Jointing a chicken

Mrs_Chip

TBH I did not watch that before posting lol!

That's not the way I do it either - I do it more like this :-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLU1ZRxcj7M (bonus doggies!)

although I dont bother with cutting the backbone off, I just take the breasts off the bone.

meritaten

I think its the big knife which puts people off from portioning up chicken - I find that good heavy kitchen scissors or even (clean) garden secatuers make easy work of cutting through the backbone and even the thigh joints.

rising_from_the_ashes

Mrs_Chip wrote: »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLU1ZRxcj7M (bonus doggies!)

although I dont bother with cutting the backbone off, I just take the breasts off the bone.

Yup that's much more my style & also just take the breasts off:D

Mrs_Chip

Tsk Tsk :rotfl:

splodger_seedswapper

i have never bought chicken portions - i will only buy a whole bird - which is much more economical to buy - i usually buy the frozen ones as they are bigger than the fresh ones, and usually cheaper

heretolearn_2

I buy whole ones to chop up, much cheaper and you get a nice range to cook with. I've never watched any videos or anything, I just attack them and experimented with different ways to do it till now I've found the best way for me. It's not rocket science and who cares if you get a wonky shaped bit. Still tastes the same (you ever really looked at some of the weird shaped bits you get at KFC. I still find myself looking at some of those and trying to work out where it came from on the chicken!).

I used to use a pair of really chunky kitchen scissors I've got (big blades, big plastic handles) which will crunch through everything if I use them two-handed. But recently I found a knife in a charity shop that cuts through much easier - it's a really old old knife, long thin non-stainless steel non-serrated blade, bone handle, been sharpened so many times that that blade is a wonky shape and very thin and bendy, but it's amazing.

I don't do anything complicated. I take off the wings and legs - I usually buy two chickens at a time so I portion up and freeze, so 4 wings go in together for example and that's enough for 2 of us to have as a light meal. Legs and wings I normally put some hot sauce on and grill, like home-made Nandos, very yummy. Then I sort of cut the bit you would normally think of as the underneath off (even though it's the top of a live chicken) - the bit WITHOUT the breasts by cutting along both sides of it. there's not a huge amount of meat here but OH quite likes picking through it and it looks big and impressive so it does him for a portion. Then I cut along the middle of the breast to make two sides, and then chop those in half so we get 4 'breast' portions. You'll find that a whole chicken breast is a lot bigger than a separate chicken breast fillet, so you really can get 4 quite good sized portions out of it. I don't take these off the bone, I think it adds flavour. If I want to do a stew/curry I just chop everything into smaller bits - so split the leg into thigh and drumstick, separate the two ends of the wing, then I would pull the breast bits of the bone.

antonia1

Thanks all for the advice, gonna give it a go tonight. The big knife does put me off a bit, but considering the price of chicken its worth the risk! Annoyingly I don't have a lidl or aldi anywhere near me, so will have to see what chickens Mr T has. Think I'll try diced thigh in a chicken curry, cajun chicken breast and and extra bits can be shredded for a stir fry. Not sure about drumsticks though, I'm trying to lose weight so will have to find a low fat way of cooking them.

zippychick

ive megred this with our thread on jointing a chicken

This recipe is fab for drummers. You remove the skin and can use fa free fromage frais or fat free nat yog for the marinade. A favourite of mine

Zip