Of course, in the modern world there is no need to hunt animals or raise a subsidiary farm. All food production comes down to going to the supermarket. But there you can already buy everything that the soul desires, already lovingly divided into pieces and packed. But what if you want to treat yourself to a delicious chicken, and the budget is limited? Learn how to properly chop the chicken yourself.
Where to begin?
Of course, from going to the store. First you need to choose a chicken. Standing at the windows, it is better to turn your attention to chilled products. It is stored for 5 days, but the taste and useful properties in the carcass are better preserved. Moreover, chilled poultry is more suitable for cooking main dishes and soups.
Proper gutting
So how to chop chicken? Yes, very easy! The main thing is to have a cutting board and a sharpened knife at hand.
Traditionally, the carcass is divided into an even number of parts. They may be smaller, and they will be larger, or larger, and then, accordingly, the parts will be small. The size of the pieces dictates the way they are cooked. So let's get started.
The first thing that begins to cut the bird is to rinse it with running water and remove the remaining feathers. The water temperature can be any that is comfortable for the hands. If the carcass with paws, besides dirty, then the first thing they get rid of them is as from the most contaminated part. With some luck, the paws will remain clean, then they will go to jellied meat or broth.
Next, the knife is inserted into the anus of the chicken carcass, and the carcass is cut along the abdomen. You can not make sharp movements with a knife, so as not to pierce the rectum of the carcass and throw it out later.
The legs are separated along the joint.
To make it easier to get offal, you need to expand the incision made earlier, in both directions.
Everything superfluous is removed, but special attention needs to be paid to the gall bladder. It should not be touched with a knife, because if it spills, the meat will be bitter. To distinguish from the rest of the gallbladder can be green-yellow color.
It is necessary to walk inside the carcass with a knife and, if necessary, make several more cuts to make it easier to remove the offal.
In a deep bowl shake out the entire contents of the chicken.
The intestine holding the rest is cut off. To do this, push the knife as far as possible. Now you need to get those entrails that are suitable for food - the heart, ventricle, liver. The rest is thrown out. We figured out the gutting, now we figure out how to cut the chicken into portions.
Divide the carcass into parts
This method of cutting is good if the meat is then stewed or baked. It will take all the same as for gutting, plus kitchen scissors.
It doesn’t matter if you have experience cutting chicken or not. Even a child will cope with this, because the set of actions is minimal. How to cut a chicken into pieces, anyone will understand.
First cut the chicken legs. To cut them off, you need to cut the skin between the hips and the body of the bird. Next, the leg must be pulled sideways and the joint turned out. Now it will be very simple to cut the ham itself and divide it into a shin and a thigh.
The wings are cut off according to the same principle: first, the wing is taken to the side, and then the joint is turned out. Since the end parts of the wings are unsuitable for food, they are used in the same way as the legs are used for broth.
The breast and back are divided. The chicken is placed on its back and cut with scissors on the sides. With this method of cutting, ribs are cut, and this is normal.
The separated breast is placed on a cutting board with the skin down and vertically cut in half. In this case, you need to make enough effort, because it’s hard to cut on the cartilage.
The result is 8 parts of the chicken: two halves of the breast, two wings, two thighs, two legs.
Cutting chicken for roll
How to cut chicken for meatloaf? To do this, you will have to remove all the bones.
Chicken carcass is placed on a cutting board. The first incision is made in the middle of the breast, and white meat is cut from the bones. Continuing to make sharp cuts, the column of the spine and the bones of the breast are separated from the veins and meat. Everything must be done as accurately and accurately as possible, because otherwise it will be very difficult to separate the meat from the bones.
The phalanges of the wings are removed in the same way as the tubular bones. The best way to remove bones is to turn them out of the meat while helping with a knife. To remove the bone from the lower leg, an incision must be made to the bone.
Lastly, excess fat and small bones are removed.
Two ways to cut
From time to time, the hostess raises the question: how to chop chicken for stuffing? There are two methods. Let's consider them further.
Open method
You need to start from the back, because it has a lot of meat. With a sharp knife, meat is separated from the bone, starting with the tail. In the course of separation, the bones on the lower leg and wings are removed. But if there is no need for a recipe in the wings, then you can simply cut them off.
Private method
This method works on the principle of things turned inside out. Very neat on both sides make cuts in the tail. Carefully moving along the chicken, they turn the body, separating the skeleton.
The legs are incised and torn off from the carcass. Fillets are cut from the cartilage and the wings are broken off. The meat and skin are removed from the lower leg with circular incisions, while chopping off the bones.
Now you know how to cut chicken.