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, 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.

1. Chicken preparations can be made very quickly if you have the knowledge.
2. 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.
3. In the freezer, if you label each set and arrange it conveniently, it will be easy to find the right type of product. For example, put soup sets on the left, preparations in the middle, and items for baking, salads, etc. on the right.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 generally give it the desired shape if the recipe requires it (with a steak, say).

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.

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). Cut the upper part with a knife along the breast, reaching the back. Here are 2 more parts. After removing excess fat, we also divide the bottom one in half - from top to bottom. You will get 2 legs. That's it, you can cook.

Method No. 2 . A through cut is made along the breast - from the throat to the bottom. We divide the two halves into two more parts. And we divide them as your recipe requires (removing or not removing the skin, separating or not separating fillets, drumsticks, wings, etc.). Even to the point of cutting it into 4 even pieces with a cutter or scissors (for roasts or other dishes). If you need to separate the fillet, drumstick, thigh and wings, this is done using the technology described above. These are such nice shins. At least now to the frying pan...

Usually, most housewives cut up a chicken carcass as is customary in their family. But not everyone knows that there are general rules that allow you to do this faster and more rationally. Information on how to properly gut and cut up a chicken will be useful for both experienced housewives and those who are just starting to try their hand at this business.

After slaughtering and plucking a chicken, it should be gutted. Moreover, this must be done as soon as possible, since the insides quickly disappear. To work, you will need a medium-sized sharp knife or scissors for cutting, oilcloth, plates or bowls where you will need to put offal and waste, a cutting board made of wood or plastic.

In order to gut a chicken at home, follow the following sequence of actions:

1. Cover the table on which the carcass will lie with oilcloth so as not to smear it with grease.
2. Place the carcass with its back down, cut off the legs: bend the legs at the knee joint and cut the tendons with a knife.
3. Cut out the anus in a circular motion. This must be done carefully so as not to puncture the intestines.
4. Then cut the skin of the bird from the anus to the keel along the center line of the abdomen. You need to cut shallowly so as not to touch the abdominal organs.
5. Remove the entrails and place them in a bowl: the intestines separately into the waste, the stomach and liver into another container. When cutting out the liver, you must be extremely careful not to accidentally damage the gallbladder and spleen. It is easier to remove them when the liver is already removed from the carcass.
6. Remove the goiter with the esophagus. To make this easier, the crop should be empty. To do this, before slaughtering, the bird must not be fed for about 12 hours. If for some reason the crop is full of food, it can be removed through an incision in the skin.
7. Remove the genitals: cut out the testes of roosters and the ovaries of chickens.
8. Remove the lungs and heart.
9. Clean the stomach: cut it open, turn it inside out, remove any remaining food and peel off the inner lining.
10. Rinse the carcass and giblets with cold water.

Once you've finished gutting the chicken, you can start cutting it up.

How to choose a carcass in a store

When purchasing a chilled chicken carcass, you need to pay attention to its freshness. You can identify fresh chicken by the color of its skin, the elasticity of its muscle fibers and its smell. How to do it:

1. Inspect the carcass. If it shows bruises, damaged skin, and is yellow-gray in places, it is better not to buy it. The color of the skin and its thickness will indicate the age of the bird. In young chickens it is thin and pink, in old ones it is thick and yellowish.
2. Touch the carcass, press with your finger. If it is fresh, there will be no indentation from the finger, the fibers will quickly return to their previous state.
3. Smell the chicken. Fresh meat has a pleasant aroma, but stale chicken does not have it and acquires foreign odors.

This is enough to choose a fresh carcass in a store or market.

Chicken cutting procedure

If you do not intend to cook the carcass of an adult chicken or broiler whole, they need to be cut into small portions. There are several ways to cut up chicken carcasses for various dishes.

No waste

This method allows you to cut the chicken most profitably, so that waste is minimal. Step-by-step instruction:

1. Place the bird on its back, grab the leg, pull it to the side and cut to the joint. Turn the joint to the side and cut off the leg completely. Do the same with the second leg.
2. Separate the wings from the carcass: cut the shoulder joint, move the wing to the side and cut it off with a sharp knife.
3. Cut the bird carcass in half along the spine.
4. If the chicken is large, then its halves can be cut into 2 more parts.

Wash the resulting pieces and put them in the refrigerator freezer for storage.

For portioned pieces

This method allows you to cut the chicken into portioned pieces, almost identical in size, which can be served after cooking. Here's how to do it step by step:

1. Place the carcass on its back and make a longitudinal cut from the lower abdomen to the neck.
2. Use a large knife to separate the halves of the carcass from the back bones, cutting through the ribs on both sides. Set the ridge aside (later it can be used for broth).
3. Take one half, place it on the board, cut off the upper part of the wing to the first joint (send it into the broth), then the part to the next joint, and then the rest of the wing along with part of the carcass.
4. Cut the breast into 3 parts.
5. There is a leg left that needs to be divided into thigh and drumstick at the joint.
6. Do the same with the other half of the chicken.

This way you can get 12 portions. Cut up chicken breast will be used as fillet. You can make chops, cutlets from chicken fillet, boil it and put it in a salad.

Boneless

From chicken cut according to this scheme, you can prepare various dishes, including minced meat, rolls, and semi-finished meat products. But in the process of cutting chicken this way, you need to be able to not only accurately cut the meat from the bones, but also do it in such a way that the pieces retain an attractive appearance. To do this, be sure to take a thin, well-sharpened knife.

There are two ways to remove bones from a chicken: open and closed. If you follow the first one, then you need to do this:

1. Cut the skin vertically along the entire back.
2. Gradually separate the meat from the bones, moving upward from the tail.
3. Break the ischium, hip and wing joints.
4. Use a knife to score the meat and remove it from the bones.
5. Having reached the upper joint, break it too.
6. Turn the meat inside out and do the same with the other leg.
7. Cut off the ribs, keel and fork bones, and wings with scissors.

Closed way:

1. Cut the tail and remove the meat from the seat to the upper cartilage of the thigh.
2. Cut the joint and veins around the circumference of the leg.
3. Break the joint where the shin and thigh meet.
4. Do the same on the second side of the carcass.
5. Trim the meat together with the skin with a sharp knife from the ribs to the neck, cut off the neck.

This method is suitable for preparing stuffed chicken and chicken rolls.

For roll and stuffing

To prepare a roll from a whole carcass, you need to remove the bones and separate the meat from the frame, gradually turning it inside out. Then it can be boiled, wrapped in cling film, or baked in the oven, stuffed with vegetables, mushrooms or other suitable filling. You can even skin the whole chicken, minus the meat, and stuff that too.

Now in the store you can buy the part of the chicken that you need. It's certainly very convenient. Still, it’s useful to know how to cut a whole chicken into portioned pieces. First of all, because buying a whole chicken is cheaper.

You don't always have to cook a whole chicken. Most often it needs to be cut into portions. You don't always have to boil a whole chicken for stock. Therefore, you need to know and be able to cut chicken into pieces correctly.

Cutting chicken into portions is easy. All you need is a cutting board and a sharp knife.

Place the chicken breast side up. Make a cut between the thigh and the carcass. Bend the thigh slightly to the side and trim the joint. Repeat on the other side.

It was you who cut the leg. It can be cut into thigh and drumstick. How to cut a leg can be clearly seen by the joint connecting the thigh to the drumstick. Score the meat and then the joint. Or you can cook it whole.

Now you need to cut off the wings. In the same way, you first need to cut the skin and meat between the wing and breast. Cut through the joint. Cut off the second wing in the same way.

Now you need to separate the chicken breast from the back. This can be done with a knife, but it is more convenient to use special kitchen scissors. Cut off the back. The bones of the chicken are not very thick in this part and the chicken is easy to cut.

These are the chicken parts we got.

Now all that remains is to cut the breast in half. This is where the bone is the hardest. But it is still easy to cut with a sharp knife.

If the recipe calls for fillet, you can immediately separate it from the bone and remove the skin.

Place chicken pieces in bags or cook immediately.

As you can see, cutting chicken into portioned pieces is easy.

Watch the video on how to cut chicken into portions. From them you will learn about two ways to cut chicken into pieces, which parts to leave for broth, and which parts can be used for preparing chops, stewing and frying chicken.

Did you like the recipe? Print it by clicking on the “Printer” button or send it by e-mail by clicking on the “Letter” button And don’t forget to tell your friends!

The good thing is that it now takes less time to cut, the pieces have become neater, the breast turns out to be a separate whole piece, and there is much less physical effort when cutting.

So I decided to write an article with detailed instructions for beginners, so that they start right away correctly and don’t have to relearn later 😉, and not just beginners. Probably many housewives cut up chicken as usual, without thinking about how to make this process more convenient and faster.

What you will need:

• whole fresh chicken
• sharp knife
• cutting board
• PATIENCE)))

****************************************

Photos are clickable, click on them to enlarge

How to properly cut a chicken step by step photo:

1. Cutting the chicken this way will give you 8 pieces. The first step, of course, is to wash it thoroughly and dry it lightly with a towel.

2. First, let's get the chicken legs. Place the carcass on the board, back down, grab the leg and pull it in the direction opposite to the carcass, cut the skin.

3 We hold the leg and thigh with one hand and the carcass with the other. We begin to separate, to do this we tear the thigh off from the carcass, turning it slightly upward. The joints should separate - the femur should come out of the joint.

4. The joints are no longer connected, so now you can easily cut off the leg with the thigh, make a cut, turning the thigh and turning the carcass onto its back, breast up. We finish separating the leg and cut it to the tail.

5. Cut off the second leg in the same way. Now we will separate the wings. By touch we determine where the shoulder joint is located, which connects the wing to the carcass, and cut along the joint.

6. It remains to separate the breast from the back. Look carefully at the photo, it shows the direction in which to cut.

The direction can be determined by the white fat line; they are connected by ribs and cartilage; cutting them is easy. We cut strictly in the indicated direction to divide correctly.

7. We cut off the breast only on one side, we cut it on the other.

8. For me this was the most difficult moment. But it’s already behind us, we’re happy if everything turned out well and we’re not upset if it’s not so good. ;-). Everyone knows that in any business you need to get good at it, you’ll definitely succeed next time!

In the middle of the breast, along its entire length, there is a piece of cartilage on a bone; you need to take it out. We lightly cut the upper part of the breast, where there are two bones, cut just between these bones until we come across a bone from the cartilage, which has a dark color.

9. To pull out the bone with the cartilage, you need to pry this bone with your thumbs; to do this, we begin to break the breast, as it were, into two parts, using little effort, we push the bone up and push our fingers under it.

11. We almost completely removed the cartilage from the chicken meat; it is held only on the bone and a little in the middle. We take hold of the cartilaginous bone and carefully, but with effort, pull it, and the cartilage will be removed after it.

12. We removed the cartilaginous bone and the cartilage itself.

A whole chicken carcass is cheaper than ready-made processed parts. But then the question arises - how to cut a chicken? If done incorrectly, all the meat can be ruined. If the intestines, gall bladder or spleen are opened, the meat will acquire a specific smell and will be bitter. Let's figure out how to quickly disassemble a carcass for different purposes.

Tools: a well-sharpened knife, dishes for storing waste and giblets, a cutting board. The pre-plucked bird is placed on its back and work begins.

To gut and cut chicken you will need a well-sharpened knife.

The evisceration process has several stages, one after another:

1. Cutting off paws. To do this, stretch the tendons (bending the knee joints) and cut them with a sharp knife. There is no need to press hard; cut carefully.
2. Cutting the skin around the anus. Make the cut carefully and shallowly so as not to touch the internal organs.
3. A skin incision in the center of the abdomen. How to do this correctly? We cut the bird in half, from the keel to the anus. The depth of the incision is exactly to the film enveloping the intestines. Again, ensure the integrity of the internal organs. If you are a beginner separator, it is better to tear off the remaining fabric by hand.
4. Following this, the intestines, along with the anus, are removed and thrown away.
5. Then you need to make cuts to separate the stomach and liver. They will then become components of dishes. The main thing is not to crush the spleen at the same time. It is then cut off, outside the carcass, and placed in a trash can.
6. Goiter extraction. The best option is if the bird was not fed before slaughter. In this case, remove the crop along with the esophagus. In another, cut the neck before gutting. Empty the crop thoroughly. Then disassemble the chicken further. If the bird is killed internally, the neck will also have to be cut - otherwise the crop will not be removed.

If you are dressing a rooster, remove the testes (yellow glands) by pulling them out of the tail through a gentle cut. The chicken's ovaries are also removed. The lungs and heart are removed at the very end of disassembly.

The stomach is emptied additionally: an incision is made, then it is turned inside out, the remaining food is removed and the inner rough layer is disposed of. At the end of gutting, the body of the bird and the giblets are thoroughly washed. It is best to do this under running water.

Important. Gutting should be started as soon as possible after plucking - in order to avoid processes that are destructive to the meat, starting in the intestines or crop, and spreading to the meat. Having completed gutting, you can begin cutting.

How to cut a carcass into pieces

How exactly the bird will be handled determines the future method of cooking. You can cook the whole chicken in the oven or on the grill. In other cases, the chicken will have to be cut into pieces.

There are several parsing options depending on your culinary plans:

• Waste-free cutting. Very popular among housewives, it makes it possible to stock up on a lot of semi-finished products for future use and assemble a set for broth. The bird is cut into medium pieces. The most economical option available.
• Portion cutting. The bird is cut into pieces, getting rid of unnecessary parts. An excellent option for frying, baking, and grilling. The pieces can be made identical or simply symmetrical.
• Boneless cutting. Necessary for creating rolls or minced meat. In this case, the meat is separated from the bones.

Economical way to parse

The washed whole chicken is blotted to remove any drops to make it easier to handle without slipping.

The bird is placed on a cutting board, breast side up, and gradual disassembly begins:

1. We cut the chicken at the joints of the thighs and body. The system is the same as for initial claw cutting: the tendons are stretched by flexing the joint and an incision is made. You can immediately cut the thigh and drumstick by feeling their joint and cutting it with a knife.
2. Wing separation. To do this, the roof is pulled back and everted until the cartilage comes out. This is what needs to be cut off from the body.
3. Cutting the breast. An incision is made along it, and the meat is removed by hooking it with a knife. The result is two pieces of fillet and a back connected to the ribs.
4. Disassembly of the back. The spine is cut in half, the ribs are cut off from it. This cutting is convenient when forming a soup set.
5. If desired and necessary, excess fat is also removed from the resulting pieces.

As a result of the work we have:

• thighs, breast fillets, wings and drumsticks - for frying, boiling, stewing, baking;
• back, ribs, wing tips - for cooking broth;
• fat - for frying.

Instructions for creating portions

Let's figure out how to disassemble the bird into portioned pieces step by step.

Usually it is cut into six, eight or ten pieces - in proportion to the number of people at the table and the desire to make them larger or smaller. If the whole carcass is already ready, its legs and thighs can be served as whole legs, and the breast will yield two or four servings. The starting point here is the size of the carcass, because a young and small chicken will yield a maximum of four pieces.

The poultry is cut at the joints of the bones (joints), which requires understanding where they are located. Then cutting off the wings and legs from the backbone will be quite easy.

For proper cutting, it is best to choose a sharp knife with a large blade. Housewives often use special culinary scissors: such cutting does not require strong physical force.

When cutting into portions, you get 6-8 pieces.

• So, step by step instructions:
• Step 1. Standard. Wash the bird and place it on its back.
• Step 2. Cut off the wings with a well-sharpened blade. The tip of the wing, which has virtually no meat, can be cut off and discarded.
• Step 3. Cut off the legs. Separate the drumstick and thighs. The leg of a large bird can yield four servings.

Step 4. The breast will also make four pieces. Before cutting it is cut off from the ridge.

The back and throat are not suitable for this dish.

Attention. You need to string the portions onto the skewer carefully, parallel to the bone, and place them quite tightly.

How to separate meat from bones

The most difficult part of cutting up a bird is separating the bones and meat so that the resulting parts or portions are beautiful. The advantage is that if you don’t get attractive portions right away, the resulting pieces can be processed into chopped cutlets or minced meat.

To disassemble, we again need a knife with a sharp blade, a board and special scissors.

1. A sharp knife is needed to separate chicken meat from the bones.
2. Place the carcass back up.
3. Run the blade along the skin along the spine on one side and then on the other. The goal is to cut off as much flesh as possible without crumbling it if possible.
4. Cut through the tissue that holds the sternum and spine bones together. In addition, the humeral and femoral cartilages need to be cut. This is where scissors come in handy. To simplify the work, the shoulder or leg is carefully rotated around its axis so that the cartilage becomes visible.
5. The leg bones are removed, starting with the femur. Cartilage and other tissues are cut, bones are thoroughly cleaned. You need to work with a knife. You can help yourself with your hands where the blade doesn’t cope very well.
6. The wings are simply cut off from the carcass. They are poor in pulp, so there is nothing to peel off them. It is better to add them to the soup set.
7. The cut parts are washed thoroughly. It is better if the water is running.

Buying a whole carcass is a very profitable business. Now you can prepare a lot of dishes from poultry, and frozen chicken parts will not take up much space in the refrigerator.

The video shows a detailed process of cutting a chicken carcass into portioned pieces.