How to portion up a chicken

1 whole raw chicken

preparation 0 mins • you cook for 10 mins • total time 10 mins

Watch a 30 second preview of my cook-along video below

If you cannot view the video below, click here to download QuickTime from Apple's website.

This is a great thing to be able to do, as you get so much more bird for your money! Buying a whole chicken and portioning it yourself is cheaper than buying 2 legs, 2 wings & 2 breasts. The legs can be portioned further to make a thigh and a drum stick and the wings are great for a saturday evening snack. For the dedicated amongst you, use the bones to make your own chicken stock!

Sharp knife

Bowl or board to put the chicken pieces on

Before you start have the chicken out on a board and click here!

First you need to take the legs off. Where the leg meats the breast, pull away gently and then run your knife along the join. With the skin cut, as in the first photo on the right, keep cutting using small gentle cuts to ease the leg away from the breast. When the kife reaches a bone, stop cutting and then bend the leg back and away from the breast. Use little cuts to cut around the bone, removing the leg. Repeat this on the other side.

Tp remove the chicken breast, use the backbone as your guide, and run your knife as close to the backbone as possible, as in the third photo on the right. Using little cuts, stay as close to the bone as possible, all the way to the bottom. Make a big cut through the bone at the bottom, and you should have removed a chicken breast and wing. To separate these, turn them over, skin side dow,n then cut around the joint that connects the wing to the breast.

Repeat with the other chicken breast and you're all done.

It really is that easy!

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