Chef and I do lots of volunteer work. We did a lesson for a ladies’ ministry at our church on how to break down a chicken. It was quite fun, and we are going to share the steps to do this. Also, I feel it necessary to say that when you come across a blue underlined word, that means you can click and buy it! Doing so will help our family. (Those that know this are rolling their eyes…I just know it.) All pictures were taken by me while Chef was breaking down the chicken. He was moving so fast, I had to tell him to stop at each cut and let me take a picture. He’s so patient!

Step 1

Put your gloves on for sanitation purposes. Unwrap your chicken onto your cutting board. Lay out the chicken. We usually try to buy organic or all natural chickens. We went all organic about two years ago and my husbands’ indigestion has improved 99%. The 1% is when we until we eat out. Jay usually cooks every night. If he has to work, it’s popcorn and samiges for the rest of us…

Step 2

Slice through the skin above the thighs on both sides of the breast bone with your knife. Chef used a 6 inch Kramer knife. You can use an 8 inch Victorinox knife, also. Shun knives are a family favorite, and you can’t go wrong with those. If you don’t have anything fancy, you can use whatever you have. But remember this: Having the right tools will make your task much easier.

Your chicken should now look like the picture above.

Step 3

Using the tip of your knife, debone the breast until it is laying over the wing. What does debone mean? It means to remove the meat from the bone. Make your chicken look like this picture below. The middle ridge is the breast bone.

Step 4

Now do the same for the other side, as well. Until it looks like this:

The chicken’s legs are being pulled so you can see how it will look.

Step 5

Cut down the wish bone through the wing joint. Key to keeping the wing attached is holding it under the breast.

Step 6

Do the same for the other side.

Your breastless chicken should look like this:

The breast is pictured below. The picture  on the left is one breast turned over. The picture on the right shows two breasts with the wing attached.

Step 7

Take your knife and cut the wing off, as shown in the picture.

Voila! You now have two wings (mmmm….I can taste it now) and two breasts. My favorite part of Chef doing this demo for our ministry ladies, was their audible gasps as the bones crunched under his knife. It was great entertainment.

Step 8

Next you pop the joints of both legs until they touch each other. You are going to pull them close together until they touch.

Step 9

Run your knife down to the thigh joint. Grab leg quarter and pull towards the neck area. This should bring oyster meat out.

Step 10

Step 11

Empty holes are where oysters once were. Then split the carcass in half.

Step 12

Split the carcass in half again. The smaller pieces the better. These pieces will be used to make the best chicken stock on earth (maybe not on earth, but it’s so good).

This completes the breaking down of a chicken. We hope you’ve learned something. To be honest, I am still learning. I’ve learned that you must practice, practice, practice to be able to do something well and in a timely manner. Let us know what you think!