How to carve a chicken
Chicken carving is a life skill that everyone should learn. Once you know the basics of how to carve a chicken and put into practice, you’ll be carving up roasts of all sizes in no time. The advantage of carving a chicken properly is a great presentation of the roast as well as making sure that everyone gets a good portion of chicken.
What you will need:
- A sharp chefs knife
- A fork
- A plastic chopping board
Always allow a chicken roast to rest 5-10 minutes to allow cooking juices to relax back to the edges of the roast. This will prevent the juices from bleeding out over the cutting board.
The Classic Carve
This is the carve that most of us will know. We will end up with ten pieces in total with similar sizes.
1. Put the chicken breast side up on the cutting board. Pull the leg (with thigh attached) gently away from the breast and cut through the skin that connects the breast to the thigh. Cut all the way through the joint that connects the thigh to the chicken.
2. Separate the thighs from the drumsticks by slicing through the joints. This is found by gently pulling apart the leg and thigh to create an imaginary triangle. Cut along the straight line that follows the thigh into the drumstick.
3. Remove wing at the joint. This is found by slicing ±1cm away from where the wing enters the breast. The idea is to slice (at an angle) a piece from the breast meat to be included with the wing piece.
4. Cut lengthwise down and through the breastbone, through the two thighs, resulting in two equal sizes pieces. Remove thigh and leg from the breasts by pulling apart. (loosened early in step 1.) Now cut the two breasts in half horizontally to create 4 pieces of equal sizes. Repeat steps 1 through 3 on the other side.
(Need a visual? Watch this video.)
The Chinese Carve
This technique will result in 22 small, serving size pieces.
- Switch to a clever for more power in the chop
1. Following the steps from 1 through to 4 as shown above in the classic carve.
2. Cut each drumstick, thigh, and breast piece crosswise into three pieces, cutting completely through the bones.
3. Cut each wing into two pieces.
Feeling hungry yet? Visit the menu to order your wholesome roast chicken and sides now.
