Cutting Up a Whole Chicken for Two Recipes

Recipes calling for white and dark meat, respectively, resulted in my buying a whole bird. I figured I'd get everything I'd need without excess flesh or ridiculous prices. The whole bird imaged above was 3.93 lbs, and priced at $0.69/lb, cost me $2.71.

I thought I'd covered how to cut up a whole chicken into working pieces, but I see now I hadn't. I regret I didn't get images of how I cut up this bird. It's sort of like how you'd carve a roasted turkey. But a raw bird is actually, in a way, easier.

When I butcher/cut up/bone a chicken, I do a hybrid between what Alton Brown and Andrew Zimmern do:

• Alton Brown (see this video but fast forward to 3:30 and watch it through to 8:01), and
• Andrew Zimmern (see this video and watch it from beginning to end)

Note that both are keen on the "oyster" and believe me, you don't want to skimp on that component.
Anyway, my end result is a plate of chicken pieces as well as a chicken carcass.
The carcass immediately went into a Ziploc gallon-sized freezer bag.

Then I removed the skin from the breasts and separated the tenderloins from the breasts. The breast skin went into the trash. The breast and tenderloin meat were cut into approximately 3/4" pieces for one of the recipes.


That left me with a plate of thighs, drums, and wings. I threw the wings into the bag with the chicken frame/carcass.


Then I proceeded, for the first time ever, to remove dark flesh from thigh and drum bones of a chicken. It took quite a few minutes as I'd never done it before. I was getting a little frustrated, wondering why my cheap ass didn't just buy the dark meat.

Here's a couple videos to get the job done, but realize now I should've watched them a couple of times before execution rather than try it from memory:

• an unknown who apparently knows what he's doing with a thigh, though videography is poor and sound is extremely abrasive
• Jacque Pepin deboning chicken Galatine Ballotine (watch this video from 5:30). Actually, if you're really into learning ways to prep a bird, watch the entire Pepin video, it's amazing.

The thigh and drum bones joined the wings and carcass in the Ziploc bag which went immediately into the freezer.

I'm glad to have done my own dark meat boning but I definitely need to exercise this practice to get anywhere near efficient. I also realize that I need to have my knives sharpened.

FYI, if I choose to have bone-in chicken breasts I essentially butterfly the bird first and then cut away what I want, leaving only a backbone.

Whole chickens available at Stater Bros for $1.29/lb but when on sale are as low as $0.69/lb.

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