How To Carve A Chicken

Step by step instructions for how to carve a chicken with photographs of carving a chicken:

This how to carve a chicken guide has been kindly reproduced with kind permission by Molly Stevens from her book All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art. Do allow the roast chicken to rest prior to carving to allow the juices to run throughout the chicken to prevent dry meat and to make the fibres easier to carve. This method of carving chicken will provide a mixture of light and dark meat to suit most tastes. By following Molly's methods of carving a chicken you will have two drumsticks, two thighs with bones, two wings and chunks of boneless breast meat. Molly recommends using an 8 inch carving knife and a pair of locking tongs or a meat fork to hold the bird. A warmed serving platter should be used to transfer the cut pieces of poultry.

To begin carving a chicken have the legs facing you and slit the skin between the legs and the breast.

How to carve a chicken

Use the meat fork to bend the chicken leg away from the breast so that the ball and socket joint is exposed. Move the knife into the leg joint and slice through the cartilage.

carve chicken

Remove the leg whilst trying to keep the meat that tucks below the chicken. Place this onto your chopping board and slice through the knee joint to separate it into a chicken thigh and chicken drumstick. During these slicing actions you should not have to cut hard, if you do just reposition your knife until you can easily slice.

carving a chicken

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Slice through the top of the chicken breast and cut through the shoulder joint where the wings meet the breast to obtain the chicken wing. Molly suggests this method so that you get a juicy nugget of breast meat along with crispy skin and a dark wing meat.

chicken body

Slice lengthwise flush along the breastbone to carve the breast meat off the carcass.

carved chicken breast

Repeat with the second side of the chicken.

roast chicken carcass

After carving a chicken do examine the carcass for any remaining pieces of meat.

Any juices left on the chopping board can be drizzled over the carved chicken or added to the gravy sauce.

Serve immediately.

Buy All About Roasting: A New Approach to a Classic Art.

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