# Whole chicken, cut up



## Petek (Feb 25, 2008)

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.


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## sattie (Feb 25, 2008)

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.


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## CharlieD (Feb 25, 2008)

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.


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## CharlieD (Feb 25, 2008)

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


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## Katie H (Feb 25, 2008)

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.


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## Andy M. (Feb 25, 2008)

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.


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## sattie (Feb 25, 2008)

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


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## Dave Hutchins (Feb 26, 2008)

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


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## stinemates (Feb 26, 2008)

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


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## Ask-A-Butcher (Feb 26, 2008)

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.


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## LadyCook61 (Feb 26, 2008)

CharlieD said:


> 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.


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## Robo410 (Feb 26, 2008)

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!


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## pacanis (Feb 26, 2008)

Ask-A-Butcher said:


> To add to Andy's post, here is a video
> 
> Basic cut-up chicken and Spatchcocking combined*
> 
> ...


 
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?


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## CharlieD (Feb 26, 2008)

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


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## Constance (Feb 26, 2008)

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.


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## auntdot (Feb 26, 2008)

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.


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## Petek (Feb 26, 2008)

Thanks for all the replies. Really interesting information!


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## CharlieD (Feb 27, 2008)

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.


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## suziquzie (Feb 27, 2008)

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.


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## CharlieD (Feb 27, 2008)

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


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## Jeekinz (Feb 27, 2008)

I like whole chicken as well.  My market does offer cut-whole-chickens, but I never buy them.  There are so many options with a whole bird.  Butterflied on the grill, beer can chicken, roast chicken, etc.  You can cut it into parts to use the white meat one night then the dark meat another. 

I found a good sharp chefs knife or boning knife and a pair of shears to cut out the backbone works quite well.  Plus, you save a ton of money cutting down larger pieces of meat.


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## suziquzie (Feb 27, 2008)

CharlieD said:


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


 

you must be trying to chicken shop at Cub also!! I put one next to a game hen once and really the chicken wasn't any bigger!! 
I think it depends how close to the city you shop. Usually I am in Forest Lake, that's where the little ones are. When we lived in St. Paul and Maplewood they were small too. When I shop in Cambridge (a little more hick I guess!) I can find bigger ones, but maybe thats because that one is across from the Super WalMart and competing.


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## Andy M. (Feb 27, 2008)

Jeekinz said:


> ...Plus, you save a ton of money cutting down larger pieces of meat.


 

So very true!  You can get whole chickens on sale for a lot less than a dollar a pound.  Compare that to the cost of the individual parts that add up toa chicken and you will be amazed at the cost difference.  Then there are the parts you never get if you buy cut up poultry.  The backbone, wing tips and innards that can make a great stock.


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## GotGarlic (Feb 27, 2008)

suziquzie said:


> you must be trying to chicken shop at Cub also!! I put one next to a game hen once and really the chicken wasn't any bigger!!
> I think it depends how close to the city you shop. Usually I am in Forest Lake, that's where the little ones are. When we lived in St. Paul and Maplewood they were small too. When I shop in Cambridge (a little more hick I guess!) I can find bigger ones, but maybe thats because that one is across from the Super WalMart and competing.



It must have something to do with demand in various parts of the country, too. Wal-Mart in the small city where I live has chickens both whole and cut up, around 3-3.5 pounds, but at Food Lion, I can get 6-7 lb. roasters. I like those because there's a lot of extra meat (since there's only two of us) to freeze or use in different recipes.


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## suziquzie (Feb 27, 2008)

I would LOVE to find a 7 lb. chicken!!!!! I bet I could get 5 meals out of that if you include the chicken stock!


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## YT2095 (Feb 27, 2008)

I have to ask, and Don`t think it`s a stupid question!

but Why would you cut up a whole chicken into bits anyway?

I can see the reason for buying a bag of Wings or Drumsticks or breast, but a bag of a whole chicken cut up (or even doing it yourself), Why would you do that?

what sort of recipe would require this?


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## Andy M. (Feb 27, 2008)

suziquzie said:


> I would LOVE to find a 7 lb. chicken!!!!! I bet I could get 5 meals out of that if you include the chicken stock!


 

Our market regularly has Perdue and store brand roasters around 7 pounds.


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## suziquzie (Feb 27, 2008)

I better put in a request w/ DH to move back east. 
We don't even have Perdue here. It's the land of Gold n' Plump. They must be MN winter chickens 'cuz they ain't so plump!!!!


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## Andy M. (Feb 27, 2008)

YT2095 said:


> I have to ask, and Don`t think it`s a stupid question!
> 
> but Why would you cut up a whole chicken into bits anyway?
> 
> ...


 

The basic justification for this is that a whole chicken is much less expensive per pound than buying cut up pieces.  

The parts of a chicken you cut up may not be used in the same recipe.  You may use the breasts for one meal, the legs and thighs for another and save the wings until you have enough for a meal.  Then you save the carcass and innards for a stock at a future date.


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## Jeekinz (Feb 27, 2008)

YT, I'll butterfly a whole chicken to cook on the grill.  I take the bird and remove the backbone, then open up the carcass like a book and flatten it out.  I trim off the wing tips and tuck in the wings the best I can.  Season both sides with salt, pepper, olive oil and poultry seasoning and put the whole thing on the grill.  

Or, cut the chicken into quarters and use as the main ingredient in a braise.  You could also rost the parts over some root veggies.  Since there is more surface area, it takes less time to cook.  TIP: If you roast chicken parts, you can remove the breast meat early so it doesn't dry out.


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## YT2095 (Feb 27, 2008)

Coolness, I`m with you now 

Jeeks yeah I do that flattening out and BBQ too, it`s fantastic!


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## Robo410 (Feb 29, 2008)

YT, I can think of over 25 basic chicken saute recipes requiring chicken parts ( from wine herbs and butter to lardon and tomatoes to a classic caciatore or a cream and dill Moscow.)  I like meat on the bone for better flavor, and it is cheaper  to  cut  up your own.


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## buckytom (Feb 29, 2008)

robo, you're making me jones for chicken au vin.


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## mozart (Feb 29, 2008)

buckytom said:


> robo, you're making me jones for chicken au vin.


 
Bucky,
I take it French isn't your native tongue?


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## buckytom (Feb 29, 2008)

lol, mozart.

q sarah sarah.

one should not use certain terms, umm, willy nilly shall we say?


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## AllenOK (Feb 29, 2008)

suziequzie, just wait until your kids get older.  In my house, I have 5 kids ranging in ages from 3 - 13, and 3 adults (myself included).  If I want to cook roast chicken, I have to cook AT LEAST two 5 - 6 lb birds.  Even that is cutting it fine.  I would actually have to cook a small turkey, about 13 lbs or so, to guarantee everyone gets fed.

I actually buy chicken in the 10 lb bag of leg-and-thigh quarters, which around here costs $4.79 + tax for the bag.  47 cent / lb + tax is a pretty good buy, as far as I'm concerned.  I'll split each 10 lb bag into two 5 lb bags of parts, freeze them, and defrost them as needed.  Of course, now that my MIL is back living with us, grilling/baking chicken for that many people, even 5 lbs of parts isn't enough to satisfy everyone, but for a casserole, pot pie, etc., it's plenty.  If I smoke the chicken, I'll do an entire 10 lb bag, as the kids just can't get enough of my smoked chicken (neither can I, really).

I will buy breasts on occasion, to please my other half, as she doesn't really care for dark meat (but absolutely goes nuts for what I cook, go figure).

I've done the buy whole chickens and cut into parts bit, back when I was single.  Yes, it's a good idea to learn good knife skills, and to keep those skills (and knives) sharp.


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## Robo410 (Feb 29, 2008)

or just being precise because  one can't find coq easily in the US (old rooster isn't what Perdue is famous for!)


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## plumies (Feb 29, 2008)

Ming Tsai also has a video on how to break down a chicken that I thought was pretty straight forward:  http://www.ming.com/simplyming/video/breaking_chicken.html


I can break down a chicken pretty quick but I sometimes buy drumstick packages for certain dishes.


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## suziquzie (Feb 29, 2008)

AllenOK said:


> suziequzie, just wait until your kids get older. In my house, I have 5 kids ranging in ages from 3 - 13, and 3 adults (myself included). If I want to cook roast chicken, I have to cook AT LEAST two 5 - 6 lb birds. Even that is cutting it fine. I would actually have to cook a small turkey, about 13 lbs or so, to guarantee everyone gets fed.
> 
> I actually buy chicken in the 10 lb bag of leg-and-thigh quarters, which around here costs $4.79 + tax for the bag. 47 cent / lb + tax is a pretty good buy, as far as I'm concerned. I'll split each 10 lb bag into two 5 lb bags of parts, freeze them, and defrost them as needed. Of course, now that my MIL is back living with us, grilling/baking chicken for that many people, even 5 lbs of parts isn't enough to satisfy everyone, but for a casserole, pot pie, etc., it's plenty. If I smoke the chicken, I'll do an entire 10 lb bag, as the kids just can't get enough of my smoked chicken (neither can I, really).
> 
> ...


 
I can hardly wait. 
My 8 yr old is already to a point where he'd eat a whole roasted chicken if I let him, ok maybe half.... but he'd try for whole! 
None of us really like dark meat, 'cept the kids that just like to eat the legs. I think thats got more to do with the bone than the meat though. 
5 kids! Whew I'm glad I'm done, I'd be even more


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## YT2095 (Feb 29, 2008)

5 Kids, I`m jealous!

I`de love to have more, but it seems father Time will not allow for this, I`d be quite happy sticking in a few chickens into the oven for them, it must be great


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