Gwen Schoen: Hi I am Gwen Schoen for Sacramento Bee. In the kitchen, today Paul Carras from Taylor’s Market in Sacramento is here to show us how to cut a part a raw chicken in order to save some money when you were doing you grocery shopping. Welcome.
Paul Carras: Thank you.
Gwen Schoen: So, how much when you do save when you buy a whole chicken versus buying pieces?
Paul Carras: You have probably going to save 20 to 30%. You’ll probably save $4.00 to $5.00 dollars.
Gwen Schoen: And is it hard to cut one apart?
Paul Carras: No. With practice, you’ll get a lot better and it is pretty simple.
Gwen Schoen: And you are using a boning knife?
Paul Carras: I’m using up a six-inch boning knife. It is sharp.
Gwen Schoen: Okay.
Paul Carras: First thing you want to do is take the inside out. This has the neck, the heart and the liver. So you want to take that up before cutting it up.
Gwen Schoen: And some chickens do not have that?
Paul Carras: Some chickens do not have it. So, makes sure you check every time. First, you want to lay the chicken on its back. You want to start it by taking the wings off. The easiest way is to pull the wing away from the body and you want to cut, you want to break this skin with your knife. Keep pulling until you pull the socket out and go right in between.
Gwen Schoen: So just through that joint?
Paul Carras: Just through the joint.
Gwen Schoen: Okay. It’s a nice sharp knife.
Paul Carras: Yes, and you wanted to get the other wing. Again, pulling away from the body, splitting the skin and cutting in between that joint, very simple. Next you want to take the legs off, first again, you want to break the skin, and again it’s very important to pull away from the body of the chicken and you want to pull hard enough to where the socket the pops out of the hip joint and you want to cut right in between that joint.
So now you have the leg quarter. And what you want to do is you want split the drum and the thigh in between the joint and with practice you will be able to feel the joint.
Gwen Schoen: Okay.
Paul Carras: You’ll be able to feel it. What you want to do is get your knife and just cut right in the middle of it. And it’s soft so you’re not fore cut right through it. So then you will have your drum and your thigh.
Next you want to separate the breast from the back and I like to stand my back up straight like this, what you do with your knife and you got to be careful so your hand doesn’t slip is you go straight down the middle where the back bones are and you go straight through until you get to the shoulder blades. And all you have to do here is just pull them apart and you you’re your back and your breast.
Gwen Schoen: Great.
Paul Carras: So now with the back, you want to split in half down the back bone where the ribs end. The ribs you will be able to tell where the ribs end here and so you just turn it over and you just want to pull it and tear.
Gwen Schoen: So this part does not have a lot of meat on it but you could use that in making—
Paul Carras: This is very good for soups and stews and broth. Very useful during the fall and winter. Not a lot of meat but a lot of flavor.
Gwen Schoen: Okay, is that dark meat?
Paul Carras: Yes, it’s pretty dark yes. Next, you have the breast and what you want to do is you want to get a knife incision right above the breast bone which is called the “kill bone” and you just want to make one incision their on the soft cartilage right here and you want to tear it apart so that you can put your hands on the kill bone. Again this the breast bone, very hard, you want to take that out so you will be cut the chicken in half.
Gwen Schoen: Oh, I didn’t realize it was so easy to just—
Paul Carras: Yes, so what you do is split the cartilage and now you want it just run in your thumb, along both sides of the kill bone there and you just want to pull and twist.
Gwen Schoen: Oh, that is pretty easy.
Paul Carras: Yes, and the last but not the least. You want to cut the chicken directly in half, pull the bones apart so that you can cut, there will be no bones
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