Manual cervical dislocation, easier than expected

[Ridgerunner]

I like to use poultry shears to cut through the joints and ribs around the breast. That keeps your knife sharper.

 

[Deedee1969]

The killing method will probably not matter much.

No video, but here's a method that works for me:
Kill the chicken.
Wait for the body to stop flapping around.

Cut off the feet, through the joint where the bare skin meets the feathery area.

Pinch up a bit of skin on the belly area, and poke a knife through it.
From that starting point, cut the skin and pull it back until you can see the leg/thigh pieces.

Cut off the leg/thigh pieces, cutting through the joint where they attach to the body.

Pull the skin back as much more as you need, and cut off the breast pieces. I usually cut next to the bones and have boneless breast meat.

All done!


For any "cut through the joint" steps, just wiggle the joint a few times, then cut toward the point that wiggles. Some amount of cutting, wiggling, and pulling will make it come apart. It feels difficult the first time, but pretty easy after a while.

Cutting off the feet, and cutting off the leg/thight pieces, are done pretty much the same way in this method as they would be in any other method of butchering.

Thanks for the walk through of what works for you . I'm pretty excited about this lol. I feel so barbaric I'm kinda over the being in love with my chickens phase that I had years ago when I made pets out of them all. Now I just want clean meat to eat . Funny how perspective can change so much.