite spices so that the dish suits our taste. After all the dancing with tambourines, put the chicken in the oven for 50 minutes.

What do we get as a result? The skin on the bird is crispy, the thighs and wings are great, but the breast is killed! Because of such a high temperature, absolutely all the juices came out of it, of which there were few in it anyway.

Let's figure out how to do everything right. Today we will prepare baked chicken and sauce from the same chicken. It sounds strange, I agree, but it is very tasty!

Baked chicken with wine sauce… chicken

Ingredients:

• Chicken, carcass – 1 pc.
• Boiling water – approximately 1 liter
• Spices - favorite
• Onion - half a head
• Stem celery – 1 stalk
• Butter – 30-40 g
• Red wine - to taste
• Broth or water – 200-250 ml
• Salt, pepper to taste

We will walk you through a slightly different method of cooking chicken in the oven. We will have to cut out the extra bones from the chicken, which no one eats anyway, and they only interfere with speedy cooking. We use these bones to make sauce. If you have kitchen scissors, take them out. They will be very useful.

Step by step recipe

Let's start by preparing the chicken. Boil a full kettle of water. You can use it from the tap, we won’t have to drink it. After placing the chicken on a cutting board, you need to remove its fork bone, also known as wish-bone.

Now place the chicken on a baking sheet or in a deep bowl and scald with boiling water, trying to get through all the skin. The bird will shrink and change before our eyes. So, firstly, it looks more presentable, and secondly, the skin will be crispier.

Now we cut out from the chicken what we will use to prepare the sauce. We need to remove the dorsal and part of the keel bone. We make a cut along the cartilage on the chest, and then take scissors and boldly cut it out. We also cut out the back.

Now chicken cartilage lovers are cursing me because I advised removing the most delicious 🙂 Bake the cartilage along with the chicken if you want. If you, like me, don’t really like cartilage, then you can throw away the piece from the keel and leave the back, just remove from the inside of it all the offal that is in it.

You should end up with two neat halves like this. The good thing about this method is that the chicken cooks almost 2 times faster than usual. Sprinkle each half with your favorite spices and place small pieces of butter on each half. Don't forget to add salt.

Place the chicken in the oven at 160 degrees for 30-35 minutes, while we make the sauce.

Melt the butter over medium heat. Place the onion, celery and finely chopped chicken back into the pan and fry until golden brown.

Once everything is thoroughly toasted, pour in the red wine and wait until it evaporates. You can carefully smell the steam rising from the pan: if it does not smell of alcohol, it means the wine has evaporated. Add a cup of chicken broth. You can, of course, add water, but we love ourselves and don’t skimp on ourselves. Reduce heat to low and let simmer for about 15-20 minutes.

Strain the aromatic broth and wine through a sieve and pour it back into the pan, and the rest can be thrown away. Now you need to pay attention to the consistency of the sauce. If it is still liquid, then feel free to boil it. Just turn the heat up to medium and wait, swirling the pan: when it has boiled down by about half, reduce the heat, add a generous piece of butter, salt and pepper. Ready. Salt very carefully. Concentrated broths can be quite salty, so taste before adding salt.

That's essentially all. The chicken is ready, the sauce is wonderful, all that remains is to garnish it or, as in my case, just pour the sauce over half the carcass and start eating. Bon appetit!

Vyacheslav Pogorely