My mom came the other day. I still have about 20 birds to do. I keep getting interrrupted. LOL Not that it takes much. I thought I'd get them all done LAST weekend. So I have only done 32. But back to the mom thing. I butchered 5 birds and she worked with me. She butchered them all her life with her grandmother, but hadn't done it in 30 years or so. It was amazing how deft and good she was. And all my meat looks exactly like what you get in the grocery store.
Here is her method:
Kill bird, bleed, and pluck. Cut off the feet starting in the front of the leg, not the back like I was doing. Bend the feet slightly backwards and cut right at the joint. They come right off and you don't ever slice the tendon that causes the meat to retract up the leg. (I was cutting from the back first.) This leaves a little yellow leg skin on the bottom of the drumstick. Peel the skin off so it isn't yellow...it peels really easily!
Take bird to sink. Scrub the skin and get the body clean. Pick off any remaining feathers/pin feathers. Then get a large knife. Put the bird on the cutting board with the legs facing you. Push the legs back toward the cutting board and with a big knife and one motion, cut along the body and into the leg until you can see the bone. Put your hand under the bird and grab the leg and push down from above and up from below until the bone pops...then in one cut, finish removing the leg. Ditto on the other side.
Take the legs and bend them in half, holding the base of the drumstick and the part of the leg that attached to the bird together. Run your large knife on the knuckle there until you get to the bone, then open the pieces you are holding together, put your knife in there facing up, and cut quickly up. The thigh jumps away from your drumstick. Both have skin and are perfect like the store. Ditto with the other leg.
Spread the wings and put your knife under the wing like you are putting it in the armpit. Cut upwards and pop the wing off. When you have the wing off, fold it into a triangle by putting the tip of it under the part that attached to the body. Wash and throw all your wings in a freezer bag for a wing party later. Ditto on the other side.
Turn the bird over on the back. Find where the wings attached in the upper back. These are like little flaps that are laying flush with the back. Slide your knife under them and cut upwards (away from you) toward the shoulder of the bird. This cuts a ton of muscles and prepares you for the next part.
Turn the bird over so the breast is facing you. Grab the neck, and put your right hand on the breast and find the two 'holes' (they aren't that visible) right up near the shoulder area. Dig your fingers in that hole and pull hard, holding the neck in your left hand. The bird literally splits. in half. If it is too hard, you didn't cut under the wings on the back high enough.The guts, etc. stay altogether on one side and are VERY easily cleaned out. Even the lungs peel right off when you are pulling out the guts. The breasts, bone and all are all in one piece. Take your knife and hold the breasts, skin side facing you, on one side. You actually hit the breast with the blade of the knife right in that 'v' where they come down to where the bone starts. You might have to do this 2-3 times...whack-whack-whack and you will feel the bone split. Pull the breasts apart and that cartilage will split right down the middle. You can then debone the breasts quite easily if you want to.
The liver is beautiful when you do it this way. Also, if you are a gizzard person, you cut the gizzard just in half. Then you empty it out, then reach in with your nail and grab the tough yellow skin and it peels right off. The rest is edible. I was stunned at how easily that yellow, tough as nails, gizzard skin peeled off --you know, the part that holds all the food and pebbles?
Back to the rest...we washed the carcass, and put them all into water and cooked them. Then deboned the skeleton so there wasn't a bit of waste. That was cooked meat, ready for a potpie or chicken enchiladas or salad or whatever. I just bagged it and froze it in appropriate portions.
It was incredibly fast and absolutely nothing was wasted. Maybe this is how all of you do it, but all I can say is WOW! I'm tempted to have my husband take pics of all the steps when I do more birds this week. I'm doing the remaining 20 this way...I figure the 32 birds I've done (all whole, most plucked, a few skinned) are all the whole birds I need.
We also ate one of the birds tonight...just the breasts...and may I say...YUM!
She also had an alternative way to do the breasts that gave you a butterfly piece with the wishbone in it, and then the two breasts were just slightly smaller, but I knew I wouldn't do that and didn't pay much attention.
Vicki
Here is her method:
Kill bird, bleed, and pluck. Cut off the feet starting in the front of the leg, not the back like I was doing. Bend the feet slightly backwards and cut right at the joint. They come right off and you don't ever slice the tendon that causes the meat to retract up the leg. (I was cutting from the back first.) This leaves a little yellow leg skin on the bottom of the drumstick. Peel the skin off so it isn't yellow...it peels really easily!
Take bird to sink. Scrub the skin and get the body clean. Pick off any remaining feathers/pin feathers. Then get a large knife. Put the bird on the cutting board with the legs facing you. Push the legs back toward the cutting board and with a big knife and one motion, cut along the body and into the leg until you can see the bone. Put your hand under the bird and grab the leg and push down from above and up from below until the bone pops...then in one cut, finish removing the leg. Ditto on the other side.
Take the legs and bend them in half, holding the base of the drumstick and the part of the leg that attached to the bird together. Run your large knife on the knuckle there until you get to the bone, then open the pieces you are holding together, put your knife in there facing up, and cut quickly up. The thigh jumps away from your drumstick. Both have skin and are perfect like the store. Ditto with the other leg.
Spread the wings and put your knife under the wing like you are putting it in the armpit. Cut upwards and pop the wing off. When you have the wing off, fold it into a triangle by putting the tip of it under the part that attached to the body. Wash and throw all your wings in a freezer bag for a wing party later. Ditto on the other side.
Turn the bird over on the back. Find where the wings attached in the upper back. These are like little flaps that are laying flush with the back. Slide your knife under them and cut upwards (away from you) toward the shoulder of the bird. This cuts a ton of muscles and prepares you for the next part.
Turn the bird over so the breast is facing you. Grab the neck, and put your right hand on the breast and find the two 'holes' (they aren't that visible) right up near the shoulder area. Dig your fingers in that hole and pull hard, holding the neck in your left hand. The bird literally splits. in half. If it is too hard, you didn't cut under the wings on the back high enough.The guts, etc. stay altogether on one side and are VERY easily cleaned out. Even the lungs peel right off when you are pulling out the guts. The breasts, bone and all are all in one piece. Take your knife and hold the breasts, skin side facing you, on one side. You actually hit the breast with the blade of the knife right in that 'v' where they come down to where the bone starts. You might have to do this 2-3 times...whack-whack-whack and you will feel the bone split. Pull the breasts apart and that cartilage will split right down the middle. You can then debone the breasts quite easily if you want to.
The liver is beautiful when you do it this way. Also, if you are a gizzard person, you cut the gizzard just in half. Then you empty it out, then reach in with your nail and grab the tough yellow skin and it peels right off. The rest is edible. I was stunned at how easily that yellow, tough as nails, gizzard skin peeled off --you know, the part that holds all the food and pebbles?
Back to the rest...we washed the carcass, and put them all into water and cooked them. Then deboned the skeleton so there wasn't a bit of waste. That was cooked meat, ready for a potpie or chicken enchiladas or salad or whatever. I just bagged it and froze it in appropriate portions.
It was incredibly fast and absolutely nothing was wasted. Maybe this is how all of you do it, but all I can say is WOW! I'm tempted to have my husband take pics of all the steps when I do more birds this week. I'm doing the remaining 20 this way...I figure the 32 birds I've done (all whole, most plucked, a few skinned) are all the whole birds I need.
We also ate one of the birds tonight...just the breasts...and may I say...YUM!
She also had an alternative way to do the breasts that gave you a butterfly piece with the wishbone in it, and then the two breasts were just slightly smaller, but I knew I wouldn't do that and didn't pay much attention.
Vicki
