video : Feature
How to Cut a Chicken into Eight Serving PiecesFrom whole chicken to chicken-in-pieces in six steps |
From the CHOW Studio comes the first in a series of technique videos. Associate food editor Regan Burns explains how to cut a chicken into eight serving pieces: two wings, two breast halves, two thighs, and two legs.
(Macromedia Flash 7 or above required)
First, rinse the chicken, and trim away excess fat at the neck and body cavity. Place chicken on its back, legs toward you.
- Cut through the skin that attaches the breast to the thigh, exposing the meat beneath.
- Pop out the thigh joint by bending the leg backward, away from the body; then cut around the bone to release the thigh and leg quarter. Repeat on the other side.
- Hold the drumstick at a 45-degree angle with the bone pointing toward you, and cut down through the joint to separate the leg from the thigh.
- Turn the bird onto its breast, and cut along each side of the spine to free the backbone.
- Leaving the chicken on its breast, cut straight through the breastplate to make two halves.
- Turn the breast halves skin side up. Make a diagonal cut about 1 inch in from where the wing joint meets the breast to remove the wings.
Nice video, great use of the medium -- I can't wait to see more. It would be helpful if Regan took 15 seconds at the start to say which knives are best to use. A mini knife-skills tutorial!
Nice video. PLEASE talk about sanitation whenever using poultry. I agree that a few seconds about knives would be wise, too.
Much better than the "cutting up a chicken" video on FoodTV.com -- thanks!
Great. Now how do you remover the breastmeat intact from the bones, (At one Italian restaurant I frequent they remove one entire breats - both halves - with only the first bone of the wings attached to make agreat chicken diavola)
Great video quality. Can't wait to see some more.
very nice and smooth...love the idea of videos..bring on more
Outstanding quality - easy to follow & understand - Great feature
*swoooon*
Good! How about a video on sharpening knifes?
I'm very impressed with the quality of the video. Much better than other sites. Boning a chicken breast might be a good subject for another video.
Yes, this was great. Something we can actually use, and having it on video is really helpful.
Nice video, but could be better for a beginner. Here are a couple of critiques:
-It's too short. Spend more time on some of the difficult parts, which follows into:
-not enough different camera shots. Try some closeups, and show the same task from different angles. Almost all of the tasks are shown from the point of view of someone watching Regan; you want to show it from the point of view of Regan, which is how most people will see it when they try to do it themselves. The old Julia Child programmes did a great job of getting the camera in there to show what was going on.
Videos are great...but they need to be a little bit slower. It was very quick, fine if you need a refresher, not so great if you really have no idea what youre doing. How about a knife skills series?
Slow it down please. Add the comment about washing afterwards. Change camera angles. Good first start.
Excellent video quality!
The instructions were very simple, though I didnt do it in real time with Regan, but she made it look easy enough for me to try on my own.
I agree with the previous posters that Regan should have talked about knives in the beginning--that a sharp knife is needed (my knives are quite blunt, actually!), and what size of knife is needed.
The de-boning would be very useful too.
Excellent feature. I can tell already that these videos are going to be a fantastic resource. I especially like the little box in the upper left corner showing which part is being cut.
I don't necessarily feel that the video needs to be slowed down. Watching it a few times gave me the gist of the process. However, I definitely think better/different camera angles would be extremely helpful--at the beginning, the action of cutting the thigh from the body of the chicken is almost entirely obscured by the chicken itself. Same with cutting the breast in half when Regan's hand obscures the actual cutting motion. I agree with Jeff Next Door that there should be more shots of cutting the chicken from Regan's perspective, since that's what we'll be seeing when we try it for ourselves.
Regarding the knives--how about a link in an obvious location (at the end of the written steps?) directing viewers to another video or article about knives? (As well as other related articles) I like that this video is focussed entirely on cutting the chicken (though it would be useful for Regan to quickly name the knife she's using for a particular step).
Thanks!
Videos for prepping food - GREAT! Some comments:
1. I agree with all about a "knife science" segment - selecting, sharpening, caring for, etc.
2. Please, PLEASE change the section on removing the backbone. As an ex-shop teacher, I cringed as she pulled the knife towards her hand, aiming right at her thumb-forefinger joint...! You want the "GOOD" Julia Child demos, not the "Dan Ackroyd" Julia Child demos. Cutting tools should always be worked AWAY from body parts...
3. A helpful trick - cutting each of those breast portions in half again helps equalize cooking time. Plus, it provides more manageable portions.
Looking forward to more of these great ideas!
Great video, as someone just learning I found this very helpful. I would love to know what kind of knife to use, as others have said. Thank you!
As all have said, great video. I always have my fiance do this but now might give it a try. :) Would love to see a November video on carving a turkey, as well as other randoms like working with phyllo or cutting up a rabbit. Thanks!
you need to support more browsers ssuch as safari, there are more young people trying to learn to cook who have vidio ipods and macs that are in need of this info. quick time has much greater control for the viewer.
a word about home sanitation, and that back removal shot on the chicken, with the crossover of the cutting edge faced to the hand is one of the most dangerous acts a home cook can do; please simply turn the chicken around and make the cut. i loved the mag and i am loving your sight thanks for the opportunity to comment.
Since this was a video about how to cut a chicken and not about how to sharpen knives, work with food safely or teach 19 year olds everything about cooking, I'd say it was down right helpful. I've been cutting chicken for years and have never pulled the back apart that way. I learned a new way to cut chicken, thanks!
I used to cut up whole chickens, but it made such a mess that . . . I say it's broccoli and I say to hell with it. :)
I just used this video to cut up a chicken. It's perfect. Thank you!
I just used this video to cut up a chicken. It's perfect (the video and the chicken). Thank you!
Not really the best video out there on how to break down a chicken. If you're watching it, then you're probably a newbie and a newbie would need more help than this particular video.