The ability to properly cut chicken or any other poultry served to the table allows you to get practically equal portioned pieces, which ensure the convenience of cooking and the external aesthetics of the finished dish. In addition, cutting chicken allows you to save your family budget, because individual parts of a carcass offered by stores are significantly more expensive than whole poultry.
When choosing chicken for the preparation of first and second courses, it is recommended to stop your attention not on frozen, but chilled products. The shelf life of chilled meat is no more than 5 days, and if after this time the poultry has not been purchased, then it is sent to the freezer, which reduces its nutritional and taste qualities.
Before proceeding to butchering the chicken, it must be rinsed under running water, the remaining fluff and feathers must be removed and dried with a paper towel. The bird is placed on a cutting board with the breast upwards and cuts are made between the thigh and body with a sharp knife. The leg of the chicken is pulled slightly to the side, releasing the joint and cutting it off from the carcass. The same steps are repeated on the other side of the chicken.
If the bird is rather large, then each leg is divided into two parts: the thigh and the lower leg, incising them in the joint area. To make a neat cut, the chicken leg is placed skin side down, the junction of the two bones is felt and, with a sharp movement of the knife, both parts are severed, thus obtaining four portions of dark meat.
In order to make it more convenient to separate the wings, they are pulled to the side and slightly turned in the opposite direction to facilitate finding the shoulder joint. The sharp tips of the wings can be trimmed and used for making broths. Another option for cutting a chicken is to separate the breast along with the wings, after which the breast is cut into two parts and the wing is separated from each.
It is convenient to separate the breast from the back using sharp kitchen scissors, cutting the sides of the carcass parallel to the spine. The breast is cut lengthwise into two parts; if it is necessary to obtain fillets, the meat is carefully cut from the bone and the skin is removed.
If you follow all the recommendations and cut the chicken correctly, you will get eight equal portioned pieces, convenient for frying, baking or stewing, as well as the back, ribs, wing trimmings, from which a rich aromatic broth is obtained.
