This was one of the most requested how tos this month: How to carve a roast chicken! This is also our first attempt at a slightly longer video; it goes quite in-depth on how to cut up a chicken.
Major disclaimer: Our technical video skills are still improving! This one is getting better, but we promise future videos will be even sharper! But if you are new to carving chickens, this should give you quite a good primer on the basics (even if things do slip in and out of focus here and there).
A word to the squeamish: There is much popping of joints, and cracking of cartilage here. Carving a chicken definitely requires some boldness with the knife!
What You Need
Ingredients
One roast chicken (See How To Roast a Chicken here.)
Equipment
Large cutting board
Chef's knife - should be very sharp
Bowl or platter for roast chicken pieces
Paper towels or rag
Instructions
1. Start by letting your roast chicken rest, well-covered, for about 10 minutes to let the juices recirculate. Then place it on a large cutting board. Make sure you are standing in a place where you have full range of movement for you and your knife. Have paper towels or a rag on hand to wipe your hands as you go.
2. Place the chicken breast-side-down on the cutting board. Use the tip of your knife to slit the skin where the leg is joined to the body. Cut a small slit in the meat as well, exposing the joint.
3. After the joint has been exposed, rotate and bend the leg away from the body so the joint pops out. Use the knife to cut down hard through the remaining skin and cartilage. You will need to use a bit of force with this, and if you enounter a complete block, you probably hit bone. If this happens, move a quarter inch closer to the joint and try again. Completely separate the leg from the body.
4. Repeat on the other side of the chicken with the other leg, separating it from the body.
5. If desired, you can also separate the thigh from the drumstick. This is a similar process to separating the leg from the body: Start by cutting through the skin and making a shallow slit in the meat. Rotate the joint so that it pops out, and then cut the thigh away from the drumstick by cutting straight down through the remaining cartilage and skin. If you hit a complete block, then you've hit the bone. Try to identify where the joint has popped away from the bone, and cut there.
6. Now move on to the wings. You are probably sensing the pattern here: Cut away a little of the skin and meat, and rotate the joint until it pops out. You can also do the same to the lower joint of the wings (the tips) and cut them away. These have very little meat on them anyway, and unless you really like them, they are best put in the stockpot.
7. To remove the breasts, cut a slit down the middle, between the breasts, to expose the breast bone, and then keep cutting down on one side until you hit the ribs. Once there, just run the knife along the ribs (almost parallel to the ribs) to cut off the breasts. Repeat on the other side.
8. Now you are left with just a chicken carcass. Pick off any remaining meat and refrigerate or freeze it for soups, sandwiches, or tossing with pasta.
9. The remaining chicken carcass can be used to make stock or soup! Here's our post on making stock from a chicken carcass: How To Make Homemade Chicken Stock
How does this compare to your own method of carving a chicken? And, like I said, we're working on making these better — taking video is very different than taking photos!
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(Images: Faith Durand)
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This seems very helpful, but I could not get over the shaky camera and the in and out of focus. So I couldn't even watch the full video. I would suggest a tripod for the next video and extra lights. Hope that helps:)
I look forward to watching this when I get home. I've been tempted by some roasted chicken recipes I've seen lately, but I've avoided making them because I'm very intimidated by the carving process. I'll gladly put up with a little shaky camera work if it means I can have some fresh roasted chicken in my belly this weekend. :)
Wow, didn't realize carving a chicken was quite so hands-on... I thought I could just leave it sitting in the roasting pan and just carve off it... Also, I think I need to get a better knife.
I didn't know how much work it took to carve a roasted chicken! Thanks for the video!
wow she made carving a chicken look a whole lot harder than it is!!
That's the professional method for carving a bird that just about every restaurant uses. It's based on cleanly separating whole muscles from the skeleton so you have big minimally damaged pieces of meat and very little waste. It might seem a bit more difficult at first, but it's the quickest and easiest way to get as close to 100% (meat) utilization out of the chicken as is humanly possible with very few knife cuts. After using this method a few times you'll wonder why you did it any other way.
The results really do speak for themselves. There's almost no meat left on the carcass and you've got around 8 beautiful whole pieces of chicken with separate white and dark meat on the other plate. If you just hack pieces off haphazardly, you will either a) be wasting a lot of chicken or b) have at least two of the 5 servings on the bird be crappy little shreds of meat that take twice as long to carve than if you had just done the whole thing right to begin with.
That was kinda painful to watch. Brooklinnina, with a little practice, you can do these steps without turning the chicken over and without putting your hands all over it (using a carving knife and carving fork instead).
This NYT video about carving a turkey for Thanksgiving is similar in spirit (and maybe less painful to watch): http://video.nytimes.com/video/2008/11/21/dining/1194833560897/carving-a-thanksgiving-turkey.html
I liked the video, because I carve a chicken the same way, and just as awkwardly. Made me feel way better. :D
@Brooklynnina and @erica, we did do this very hands on, and rather slowly, too, since Emma was demonstrating exactly what is going on when you break down a chicken. You could of course do this in a slightly less "hands on" manner, and use a knife and a fork.
But popping the joints out will always be easier and faster with two hands, and it will give you much more meat, as chefandy pointed out.
using your hand instead of a fork won't give you more meat (cuts are still at the same places)
Sure, I use my hands when I'm preparing in the kitchen, but a fork if it's a whole roast chicken being served at the table.
nicely carved but if the chicken was hot out of the oven (like most roasted chickens are consumed) she would not be able to handle it that way she is due to temperature of the bird, even with the 10 minute resting time. not exactly realistic conditions!
I found this video super helpful even if the quality was a little poor. I didn't carve it exactly as Emma did since the bird was too hot, but I had a WAY clearer idea of where to cut. Cheers for this!
Oh dear. This video is very awkward. First off, it's best to use a carving knife to carve a bird and secondly I've never quite seen a bird tossed around so much to be carved.
First of all, THANK YOU so much for making the decision to put more of your instructional posts on video instead of relying solely on still photos. Video really helps me follow along with all that is happening. And I get that this is new for you and that you are learning as you go. Still, I have to admit that I was expecting (and, yes, hoping for) the stereotypical Norman Rockwell scene: a bird served and carved at table with a carving knife and fork. Even if this is a recommended technique for professionals, this was a bit too hands on for me - more like butchering than carving. That said, I certainly learned something and I am always happy to know the proper technique, even if I decide it's not for me.
COOK THE CHICKEN!!!!!
NO BLOOD!!!!!!!!
IT SHOULD FALL APART IN YOUR HANDS!!!!!!!!!
THAT'S HOW I DO IT..........