How to cut a chicken into small pieces. How to cut a chicken into pieces: recommendations. The main methods of cutting poultry

Every poultry farmer has to face the question: how to butcher a chicken carcass. For many, only the speed of the unpleasant process is important. Few people think about the correctness of actions. Meanwhile, competent processing has a lot of advantages.

For cutting chicken, it is advisable to use not only a sharp knife, but also good kitchen scissors. Probably, at first glance, cutting a chicken will seem like a complicated and incomprehensible process, but, believe me, it’s worth understanding the stages once, and cutting one carcass will take you no more than 5 minutes. At home, it is convenient to cut the chicken for cooking exactly into 8 parts and the back.

To cut a bird, you will need the following tools:

1. Cutting board. Working with chicken is not complete without the use of cutting board. For cutting with meat, it is recommended to choose a hard board made of plastic. Wooden surfaces absorb odors and therefore are not suitable for this task. Or, if there is no other board other than wood, it is advisable to wrap it with a strong film before work.
2. Capacity. Be sure to prepare a container - elongated offal or ready-made portioned pieces will be added to it.
3. Knives. There are special knives for gutting and butchering - they have curved ends. If such a tool is not at hand, wide and narrow knives made of thick steel and with a strong handle will do.
4. Cutting fork. With its help, it will be possible to carefully remove the heart, lungs, intestines, goiter, liver, stomach from the carcass. The fork allows you to do everything quickly, effortlessly, without contaminating the surface.
5. Kitchen scissors. They are used to cut the tendons of the wings and legs. If there are no such scissors, it is quite acceptable to replace them with a sharp knife.

Express check of chilled chicken freshness:

1. Examine the chicken. If there are scratches or bruises on the carcass, the skin is damaged or has yellow-gray spots, it is better to refuse the purchase.
2. Notice the color. The age of chickens is determined by skin color. In young, it is pale pink, veins are clearly distinguished on it. The skin of an old chicken is thick with a yellowish tinge.
3. Feel the carcass. Press your finger on the breast: fresh meat is elastic, it will quickly take its former shape. If a dent remains after pressing, this is a sign of damage to the product.
4. Smell the carcass. Fresh chicken smells like raw meat. Don't buy chicken that smells of drugs or other off-flavours.

In order for poultry meat to get to the dinner table, it must go through several stages: slaughter, plucking, gutting, cutting. And then comes the stage of preparing delicious dishes. Having a bird in your household, it is advisable to be able to pluck and gut it correctly. We hasten to reassure those for whom this topic causes trembling in the knees: it is not difficult to do this at all, you just need to get used to it.

Why is gutting such an important process? The fact is, if at the same time you touch the intestines, the taste of chicken meat will deteriorate. How the gutting of the chicken takes place, we will tell further, but for now, watch the video (author - LPH "Khutorok").

Before gutting a chicken or rooster, prepare workplace. To prevent chicken cutting from spoiling kitchen furniture, cover the table with oilcloth or paper, prepare dishes for offal. Now you can begin to free the carcass from the insides.

Let's consider this process step by step.

1. Before gutting, you need to remove the goiter: then the contents of the abdominal cavity will be easier to get. Make an incision in the skin around the neck, and through the resulting hole, remove the goiter. Along with it, the esophagus and larynx will stretch. This process is shown more clearly in the video. If everything is done correctly, then things will go very quickly.
2. Now you need to cut the tail. This should not be done quickly, carefully, so as not to hurt the insides. Make a cut around the circle, then pull on the back of the chicken to pull out the contents.
3. To make it easier to gut, you can make an incision from the back hole along the body, and then break the skin with your hands. Then the internal organs will be visible to you.
4. Carefully remove the intestines and remember: you can’t damage it, otherwise the chicken meat, for obvious reasons, will have to be thrown away. The intestines need to be pulled out, holding on to the tail.
5. The next step is to remove the gallbladder. It is very easy to identify this organ: it is green. The gallbladder must also be taken out carefully so that the bile does not leak onto the chicken.
6. Remove all films with a knife and make small incisions in those places where the organs are holding on to the abdominal cavity. After that, turn the carcass over a bowl or bag: the excess contents of the chicken will fall out there, you just have to cut off the intestine as deep as possible.
7. Take out the liver, stomach and heart: these offal will be useful to us, the rest can be safely thrown away. You also need to get the lungs out from under the ribs, and cut off the genitals under the tail. They will also go to the trash can. At this stage, the gutting stage is completed, it remains only to rinse and cut the chicken carcass.

If this is your first time cutting chicken at home, you can make this process even easier. At the very beginning, separate the legs and make an incision, as shown in the photo. Then the chicken carcass will be opened, and gutting it will be much more convenient. But this method will not work if you need to bake or boil the whole bird.

Butchering the chicken

For a festive table or a family dinner, you can bake a whole chicken. But more often in the kitchen you need pieces of chicken, from which you can cook many dishes. Next, we will talk about how to butcher a chicken so that it is quick and economical. For general clarity, you can use the instructions from the video (author Edim TV).

1. Place the whole chicken with the breast on top. Grasp the chicken leg and pull it to the side. Now you need to cut the skin in the place where the inner thigh connects to the body.
2. Now you need to separate the joints of the bones. Turn the leg inside out while holding the carcass with your other hand. When the femur is out of joint, the leg can be easily detached with a knife.
3. Optionally, you can divide the leg into two parts: drumstick and thigh. As in the previous paragraph, you need to feel for the joint and cut along it.
4. It's time to separate the wings. You need to feel for the joint that connects the body and the wing, and make an incision in this place.
5. Lay the chicken on its side to remove the breast and back. On both sides along the body there is a fatty strip, so it will become the cut line. Cartilage and ribs are hidden under it, so it will be easy to cut. You need to cut from the back to the front.
6. Now we have the back, which is useful for the broth, and the breast on the bone. To separate the fillet, you need to feel for the cartilage in the middle and cut it out. Then turn the breast over, pry the flesh with your fingers and carefully detach from the bones.

We hope that now you can easily butcher a chicken. Below is detailed photo instructions to make the process of cutting the carcass even clearer.

How to economically separate the meat from the bones?

If you want to make a chicken meat roll or cook minced chicken, you will need to separate the meat and bones. At first glance, this is not difficult, but if you are not experienced, butchering chicken can take a long time.

1. Lay the chicken breast down. To extract the spine, make two longitudinal incisions on each side. In the process, clean the meat with a knife so that nothing remains on the bone.
2. Remove the spine and cut around the bone that holds the breast. You will also need to cut off the cartilage near the shoulders, after which the bone will get without problems.
3. Now you need to get the femur. First, cut off the small bone that connected the leg to the body. Then, using your fingers and a knife, free the second bone from the pulp.

It remains only to cut the wings and you're done. Now we have a whole chicken without bones. If you do not need to leave the carcass intact, then use the following video tutorial (by Super Bluda).

Don't worry if you don't get the meat off quickly the first time. As in any business, skill is needed here, which will come with experience. But minced meat cooked at home will certainly be better than purchased. Yes, and from a whole chicken without bones, you can use it in various recipes: you will like rolls, stuffed carcass or just fried pulp.

Secrets of famous chefs

Professional chefs know many secrets of food preparation and cooking, including how to simply butcher a chicken. We will share some tricks with you. The chef of the EdaHDTelevision channel will tell you about the subtleties of cutting a chicken for a roll.

A good working tool plays a big role in the cooking process. So, for cutting a chicken carcass, you need to take a large knife, but it will be more convenient to separate the flesh from the bones with a small but sharp knife. Also, many culinary masters use kitchen scissors with a serrated blade to cut chicken.

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 pastries with the participation of fillets. And kebabs from wings or chicken legs? Just have time to come up with recipes and cut pieces of different sizes and designs.

What, you make them different and uneven? No problem. Once you learn how to properly butcher 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 cut a chicken properly?

By learning how to properly cut a chicken carcass, we save a lot of time and nerves (after all, we don’t make homework wait long). Well, we get a lot of amenities.

1. Chicken blanks, with knowledge, are made very quickly.
2. From them you can immediately cook food, or you can stock up for later. Say, take several carcasses at once. Then cut them accordingly (you can paint for a week for meals) and send them to the freezer.
3. In the freezer, if you sign each set and arrange it conveniently, it will be easy to find the right type of product. For example, fold soup sets on the left, blanks in the middle, and 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 compose. From one chicken (it would be better from several!) You can make a different number of pieces.

And each will be involved in a different way:

• - you can cook free stroganoff from it, and cutlets, dumplings, zrazy, meatballs - if you grind the meat, and gorgeous chops, and, and puree soup, and much more.
• - and the soup will come out great, and fried, and steamed, and boiled, and delicious crispy kebabs.
• chicken legs (whole and divided into thigh and drumstick) - they can also go 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 a photo

Such an instruction, especially taking into account my experience, I think it will be useful to many. Especially for novice hostesses. 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, we will make an incision between the leg and the body.

Step 1. Make an incision between the leg and the body

Then you can do this - turning the lower part up, separate it, and cut it off at the point of fracture. Or so - holding the leg, pull it back slightly. Let's make a neat incision in this place, reaching the joints.

Step 2. Pull the leg

After a circular, neat cut to the very tail, we will get such 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 already get two parts of the leg - the thigh and the lower leg.

Step 4. Thigh

Then you can take the wings. There are also several ways. Separate the wing, grabbing some meat from the fillet. Or, finding the shoulder joint that connects the wings to the carcass, cut off in this place under the root. Or so - turn the wing inside out at the joint, and cut along the joint line, removing the tip of the winglet.

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, press gently on the meat with your fingers and carefully separate it from the bone and ribs.

Step 6. Incision along the breast

Or, having removed the skin, make an incision in front (as in the photo) along the cartilaginous part of the breast. Then advance 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).

Step 7 Fillet

You can do otherwise. Laying the breast up, cut off the side part (along the ribs) on both sides with scissors. Having cut off from the back, we continue to separate the fillet itself with a knife - going from the cartilaginous part, along the ribs. In addition, we will get a wonderful soup set of bone with cartilage, parts of wings and a rump.

Step 8 Soup Set

That's all. We got 2 fillets (they can also be cut in half, or additionally divided into slices, stripes, etc.), 2 thighs, drumsticks and wings), as well as a soup set. And I offer a few more ways ...

2 simple and quick ways to cut a chicken carcass

Method number 1 . Suitable to immediately cook something, say, just a leg. We put the carcass, washed and thoroughly dried with a towel, with the belly up (it is easier to cut here, since the cartilage). First, break it in half, cutting across the middle (if along, you get two blanks for a tobacco chicken). With a knife, cut the upper part along the breast, reaching the back. Here are 2 more parts. Lower, removing excess fat, also divide in half - from top to bottom. Get 2 legs. Everything you can cook.

Compliance temperature regime, duration of processing, order of operations - a guarantee of obtaining a carcass completely ready for storage.

bleeding

After slaughter, the bird is immediately hung upside down. This operation allows you to completely bleed the chicken carcass.

The time allotted for this operation is from 1 to 2 minutes. The length of time the hens stay in limbo depends on:

• type of bird;
• type of bird;
• slaughter method.

pen department

There are two ways to separate the feather: dry and wet. The second method is used more often. Hot water makes it easier to separate the feather.

Water temperature for processing young birds - from +51С to + 53С. Dip in water for 1-2 minutes. It is permissible to immerse an adult bird in hot water with a temperature of +55C to +60C for 30s.

First, the largest, toughest feathers are removed from the tail and wings. Next, pluck the abdomen, legs, shoulder area and neck. Small feathers are removed after heat treatment much easier than with the dry method.

Down and feather processing

Feathers are sorted, sorted by size: in one container - large, in another - downy and small feathers.

Feathers and down are valuable raw materials. It is used for filling mattresses, pillows (small feather), for sewing collars, hats (down feather).

Feathers are cleaned in the following way:

• washed in warm water with a solution of detergents;
• rinse well to remove soap or powder residue;
• wring out;
• dried for 48 hours. Recommended drying temperature: + 70С…+80С. Final moisture percentage: 12%.

You can dry the pen well at home with the help of large gauze bags. Fill bags with feathers, hang from the ceiling in dry, well-ventilated areas.

Shake the bag several times during the drying process to avoid caking of the contents. To store the pen, you need to choose a room with good ventilation and low humidity.

gutting poultry

Before evisceration, the oral cavity is cleaned of blood residues. The throat of the bird is squeezed and, moving the fingers, the clot is pressed through. After the discharge of the blood plug, the site of the incision is thoroughly cleaned of drops of blood.

The beak is wiped dry. A paper swab is made and inserted into the oral cavity. The beak and legs are well washed, wiped and begin to gut the chicken.

Remove internal organs. Most of them are used in the future. Offal - the heart, liver, stomach without a shell are tasty and healthy. They are used for food. The lungs, esophagus, spleen, trachea, ovaries and testicles are boiled, crushed and used to feed the bird.

After extracting the entrails, the head is cut off along the second cervical vertebra, the legs are cut off to the heel joint, and the wings are cut off to the elbow joint. Processing completed.

The bird is thoroughly washed in cold water, left at room temperature for 2 - 8 hours. During this time, the chicken carcass is completely cooled and the meat ripens. It acquires a pleasant smell, becomes juicy and tender.

Post-mortem rigor mortis occurs fairly quickly in birds. Gutted young birds are enough to withstand from 2 to 4 hours, old chickens - up to 8 hours. The chicken can then be eaten or stored.

Storage of chicken meat

There are different ways to store chicken. Distinguish between short-term and long-term storage.

short-term

3–5 days. Chicken carcasses are stored in the refrigerator. Temperature: from 0C to -4C. If you don't have a refrigerator, remember the old way to save chicken. Soak a clean cloth in vinegar and wrap the meat around. The fabric must remain damp.

Long term

2-3 months or more. For long-term storage, the bird must be prepared in a special way. There are several ways to prepare poultry for long-term storage.

Preparation methods

Freeze

Within 12-18 hours, the carcasses are gradually cooled to a temperature of -2C ... -4C. After freezing is carried out at a temperature of -12C to -18C.

Ice Shell

Rural residents store gutted chickens in an ice crust during the winter. Nothing complicated:

• chickens are taken out into the cold, dipped in water;
• freeze in the air;
• dip again;
• freeze again;
• the process is repeated up to 4 times until the chicken is completely covered with a crust;
• wrap the carcass in parchment. Store at temperatures from -5 to -8C.

A layer of ice protects the carcass from the penetration of microbes. The bird can be stored in an ice shell for up to 2-3 months. Pour the carcasses with straw or sawdust.

Be sure to take out the box with the "ice chickens" in the cold. Defrost poultry before cooking should be gradual. This will preserve the quality of the meat.

salting

The gutted carcass can be salted in a strong saline solution. For 1 kg. birds will need 150 ml. solution.

Step by step:

1. 300g table salt dissolve well in a liter of water;
2. using a syringe, pour a saline solution through the bird's mouth;
3. well bandage the neck;
4. hang the carcass by the legs;
5. for 20 hours leave at temperatures + 22C ... + 23C;
6. at the end of the period, the brine is drained;
7. kept cold.

Tip: the strength of the solution is easy to check. If boiled egg does not sink, so you put enough salt.

Dry salting

With this method of salting, meat can be stored for more than six months. The prepared chicken is rubbed with salt and put into a barrel. Sprinkle each carcass well with salt.

Stored in a cellar. After 2-3 weeks, the bird is taken out, spices are added to the salt: black pepper, clove buds. Add a bay leaf if desired. Repeat the process of laying the chicken. The barrel is again removed to the cellar.

Smoking

A popular way of long-term storage of chicken carcasses. Procedure:

• chickens are salted in a dry way, after cutting along the line of the chest;
• salt (1 kg) is mixed with sugar (20 g) and ground black pepper (5-10 g). This amount of salt is for 10 medium chickens. After 2 days, a load is placed on each carcass. Weight: 2-3 kg for every 10 kg of chicken;
• small birds salt out up to 4 days, large birds - up to 6 days. Salt is washed off the carcass under cold water and dried at room temperature;
• if you want to eat meat after a short time, use hot smoke with a temperature of up to + 80C. Maintain this temperature for the first hour. In the next 2-3 hours, reduce the heat and bring the temperature to + 35C ... + 40C;
• for long-term storage of chicken carcasses, smoking with cold smoke with a temperature of + 20C is more suitable. The process is long - up to 3 days;
• finished carcasses should be wiped well from soot and soot. Smoked products are stored at a temperature not higher than + 5C. The room must be dry.

canning

Simple, fast, delicious. Cooking process:

1. cut off all the fat, melt over low heat for 45 minutes - 1 hour;
2. chicken is boiled until cooked, put in processed, steamed, clean jars;
3. prepared meat is poured with chicken fat. It covers the meat with an airtight film. If there is not enough fat, goose or duck lard is added;
4. white paper is moistened in alcohol or vodka, covered with jars and tightly tied with twine. Store homemade canned chicken in the cellar.

If you breed chickens for nutritious and tasty meat, tune in from the very beginning that you will have to slaughter the bird, process it and engage in further processing of the carcasses. The right mental attitude is very important.

After slaughter, gut the bird, butcher it and consider how to store it. It would be wise to prepare part of the meat for use in the near future, and prepare the rest for long-term storage. Then you will be provided with valuable dietary meat for a long time.

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A ready-made chicken breast fillet in the store costs almost 2 times more than a bone-in breast with skin, so it’s more profitable to buy a bone-in breast and cut it into fillets. If we buy a whole chicken carcass, then it can be cut into wings, legs, thighs and back, and the breast can be left for cooking chops, kebabs, rolls or other original dishes. The cutting process is very simple and fast, you just need to know how to do it correctly. I always leave the skin and bone for making broth, the skin can still be useful for cooking chicken rolls in the skin. The photo shows in detail how to cut a chicken breast into fillets.

We wash the chicken breast on the bone with the skin well under running water and, to remove excess moisture, soak it with towels or paper napkins.

With fingers on one side, we disconnect the skin from the meat. We begin to carefully remove it and in places where the skin is tightly held on the fillet, we cut it with a sharp knife (this will be in the middle of the breast). For cutting, I use a not very wide and long knife, which should be sharp. Set the skin aside.

Turn the breast on the bone to the other side. We will see 2 protruding large bones that are connected to small bones. Insert a knife between these bones.

With a sharp movement, we cut off the bones at the junctions on the right side, then on the left side.

Turn the brisket over again. We grope in the middle of the central bone, step back a little from it to the side and make an incision down the bone. We make an incision first on the right or on the left side.

Then we take the knife along the bone to the left side (if it is the left half of the fillet) and continue to cut the meat from the bones.

We cut the meat along the edges of the bone and get half a breast fillet. According to this principle, we cut off the second part of the fillet.

We place the halves of the chicken fillet down with the side on which the skin was, grope for small bones on the sides of the fillet and expose them. Use your fingers to remove the bones from the meat.

We cut the protruding parts of the fillet, cut off the veins, fat along the edges and get neat chicken breast halves. In time, cutting the breast takes no more than 5 minutes.

The fillet is ready for further processing. Each half of the fillet can be cut in half, beaten off, cooked chops or rolls with filling. The finished fillet can be sprinkled with salt, spices and quickly baked in the oven simply on a baking sheet or in foil. There are many recipes for chicken breast fillet.