Carving a Bird
It can be intimidating to serve a whole chicken or, worse, a turkey! It’s really not all that bad; with a few simple steps, anyone can do it. I will say, though, that a sharp knife is a must for doing a good job.
The first step is to pull the leg and thigh down a bit, then slice the thigh at the joint, slicing it cleanly from the carcass.
Repeat on the other thigh, removing the dark meat quarters. If desired, the legs can be removed from the thighs by cutting through the joint in between. Just locate it with a knife and slice through.
Removing the breast isn’t tough, either. The keel bone is the bone/cartilage that runs between the breast meat; locat this, then slide the knife along the keel bone, down along the ribs, and remove the now-boneless chicken breast.
Repeat on the other side, and all that’s left is the carcass and wings. If the wings are wanted, they can also be cut off by cutting through the joint between the wing and the carcass.
That’s about all there is to it! It works the same with chicken or turkey. I like to cut the breast medallion style, by laying the breast flat and cutting through, at a slight angle to the cutting board, cutting disks of breast.
If cutting a bird up has kept you from cooking whole chickens on the grill, or cooking only turkey roasts for Thanksgiving dinners, get a couple of birds (they’re cheap), cook them, and try cutting them up for practice. They are good eating, even if they get mangled in the practice rounds!
