How to Save Money by Buying Whole Chicken
Easy Steps to Safely Cut Up Chicken Yourself. And Skin It Yourself.
Nov 9, 2008
Your recipe calls for cut-up chicken, and maybe skinless, to boot. Why not buy skinless chicken pieces in the first place? Your supermarket hopes you will. Have you checked the price of skinless chicken breasts or thighs lately? Watch for whole chickens on sale, cut it up and skin it yourself and you can save 60-80% or more on the cost of chicken. And it doesn't take butcher training to do it.
How NOT to Get (and Give!) Salmonella Food Poisoning
A few words first about safety in handling raw poultry. You do not want to expose your family, dinner guests or yourself to the possibility of salmonella poisoning. Religiously follow these food safety tips from the California Poison Control System (CPCS):
- Wash your hands! Wash your hands before, during and after food preparation. Use soap and warm water and wash for 20 seconds. Washing is the most important thing you can do to prevent food poisoning.
- Use hot, soapy water to wash cutting boards, utensils and anything else that was used to prepare food.*
- Use a diluted bleach solution to clean cutting boards and countertops after food preparation.
- Do not use a sponge or dishcloth to clean surfaces that have touched raw meat, fish or poultry. Use soap, water and a disposable paper towel.
- After handling raw meat, fish or poultry, do not reuse the same utensil or plate. Bacteria from the raw juices will contaminate other food.
* Cool Tip: When washing knives or cutting boards that may have tiny bits of chicken meat on them, it's best to start by rinsing them well with cold water first. Starting with hot water actually cooks the meat and as it constricts, it sticks to your knife, etc. forcing you to get a scrubbing pad or dishcloth to scrub them off, potentially creating yet another vehicle for cross-contamination.
How to Cut Up Whole Chicken
You will need:
- a sharp chef's knife
- a cutting board, preferably one with a gutter
- kitchen shears and a sharp boning knife will help, too, but are not absolutely necessary
This how-to is one of those cases where a picture (or in this case a video) is worth a thousand words. Check out this brief (less than 2 minute) video on How to Cut Up a Whole Chicken on CHOW.
The video shows a method yielding the typical eight pieces. Chicken are bred to yield large breasts. It's tempting to comment further on that, but let's just say you may want to cut each breast half in two or even three pieces.
The “Chinese” method, for instance, calls for you to cut each drumstick, thigh, and breast piece crosswise into three pieces, cutting completely through the bones. Then cut each wing into two pieces. This technique will result in 22 small, serving size pieces, great for finger food.
You can be even more frugal if you use the back, neck and giblets to make chicken broth.
How to Take the Skin Off Chicken Pieces
Two more reasons to go skinless:
- The vast majority of chicken fat is in or right under the skin. Cooking with skinless chicken pieces is less greasy and healthier.
- Removing the skin also can help the chicken meat more readily absorb the flavors of marinades and cooking sauces.
This technique applies to a cut-up chicken. Theoretically, it could also be used with a whole chicken, but for roasting a whole chicken, for instance, you want the skin on to keep the meat from drying out.
Skinning the breast and thigh are the easiest. Legs or hindquarters take a little more yanking. Wings aren't worth the bother unless it's just the drumette, which you handle just like the leg.
For the breast or thigh, find a cut edge where the skin lifts easily. Insert one or two fingers and move them around under the skin to loosen it. Then hold the partially skinned piece in one hand, with your other hand grip the skin by the loosened edge and pull it off and away from the loosened edge.
To skin a leg or a hind quarter, work from the broader, cut end to first loosen then pull the skin off over the ankle end of the drumstick. Otherwise, it's like trying to pull a sweater off over your hips. Okay, let's not go there, either. You may need to use a knife to cut the skin off the bony ankle.
If you love chicken, check out these recipes, including:
- Chicken a l'Orange,
- Chicken Chausseur - Hunters' Style Chicken
- Mediterranean-Style Coq au Vin
- Buffalo Wing Slaw
- Chicken with a Creamy Dijon Mustard Sauce
- African Chicken-Peanut Soup
- Tomatillo Chicken Chili with Southwestern Spice
- Mulligatawny Chicken Stew
- African Chicken and Peanut Soup
- How to Make Arroz con Pollo - Rice with Chicken
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