How to Cut Up a Chicken with Scissors

How to Cut Up a Chicken with Scissors Hello, this is Chef John from foodwishes.com and alright, I give up, you’re not going to cut up a chicken with a knife. So I’m going to show you how to do it with scissors. Alright, now you have no excuses for buying cut up chicken parts for all that extra money. We’re going to use scissors to take this chicken and break it into pieces. So get yourself a pair of good scissors. You want some nice kitchen shears and just use them for chicken. You don’t want to be using the same scissors you use to trim your goatie. And by the way, your friends are right, shave that goatie off, not a good look on you. I’m sorry to break it to you. And we also need a Chinese meat cleaver or a big knife, you decide. First thing, you got to take off these wing tips. That little—what are you going to do? There’s not meat on that, come on. So we’re going to just snip that off. That’s pretty easy. There’s hardly any bone there or cartilage. Now, the wing is easy to cut because you’re just going to cut where it bends. The scissor trick is dependent on you identifying where a chicken bends. We’re looking for joints. See that? So if you move it back and forth, it bends. You just snip it with a scissors through skin and muscle until you hit the bone and you stop. And you keep snipping a little bit of skin and muscle until you can see the joint and then you go through where the joint attaches to the body. Alright, let’s try the other one. So I clip the skin, I just make a couple of little snips and I can see—see, I can see the ball joint. It’s a bone socket just like your shoulder and once you see the ball joint, just put your knife right in there and again, take your time. If you’re not sure, wiggle it around and there. So you really never in this whole procedure—well, except to the end, you’ll never really going to cut through any bone at all. That’s why scissors work. So I’m going to cut off the tail. I don’t like that thing, so that was the de-assification. Alright, the legs, maybe the trickiest part but it’s not even tricky. Turn it over so the back is facing up and the breasts are facing down, and you can feel that joint right there. See? My thumb is right on it. You can feel it and you’re just going to snap it right out of the socket. Alright, so what we’re going to do now, we’re just going to again—just like the wing, we’re going to make a couple of snips just so I can see what’s happening. Once I’ve snipped through the skin, I’m going to turn it over. I’m going to make a couple more snips and I’m holding my scissors right against the body. So, I’m not cutting in to the meat of the leg at all. We just want to make little snips so you’re right against the carcass. And by the way, remember where we dislocated it? Now I can actually see right there, I can see where the joint, the ball goes into the socket. It’s very loose. It’s being held on by a very small amount of meat and skin, so there it is. See that ball joint? Alright, start at the back and just keep your scissors right against the chicken and you have a leg and a thigh. By the way, the whole thing is the leg so it’s really the drum and the thigh, but you know, who cares. Now, if you use a knife, I hear you chefs out there shaking your heads. I can’t see you shaking your heads but I hear you shaking your heads. I know you can get a little more meat if you use a knife but—I’m sorry we’re going to talk in front of you now. These people aren’t going to use a knife. They are going to buy the chicken already cut up and they’re going to spend a lot of money. So, we’re going to let them use the scissors so you chefs just relax. For the breast, very, very simple. You see that little kind of curve thing of fat? That’s our guide for our scissors. The scissors will go through that really easily. Now, here is the only place where we might have to cut through a little bit of bone. If you find the right spot, you won’t have to. But you’re going to cut right through where the wishbone attaches to the backbone. So, let’s try it on this other side. Again, where it bends is where you want to cut, right there. See, it goes through real easy. So that was pretty easy, so far, so good. Save the back for soup, they always say that. Alright, now we’re not going to cut the breast from that side. Come on, there’s no way you’re going to find the breast bone and get it through the middle of that breast bone. So if you turn it over, you’ll see that little triangle there and you’re going to put your knife or your cleaver. The cleaver is just easy because I can pound on the top of it. So I’m just going to put it right there. I'm going to give it a couple of little taps and it’s going to go and split those breasts right in half. So the only thing left on there, a couple of rib bones and half the breast bone. And if you see any extra fat, just trim it off. Hey, after you use the scissors a couple of times, you can go to a knife. Give it a try. You can do it. Go to the site—there’s no recipe. There are no ingredients, but go there anyway. Click on some stuff, come on. And yes, this was just another excuse to play the Chicken Dance. Enjoy!