This is a task that every person, regardless of homestead or home-maker should know how to do. Especially given the ever increasing cost of food. Cutting up a chicken really helps when you have birds that aren't quite "pretty" enough to be a roaster, and it increases the usefulness of your carcasses. Starting with an entire cleaned bird, place the carcass with the legs facing you. Using a flat-blade, well-sharpened knife, cut down through the skin beside the legs to free them up. At this point you are only cutting skin. Take both legs in your hand and push down flat against the back to 'pop' the joints loose, it makes it easier to remove the thigh bone later. Look into the carcass and find the rib cage, cut down the ribs to the spine. Then bend the carcass in half, bending at the back until the spine breaks. Use your knife to cut through the soft tissue and separate the carcass into front and back halves.
Take the back half and bend it backwards at the point of the spine. The bones should break, allowing you to separate the leg quarters from each other. Bend the leg at the joint and cut around between the leg and thigh muscles, cutting through the joint to separate the leg from the thigh. Wash and put these aside.
Next pull the front half of the bird to you. Place breast side up and wing side towards you. Start cutting around the ball of the wing, pulling the wing down as you go. There is a joint that will separate and the wing come away from the rest of the carcass. Repeat with the other wing. Set these aside. You have remaining the back and the breast. You can leave this whole, or separate the back and de-bone the breast.
To separate the back simply turn the carcass breast side down. Using a pair of butcher scissors or pruning shears (well cleaned), insert the shears into the side of the bird and cut through the ribs. Push in farther until all the ribs have been cut. Repeat on the other side. Turn the carcass around, insert the shears beside the neck, and cut through the clavicle bone on both sides. Then use your knife to cut through the meat, releasing the back. Set aside.
Finally you have the breast. Turn the breast up and sharpen your knife, it will need to be very sharp to de-bone the breast meat. I highly recommend de-boning the breast since it is very easy to do. You'll see a demarcation line between the breasts, this is where the keel bone is located. Make the first slice along this line, from top to bottom. Remember there is a bone there, angle your knife in towards the bone so that you can be sure to shave away as much meat as possible from it. Slice by slice, carefully deepen the cut down the keel bone and along the ribs until you have freed the meat from the bottom of the rib cage. There is another small rib bone below the keel that you'll need to scrape along. After freeing the bottom of the breast, work on removing the top with as much meat as possible. Remember this is where the 'wishbone' is located, so you'll have to work around it. Try to leave as little meat behind as possible. After freeing up the first side, repeat the process on the other side. When you are finished, you should have 2 large boneless breasts.
Wash the parts, separate as desired, and store or cook as you wish!
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