How to Debone a Chicken (Chinese-style) | Knife Skills | Asian Cooking

this is one of the most important skills that I think every home cook should learn and I know that because it's one that I use every single week how to debone a chicken Chinese style [Music] so obviously it starts with a chicken you don't need to do anything to it it's normal free-range chicken I just drained it out don't wash it cuz that'll just splash bacteria all over your kitchen and of course Chinese star we're gonna do with a cleaver what's the difference between the Chinese style deboned chicken and a western-style debranching or not much really I guess the Chinese way goes one extra step and also with the Chinese where we end up with a lot of meat on the bones for stock not that we're wasting meat that we're gonna be focusing a lot more on our stock so I've got a tray to put wire Phillips as I cut them and a stockpot that's gonna go on the stove a bit later so where we start just with the legs a sharp cleaver and you want to find this point in here so between the leg and I guess the point of the breast you'll feel there there's nothing there it's just basically being held on by skin so if we can cut in there here we'll just be able to take the leg of the chicken right and then if you push the leg like this you can see there that little oyster the chicken oyster you want to make sure you get around that that's kind of the hip joint to the chickens so you want to make sure that you don't waste that it's really good tasty meat in there so the way to do that is just using the tip of the cleaver just kind of slice in around it just pop the joint out and keeping as close to the carcass as possible take off one mary'll and now we'll just leave that to one side do the same for the other leg again pop that joint out and then keep nice and close to the body take off the leg and now for the wings I guess one of the big differences in Chinese style debone into western style deboning is which parts the chicken you emphasize the wings are obviously very important as are the thighs so you want to end up with these kind of bigger thigh Phillips and bigger wings and smaller in the breasts I guess because they're not used for as many different things in Chinese cooking and they're not as prized as they are in western cooking so I turn the hood up this way find that joint of the wing and I want to take that off and to maximize the size of this kind of drumette I want to take off a bit of the breast fill it as well not this kind of extended sized drumstick there I'll do the same with the other wing move those to one side because I'm not finished with those ones yet either so now the breasts very very easy just find the central keel bone couple little slices down other side of that and then again little Nick's with the knife as close the carcass as possible so you can just pull that breast away you've got that nice breast to fill it they're slightly smaller because we're taking the end off to augment the size of the wing but I just pull off the Tenderloin there as well because the kids love those separately same on the other side [Music] down the other side again take that tenderloin off the back so I've got two tenderloins two breasts here now I'm left with my carcass throw that straight into the stock but there's a couple of little pieces though I take off this first firstly these deposits of fat inside the back near the tail these are absolutely delicious I can render these down into chicken oil that you use for all kinds of purposes and now here there's a really kind of special piece of the chicken you don't see it much in recipes other than in Japanese cooking but this intercostal here the part that kind of joins the diaphragm of the chicken is so delicious it really really is you can just grill that it's a bit of a treat for the cook now my carcass is ready for the stockpot and now I'm gonna start with my wings I couldn't leave the wing hole just like it is now but I'm not going to make a dish out of two chicken wings so what I want to do is just break that up into three bucks I find each of the joints here no pressure with the cleaver at all just cutting through the cartilage of the joints should be like a knife through butter or use the wing tips for my stock now the last thing I want to do is Depot in these Mary lands because the debone marilyn is I think one of the best cuts of chicken that you can get it's very easy to do too because all you got to do is see it's gonna l-shape two bones and a joint in the middle we're gonna do is take that out so you've got a very easy guide turn it's over at the meat side facing up two cuts with the knife following the line of those bones and then using the point to your cleaver in a cleaver you've got two points you've got the the toe point and you've got the heel point as well you should be sharpening both of those when you're sharpening your cleaver just little Nick's around following the line of the bone and then make sure you get around the joints as well press down hold the bone onto the board with the cleaver and then just pull the meat away from the bone you get that away very very cleanly same with the drumstick side now this is the only time I'm actually going to cut through a bone in this whole deer burning process bit of a crack on the ankle there using the ankle as a handle hold the bone against the board and see how cleanly you can pull away the chicken from the bone there a couple little Nick's around the joint you can pull that away and so we have this very clean the bone here goes into the stockpot cut the ankle off that goes in the stockpot to we end up with this this kind of extended five Phillips the thigh and the drumstick all debone together and this is one of the best cuts of chicken you can just fry that in a bit of the rendered chicken oil and it's a delicious delicious dish I'll do the same with the other one it'll shape following the line of the bone make sure the joints free pull the meat away for the joint crack the ankles same again with drumstick and then just a couple little next to free up the joint there cut the ankle off and there we are it may seem like it's hard to do when you see all these pieces laid out but you've seen it's actually very easy and once you've done it two or three times you'll be an expert at it and it'll save you lots and lots of money and it make you better cook too [Music]

Channel: Adam Liaw

Views: 572,429

Rating: 4.8364711 out of 5

Keywords: Chicken, Asian Cooking, China, Chinese Food, Butchery, Knife skills, Cleavers

Id: bRHWMPgjJro

Length: 6min 9sec (369 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 04 2017