Chicken Fabrication: how to butcher a whole chicken

Buying whole pieces of meat and cutting them up at home is a great skill to have and it can save you a lot of money! Once you know how to make the right cuts and how to use all of the parts, it's really not as daunting a task as you may think. I know several people who buy a few chickens a week and then devote a certain day to fabricating them and making stock and then they are good to go for at least another week. I don't buy that much simply because we don't eat a lot of chicken at my house, but being part of the cooking competition team at school, fabricating chickens is something I have to practice so I'm trying to make the switch from buying chicken parts to buying whole chickens and making my own parts. I think this also helps kids and adults connect with their food more as they see a piece of meat that actually resembles the living animal rather than just biting into a leg and not really thinking "this is a LEG". Also, I think whole chickens are usually a lot fresher than chicken parts and of course making your own stock much healthier as it doesn't have all the salt and preservatives in it and it's naturally gluten-free!
So, even if my pictures aren't perfect and it seems really confusing, I highly encourage everyone to at least try it once! It's okay if it takes you a long time! I need to cut my 15 minutes down to 3 minutes for competition so I can speak from experience when I say it really does get easier every time you do it. Maybe I'll even post a video of me fabricating when I get my time down just to show that it can be done...

First things first, you want to make sure

your boning knife (on left) and your

chef's knife (on right) are both nice and

sharp so that you can cut through the

flesh and bones with ease. If you do not

have a boning knife, you can just use a

chef's knife, but a boning knife is best.

Secondly, as part of mise en place, get out a

pan for the bones, a pan for the chicken pieces,

and a pan for the skin. If you intend to roast

the bones for stock, use a roasting pan.

Open the chickens from their bags in the sink

to drain so you don't get the blood everywhere.

(Make sure to thoroughly clean and sanitize

the sink afterwards as well as the counter tops!)

Assuming that your chicken is already gutted

of its internal organs, the first cut will be to

remove the wishbone, found just below where

the neck would be. Use your fingers to feels the

V shape of the bone and then make slits with

your boning knife around the shape of the bone.

Use your fingers to feel in the slits and grip

around the bone to pull/wiggle it out.

If the wishbone breaks while you try to remove

it, it's okay, just get all the pieces out as best

as you can and put them in the bone pan.

Next will be to remove the wings. At school we

cut our chickens to make "airline breasts", where

the arm bone is left in. If you don't want the bone

in, you can cut it out as you cut the breast off

of the the ribs. To remove the wings, first cut

on the fat line around the shoulder, as seen above.

 Here you are cutting through just the skin

and the meat, not the bone, all the way around.

Next you want to remove the wing in one

movement by bending the elbow backwards

and breaking the joint and then twisting to

remove the wing and the forearm bone, but

not the upper-arm bone. Do this with both

wings.

Here I have the removed wing in my hand and

the chicken with the arm bone still attached

for the airline breast. Place the wings in the

chicken piece pan.

Next, to remove the legs, you want to follow

the fat line again, between the hip and the leg.

You want to carefully just through the skin,

not the meat, so that the flesh is revealed.

Cut the skin far enough up and down so that

you can easily see the legs.

Flip the chicken over and grasp both legs.

Pull the legs backwards and bring

them together until they break.

Now, to remove the legs, use your fingers to

find the sockets of the hip and push into the

crevices to remove the little pockets of meat

there called the "oysters". This step is not

essential, but it's required at school and it is

how good to know how to get all the meat off.

Keep in mind, there are two sockets in the hip,

thus there are two oysters to remove. You

will know whether or not you have gotten the

oysters if you find little pockets of meat still

connected to the hip when you remove the

legs.

Once the oysters are removed, carefully cut

around the hip and then cut in between the leg

bone and hip joint to remove the thigh.

One thigh removed. Repeat with the other side.

Both legs removed.

To separate the lower portion of

the leg from the thigh, follow the

fat line (shown by my finger) on

the inside of the leg.

Use your finger to feel where the

joint is in the leg near that fat line

and then use your knife to make one

swift cut in between that joint.

If you feel bone, you are in the wrong

 place and just try moving over until

 you find the opening. You'll know it's

 right because it should cut very

smoothly and easily.

You now have your leg and thigh.

Repeat on the other side and place

all of the legs and thighs in the chicken

piece pan.

The next step is not as neat and

smooth as following fat lines. To

cut out the spine you need to make

a guideline slit on each side of the

spine and then use your chef's knife

to cut through the ribs all the way

down.

FYI: cutting through the spine  might take a

bit of work, but just keep pressing hard with

your chef's knife until you get through. As long

as you aren't cutting through to any of the meat,

you are fine.

Remove the spine, cut it into 3-4 in

pieces and place them in the bone

pan.

Once the spine has been removed, you will

see someting that looks like a spearhead

between the two breasts. This is the keel bone.

Make a slit down either side of the keel bone,

just cutting through the top of the flesh.

Use your fingers and go into the slits to separate

the keel bone from the flesh, then remove the

bone.

It's ok if the keel bone breaks as

you are removing it, just make sure

to get all the pieces out and place

them in the bone pan.

To separate the breasts, just cut

smoothly between them.

Both breasts, ready to debone.

Next, to remove the breasts, carefully use your

boning knife to cut off the ribs without taking

too much of the meat with them.

If you want your breast to be

airlined, be careful not to cut off

the arm bone as you are removing

the ribs. If you do not want the arm

bone in, simply cut it off with the ribs.

Ribs removed from the breast, airline bone left in.

For skinless breasts, simply slip your hand under

the skin and carefully pull it off of the flesh.

If the skin holds on tight, do not rip the skin, use

your knife to cut the skin off where it is connected.

Place the skin in the skin pan to be rendered for fat.

Once the skin is removed, trim off any visible

fat and add to the skin pan. Repeat with the

other breast. (sorry about the creepy-looking

hand..double-jointedness strikes again)

From here you are done fabricating and you can

proceed to use the chicken meat as you wish and

you can render the fat and use the bones to make

stock if desired.