When preparing to disjoint a frying chicken, it is important to keep a few things in mind.
1. Always use the sharpest knife you have.
Many accidents with knives are caused by dull knives being forced through meat. Having sharp knives in your kitchen is essential.
2. Choose a good chicken. If there is a little yellow under the skin of the chicken, that is the chicken fat. Many people believe that is the sign of a well-grown chicken, ready for the frying pan. The fat will peel out easily, if you wish to remove it.
3. Make sure you have a clear area to cut up the chicken. A cutting board is good, clean off an area by the sink and run some hot, soapy water in the sink for cleanup. If you can put the cutting board where the dish drainer usually is, it will help with cleanup.
4. Try not to spatter raw chicken juice or drip it around the kitchen. Improper handling of raw chicken in the kitchen is a major cause of illness. It is also very easy to prevent. Just do not get to wild, and do not try to make a raw chicken walk on the counter.
These four tips will make cutting up the chicken much less frustrating.
When you buy your chicken, it will probably be sealed in a plastic bag. Most chickens sold in the U.S.are from major factories and they find this the best way to package their chicken.
They must, because that is the way they come.
When you get your chicken home, put your chicken in the clean side of the sink, still in the plastic. Do not put it in the hot soapy water. Put it in the dry side. If you have a single sink, put it on the cutting board.
When you cut open the plastic cover on the chicken, chances are some bloody juices will run out. Just wash them down the sink. Now you know why the sink area is important for this.
Look the chicken over and clean off any feathers, pulling out the pin feathers, and any obvious dirt.
Make sure you check for giblets or lumps of fat and skin that could be tucked into the cavity of the chicken. Remove these before you cut up the chicken.
There are many ways to cut up a chicken. We will start with the legs.
Take a leg in your hand and feel along it until you feel the joint between the leg and thighbone. You can feel it with your thumb easily enough. It is an indentation in the bone. Cut at the joint and the leg will cut apart easily. You will be surprised at how simple it is to cut through the joint.
Next, follow the thigh on up to the back. You will feel the indentation there that is also a joint. Simply cut through the joint. This separates the thigh from the back of the chicken.
Turn the chicken over.
Take a wing in your hand. A wing has three joints in it. People seldom eat the end joint, however you can use it in soup or for broth. Usually it is just left for a sort of "handle" for the wing.
OK. Feel up the joints until you get to the last one near the breast of the chicken. You can cut at the joint, or you can cut some extra meat off the breast of the chicken to make an extra "oyster" of meat for your wing. As a wing doesn't have very much meat on it, this is a good way of making them a bit more satisfying.
Now we come to the body of the chicken, which is all that is left.
Take the knife and insert it through the body from side to side. There will probably all ready be a hole through the bird, if not, a thin layer of skin will cover it. Cut down and up, or vice versa. We are separating the back of the bird from the breast. It will cut until you come to the bone on the breast. Just take one part of the chicken in one hand, and one in the other and pull it apart.
Use the back of the chicken for soups, stews; it has a good flavor, but not a lot of meat. You can break it in half across to make it easier to store. It freezes well.
You now are left with the front of the chicken. This may be cut into several pieces, or even de-bones. Take your finger and run it along the bone on the chicken. As with the legs, wings and thighs, you will feel an indentation in the bone. Cut down into the bird, then up toward the top. This will give you the wishbone.
Now you can split the rest of the breast, or cut it up into fourths. Even peel it apart, use it for soups, stir fry's and more.
That is a basic way to cut up a chicken.
Clean up any area raw chicken may have touched with hot soapy water, and if you do not intend to cook the chicken immediately, refrigerate or freeze.
One last thing. It is not recommended that you feed raw chicken fat to any pet.
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