How to Debone a Chicken

Posted on June 14th, 2009 by Carmelia

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Chicken is one of the cheapest and most versatile food around, and learning how to clean and prepare an essential kitchen skill. Deboning a chicken yourself also lessens the possibility of contracting food-borne diseases with less people handling the chicken. It also lessens the cost, as chickens already deboned are more expensive.This article will help you guide through a basic kitchen preparation skill. Here’s how to debone a chicken.

Materials

Chopping board
Boning knife
Carving knife
Gloves

Procedure

Wash your hands thoroughly and dry them. Put on your gloves.
Make sure that your chopping board is clean.
The chicken should be thawed before proceeding.
Place the chicken on the chopping board, with the breast side up.
Stretch out one chicken wing by pulling at the tip. Use the boning knife to cut off the wing’s tip and the wing joint in the middle. The largest wing bone should remain attached to the chicken. Do the same for the other wing.
Grasp the remainder of the chicken’s neck and pull up the loose skin from the inside.
Feel around for the wishbone inside the chicken’s neck area and use the boning knife to cut it free, or until the wishbone is free enough to be pulled out using your fingers.
Turn the chicken over, breast side down. Cut along from the top of the backbone to the tail. Cut as deep as you can until you can feel the bone. Do not break or penetrate the bone with your knife.
Use short and sharp strokes through the skin and close to the backbone. When you have cut through enough, use your fingers to carefully pull the flesh from the bones.
Locate the ball and socket joints that connect the wings and the thighs to the body. Cut through them so that they are separated from the flesh but still attached to the skin. Cut on both sides until it is only attached along the ridge of the breastbone. Gently use your fingers to separate the breastbone from the meat.
Locate the curved bone or the saber near the wing and cut it out from the meat.
Grasp the inside part of the wing bone and cut through the tendons, scraping the meat from the bone using the knife. Pull out the bone entirely.
Grasp the end part of the leg bone and chop it off using the cleaver. Do the same with the other side.
Insert the knife inside and slice the thigh bone free, pulling it out gently using your fingers.
Reposition the chicken when it is completely boneless so that the skin side is out.