cutting help?

[irmad]

Can someone please put a video on here or a link showing how to cut (sectioning into pieces) a back yard rooster or hen..... really need some help on this issue....

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Do you mean to quarter the bird after processing it?

If so then it's relatively simple. You stand the bird on end and cut along the backbone, right to side of it, with a hefty butcher knife. Then open the bird as placed breast down to split along the keel bone, it will be almost center of the white cartilage but to side of bone. From there it's cut off the breast to finish the quartering. Again, it's all done with a butcher knife and more pressure than sharpness of knife hence the bigger blade. Tough a sharp knife will make it easier.

 

[Egghead_Jr]

Watching the first video I found the chef a bit anal retentive about the whole thing...

Some are bothering to take wish bone and backbone and wings off...way more work than a simple quartering.

Here's what I do:

http://recipes.howstuffworks.com/tools-and-techniques/how-to-cut-up-chicken1.htm

 

[irmad]

Thanks for your reply.... would I have to use the same method for a mature 1 year old rooster.... the bones are guite tough.

 

[aoxa]

 

[Egghead_Jr]

The only hard part is the ribs along the backbone and this is why I stand the bird on end. It really makes it easier, that and a good heavy butcher knife. The cartilage on breast bone is soft and once cracked open (by hand after scaring it with knife) it's all meat along side of keel bone until the wishbone. Guess that's why all the how to stuff shows taking the wish bone out first. I muscle through, hand on back of knife and put your weight on it with a jerk.

Not much harder with larger birds, I quarter my older birds to cook when making gumbo.

 

[aoxa]

The only hard part is the ribs along the backbone and this is why I stand the bird on end. It really makes it easier, that and a good heavy butcher knife. The cartilage on breast bone is soft and once cracked open (by hand after scaring it with knife) it's all meat along side of keel bone until the wishbone. Guess that's why all the how to stuff shows taking the wish bone out first. I muscle through, hand on back of knife and put your weight on it with a jerk.

Not much harder with larger birds, I quarter my older birds to cook when making gumbo.

We eviscerate all of our birds but a few for roasting.

I find the hardest is between the thighs and drumsticks. I take the breasts right off the bone. I take the entire ribcage with back still attached for stock. I have heard the breast (bone in) is the hardest to cut up.

 

[offgridhermit]

My mother use to get about 11 or 13 pieces out of a chicken plus the heart, gizzard, and liver when she cut one up. And when she fried it she stuffed the liver into the back. When I was a dumb kid my favorite pieces were the back w/the liver, the bony ribs, and the neck, oh and the wishbone section. She had to cook for a family of 7.
If I had a whole one to cut up I'd take pictures of how she did it. She actually got 4 pieces out of the breast section.

 

[bobbi-j]

When I cut up a chicken, I remove the meat from the breast. I don't cut the leg bones, I cut them apart at the joints, cutting the meat and tendons. (Much easier on the knife!) That's how I remove the wings and the thighs from the body, too. Pop 'em out of joint, again cutting the meat and tendons. I like to boil the carcass for stock and whatever meat might be left on them. When I leave a chicken whole, my favorite meat is in the back. There are two little pieces, toward the rear that when you scoop them out they leave just a little dip in the backbone.

I'm hoping to have some meat birds to process next fall, Things didn't quite work out for that to work out this year...

 

[donrae]

When I cut up a chicken, I remove the meat from the breast. I don't cut the leg bones, I cut them apart at the joints, cutting the meat and tendons. (Much easier on the knife!) That's how I remove the wings and the thighs from the body, too. Pop 'em out of joint, again cutting the meat and tendons. I like to boil the carcass for stock and whatever meat might be left on them. When I leave a chicken whole, my favorite meat is in the back. There are two little pieces, toward the rear that when you scoop them out they leave just a little dip in the backbone.

I'm hoping to have some meat birds to process next fall, Things didn't quite work out for that to work out this year...

Is that like chicken backstrap?