2018-12-12
Hello my dear readers! Recently I was very excited about the idea of creating a small culinary guide for you. I want to collect articles in it that can be combined under the general title “How to make or cook something.” Today is another article in this series. We'll look at how to cut chicken into pieces and prepare a holiday roll.
I hope that many of you have already read my articles in this series about. And now we will learn how to “extract” this very breast from whole carcass raw chicken. Of course, now there is an opportunity to buy chicken fillet separately. But it costs more than using a whole chicken.
Are we zealous and thrifty housewives? From one chicken, cut into portions, we will prepare at least four dishes at once. For example, soup with dumplings - from the "frame", salad with Tiffany grapes - from boiled meat, removed from the bone after boiling the broth, chicken paprikash - from drumsticks and "legs", stuffed chicken breasts- boneless fillet.
There are so many options for using individual parts of disassembled chicken! How do you like dishes such as chops and boiled ham (without using a ham maker)? Well, let's start looking at how to cut up a chicken carcass? Go!
How to cut a chicken into pieces - photo step by step
How to separate legs and wings
Place the carcass breast side up.
Unfold and pull the leg away from the carcass, then cut through the skin between the breast and the “leg.” Do the same with the other leg.
Important Note
A sharp chef's knife makes cutting easier, and a separate meat cutting board helps avoid cross-contamination
Take the right leg with your left hand, and with an energetic gesture, turn it outward (to the left). In this case, you need to twist the joint so that its head pops out of the cup.
Cut the muscle and skin at the joint and separate the entire leg.
Separate the left leg by first turning the hip joint with your right hand.
If necessary, you can cut the leg into two parts, making a cut along the knee joint.
Turn the carcass on its side, move the wing away from the body, twist the joint so that the head pops out of its “nest”, separate the wings by cutting the joint.
Unfortunately, I did not capture the separation of the wings in the photo. I hope that my descriptions of how to do this correctly will help you do it correctly and without problems.
How to separate the breast
Before we fillet the breast, we need to remove all the skin from the remaining structure. Carefully pry the skin with the end of a sharp knife and remove it completely.
On a note
The remaining skin can be stored in freezer. It can be used to make chicken terrine
This is what we ended up with after cutting up a whole chicken - the skeleton along with the breast.
With both hands we vigorously break the structure in the middle. If it was not possible to completely break it, then use a sharp knife to cut what could not be broken. The separated part of the frame, on which the “tail” is located, is ready to be sent for cooking the broth.
Place the leftovers breast side down. Now you need to cut the chest part. Remove the fillet from both sides, carefully cutting it along the ribs with a sharp knife.
Along the way, we probe, trim, and with a sharp movement of our fingers remove the “bow.”
As a result, we get a whole fillet consisting of two parts.
The leftover ribs are also used to cook the broth.
It's something like in the photo.
We looked at how to cut chicken into pieces for subsequent boiling, frying, and baking in the oven. To make beautiful holiday rolls and galantines, we sometimes need a whole chicken skin in one piece. Removing the skin is not a complicated process, but it is very painstaking. I have selected a video clip for you, dear readers. It clearly, accessiblely, and to the point shows how to quickly cut up a chicken for a holiday roll.
Yes, we often have to cook chicken dishes. And not only the first and second courses. After all, there are a lot of recipes for salads and baked goods involving fillet. What about kebabs made from wings or legs? Just have time to come up with recipes and cut pieces of different sizes and designs.
What, do they turn out different and uneven for you? No problem. Once you learn how to properly cut a chicken carcass, the problem will go away. There are no special secrets. But there are rules - both generally accepted (that is, the classic cutting into eight fragments), and those that in practice, in the process of preparing various dishes, are already in stock for everyone who loves to cook.
Why is it so important to learn how to properly cut up a chicken?
By learning how to properly cut a chicken carcass, we save a lot of time and nerves (after all, we don’t make our family wait for a long time). Well, we get a lot of conveniences.
- Chicken preparations can be made very quickly if you have the knowledge.
- You can immediately prepare food from them, or you can stock up for later. Let's say, take several carcasses at once. Then cut them accordingly (you can schedule them for the week according to meals) and put them in the freezer.
- In the freezer, if you label each set and arrange it conveniently, it will be easy to find the right type product. For example, put soup sets on the left, in the middle - preparations, on the right - for baking, salads, etc.
So, we have at our disposal:
- Chicken carcass (gutted)
- Sharp knives and scissors
- Cutting board
- Sample action plan
The carcass and everything else is there. No plan? Let's make it up. You can make a different number of pieces from one chicken (preferably from several!).
And each will be involved in different ways:
- - from it you can make best stroganoff, cutlets, dumplings, zrazy, meatballs - if you grind the meat, and gorgeous chops, and puree soup, and much more.
- – and the soup will be excellent, and fried, and steamed, and boiled, and delicious crispy kebabs.
- Ham (whole and divided into thigh and drumstick) - can also be used for soup, for various main courses.
- Soup set - these are necks (and they can also be used as a separate meat dish), part of the wings, the skeleton itself with ribs and trimmings.
Detailed instructions for cutting a chicken carcass with photos
This instruction, especially given my experience, I think will be useful to many. Especially for novice housewives. After all, after two or three such procedures they will get the hang of it, and then the process will be convenient and more efficient. So, let's make a cut between the leg and the body.
Step 1. Make a cut between the leg and the body
Then you can do this - turning the bottom part up, separate it, and cut it off at the break point. Or this way - holding the leg, pull it slightly. Let's make a neat cut in this place, reaching the joints.
Step 2. Pull back the leg
After a neat circular cut all the way to the tail, we will get these two legs.
Step 3. Two legs
If the task is not to use a whole leg, you need to make an incision along the line of its joint. Carefully cut and we get two parts of the leg - the thigh and the drumstick.
Step 4. Thigh
Then you can remove the wings. There are also several ways. Separate the wing, grabbing some meat from the fillet. Or, having found the shoulder joint connecting the wings to the carcass, cut off the spine at this point. Or this way - turn the wing out at the joint and cut along the line of the joint, removing the tip of the wing.
Step 5. Wings
Fillet is an excellent part of the carcass. How to separate it? The process is complicated, especially if you need to get a beautiful piece. But you can get your hands on it! And here, too, there are several tricks. The first is to cut the flesh along the cartilage, gently press the meat with your fingers and carefully separate it from the bone and ribs.
Step 6. Cut along the breast
Or, after removing the skin, make an incision in the front (as in the photo) along the cartilaginous part of the breast. Then move the knife along the ribs and the entire skeleton. And cut in half. You can even give it the required form, if the recipe requires it (steak, say).
Step 7. Fillet
You can do it differently. With the breast side up, cut off the side part (along the ribs) on both sides with scissors. Having cut off from the back, we will continue to separate the fillet itself using a knife - going from the cartilaginous part, along the ribs. In addition, we will get a wonderful soup set from a bone with cartilage, parts of wings and rump.
Step 8. Soup set
That's all. We got 2 fillets (they can also be cut in half, or further divided into slices, strips, etc.), 2 thighs, drumsticks and wings each), as well as a soup set. And I suggest a few more ways...
2 simple and quick ways to cut up a chicken carcass
Method No. 1 . Suitable for immediately cooking something, say, just a ham. Place the carcass, washed and thoroughly dried with a towel, belly up (it’s easier to cut here because it’s cartilage). First, we’ll break it in half, cutting it across the middle (if along, you’ll get two pieces of tobacco chicken). Upper part cut with a knife along the breast, reaching the back. Here are 2 more parts. The bottom one, removing excess fat, also divide in half - from top to bottom. You will get 2 legs. That's it, you can cook.
Today I have a bit of a bloodthirsty post. I want to show you how to cut homemade chicken, how to remove excess, unsuitable innards and how to process the ones we need. After all, it is not always sold in the form in which factory-made chicken is sold.
Before creating the post, I looked at what was on the Internet and couldn’t find any similar posts. That’s why I decided to hold such a unique, slightly bloodthirsty master class. I already wrote.
When you need to prepare a tasty and rich chicken broth, it is better to buy chicken that has been raised in the wild and on natural feed. The meat of such chicken is a little tougher than factory-made chicken, but it has a number of advantages that factory-made chickens do not have.
Homemade chicken broth is much more nutritious and healthier. And in order to cook the broth, the chicken needs to be disassembled. After all, on the market they sell it entirely, removing only unnecessary entrails, and not all of it.
How to cut up homemade chicken. Master class with step-by-step photos
Before cutting up a homemade chicken, it can and should even be lightly scorched over a fire to remove any small remaining fluff. If you have electric stove, then this procedure can be done with a regular lighter.
To remove the entrails from a chicken, you need to place it on its back. cutting board, carefully cut along the keel bone (this bone runs along the chicken breast and protrudes upward).
Using your hand, carefully remove the fat, if any, the stomach and liver with gall bladder. You need to make sure that gallbladder Do not burst, otherwise the meat will become bitter. Separate the chicken fat.
Chicken fat should not be thrown away, as it can not only add flavor chicken cutlets, for example, but also saturate your body with beneficial unsaturated acids, which are necessary for cell growth and renewal, as well as for strengthening bones.
From the liver we carefully cut off the gallbladder and everything that you don’t like. If bile suddenly spills, it is better to throw away the liver, it will still be spoiled.
The chicken stomach needs to be cleaned.
To do this, you need to tap it on both sides with the flat surface of a knife, and then cut along the protruding edge and unfold it. 
Remove any remaining food from it and remove the yellow film.
That's it, the chicken stomach can be washed and boiled in broth.
Cut the skin on the neck lengthwise and remove the esophagus with the pouch and the trachea. Thus, we can assume that the insides of the chicken have been removed.
How to cut homemade chicken into pieces
Now the simplest thing left is to cut the homemade chicken into pieces. Of course, it is not like factory-made, but this does not mean that it needs to be cooked entirely. I'm not a professional, but an amateur, so I don't pretend to be correct. I cut the chicken as best I can.
First you need to cut off the neck, wings and legs. Then cut off the legs.
The ends of the legs can be cut off, as shown in the photo.
Then remove from the tail the place where the chicken has accumulated fat, and cut the carcass in half, separating the tail. 
You need to remove the lungs from the breast with your finger, they give a lot of foam during the cooking process and anything you don’t like, and cut the breast into pieces. 
Master class - how to cut up homemade chicken, completed. All that remains is to prepare the broth.
Subscribe to updates so you don't miss anything. And for the most impatient, I can advise you to cook homemade chicken over low heat for at least 2 hours.
If you raise chickens or regularly buy whole birds for cooking, then you've probably encountered the process of cutting up a chicken. How to quickly gut a chicken at home? How to properly gut and cut up a chicken after this? You can find answers to these and other questions below.
Before you cut a chicken, you need to gut it properly. If you are new to this business, then the first chicken cutting can be a little challenging, especially if it needs to be cut into equal portions and done quickly. But before you begin this process, the bird must be properly gutted. You don't need anything other than a sharpened knife and knowledge of how to do it. Below is provided step-by-step instruction on how to do it at home. You will also find photos and videos in this article.
- The first step is to cut out the chicken's anus. Arm yourself with a knife - the anus should be cut out in a circle. Try not to pierce anything unnecessary.
- Once the anus is cut out, a shallow cut must be made from the cut out portion to the keel. Try not to touch the bird's intestines, otherwise you may simply ruin the meat. If you are doing this at home for the first time, we recommend that you make an incision in the skin near the anus towards the keel. After this, the skin will tear without any problems.
- Evisceration is the process of removing poultry meat from internal organs. The next stage of gutting will be to remove all the insides. Prepare a bowl in advance. The intestines along with the anus should be pulled out very carefully. The next stage of evisceration will be cutting out the liver and stomach of the bird. It is better to remove the liver along with the spleen; the latter organ should be cut out from the already separated liver.
- Next, it will be necessary to extract the goiter. If the bird was properly prepared for death, that is, slaughter, then the crop should be empty, so it will not be difficult for you to pull it out. If the goiter is complete, then before evisceration, a skin incision should be made on the neck, and then this organ should be pulled out.
- The next stage of evisceration is cutting out the genitals. If you have a rooster, then use a knife to remove the testicle, if you have a chicken, then remove the ovaries. Also at this stage of gutting the heart should be cut out.
- Thus, the chicken was left without internal organs. On last stage During this process, the bird carcass should be washed with water.
Chicken cutting procedure
The next step will be cutting the chicken carcass into pieces and parts at home. You will learn further how to do this economically, quickly and correctly. Several cutting methods at home have been prepared especially for our users.
No waste
- First of all, butchering involves separating the legs. It is recommended to place the bird carcass on kitchen board so that her chest is on top. The leg itself is pulled back, and the place where it connects to the body is cut. After this, the leg should be turned with the joint outward. So the leg can be separated from the rest of the body without any problems, and a similar operation is carried out with the second leg. It should be noted that if the chicken itself was large, then each leg can be divided into two parts - the thigh and the leg itself.
- Next you need to cut off the wings. To do this, use a knife to press on the place where the bones articulate, in the area of the shoulder joint. If you press the wing against the body of the bird, you will immediately see the joint. When the joint is cut, the wing should be pulled back slightly, after which it can be completely separated from the body.
- As shown in the photo and video of cutting poultry at home, the knife must be inserted inside the chicken, after which it must be pierced and divided. The bird carcass is cut parallel to the spine, first on one side and then on the other. In this case, the blade should be carefully pointed towards you.
- When all these steps are completed, you will need to completely separate the chest and back, as seen in the photo. The back itself is divided into two pieces - to do this, you need to sharply press with a knife where the chest ends. The same applies to the breast - it is divided into two pieces. As a result, you will get two halves that will go to the bones. If the chicken was large, then the breast can be divided into more than two pieces, depending on the situation.
Thus, if the cutting was done correctly and economically, then you will receive ten pieces with different sizes. The cutting diagram and photos are provided in the gallery.
For portioned pieces
With the method given below for cutting at home, there will be slightly more parts of the carcass, but they will all have approximately the same size. In this case, it will not be possible to do everything quickly, since patience will be required.
- Make a cross-section on the back of the chicken just below the shoulder blade bones; the bones themselves can be felt with your hands. From the center of this cut you need to guide the knife towards the tail. Also, the incision should be made along the spine, but there is no need to cut the bones.
- The so-called oysters, as can be seen in the photo, are with bottom side carcasses (on the back). The pulp must be carefully separated from the seeds with a knife, but there is no need to cut it off completely. This will help you separate the legs quickly. After this, the chicken should be turned over with its chest facing up. At the point where the leg touches the body, you need to make a cut, then move the knife along the joint. The leg is turned inside out, as in the previous case, but is separated along with the flesh that was cut earlier. After this, the tendons located on the thighs are cut out.
- Let's move on to the wings. The carcass is turned over with its back to the top, an incision is made between the shoulder blade (any) and the spine, which continues along the spine. Next, on the other side, the same incision is made and the second wing is separated. The wings have not yet been completely cut off; at this stage it is necessary to separate the spine.
- Then the breast with wings is completely separated from the carcass. The knife must be inserted inside and the skeleton must be trimmed. In order to separate the wings, you need to turn the carcass over with the breast facing up. Now you should separate the wings directly. Part of the meat is separated from the chest, and in the place where the neck connects to the brisket, you need to cut off at an angle. This way you got two wings with brisket and back meat.
When cutting the chicken yourself, you will save a considerable amount of money, since if you buy the same parts separately, their cost will be much higher. How to properly cut up a chicken yourself?
Before cutting a bird, it must be gutted. Let's figure out how to gut a chicken.
How to properly gut a chicken
First you need to buy a chicken. It is better to buy chilled poultry rather than frozen. This is due to the fact that the shelf life of chilled chicken is only five days. After this they are frozen. And everyone knows that when frozen, a product loses its taste. Therefore, it is better to buy chilled poultry, cut it up and, if necessary, freeze it. And when buying a frozen bird, you will have to defrost it, then cut it up and re-freeze it.
- Using a knife, carefully cut out the bird's anus. You need to cut in a circle.
- Now make a cut down to the keel.
- Remove all internal organs.
- Remove the crop. To do this quickly, do not feed the chicken before slaughter. If the goiter is complete, you will have to make an incision in the neck.
- Cut out the genitals.
- Rinse the carcass with water.
- Now you know how to gut a chicken.
How to cut a chicken into pieces.
That's all! The bird is butchered. This made eight pieces of chicken: two wings, two thighs, two drumsticks and two pieces of breast. The remaining bones can be used to make soup.
How to cut chicken for roulade
Every novice housewife wants to learn everything and chicken roll is no exception. How remove seeds chicken for a future roll?
If the chicken more than three kilograms, then the breast needs to be cut off. Divide the breast into small parts and place in the middle of the future roll. Salt and pepper the meat, sprinkle with seasonings, and you can add stuffing. This is not for everyone! Roll the meat into a roll, tie it with thread and put on a net.
Prepare the necessary dishes so that the roll can fit in it. Pour olive oil, the roll should be completely covered with it. Fry the roll on all sides. Add wine; it should fill one-fourth of the dish. Wait for the wine to evaporate
Chop a small onion and add it to the container with the roll. Add peppercorns and aromatic fresh herbs there. Add a little broth, cover the dish with a lid and leave to simmer for an hour and a half.
Take out the finished roll, let it cool, and put it in the refrigerator for a while. After this, the roll can be cut into pieces. Warm it up before serving.
Closed cutting method.
There is also closed method separating bones from the carcass. This method suitable for stuffing chicken.
