How to Butcher or Debone a Chicken

See those pretty crystals? They’re salt. Yes, we need this essential element to live, but the average Canadian consumes three times the daily recommended dose. Spend a few minutes Googling “high-sodium diet” and you’ll likely consider tossing your fleur de sel out the window. Fortunately, this isn’t necessary.

A while ago, I was talking with Dawn Thomas, the voice of Rouxbe Online Cooking School.  She says their site doesn’t label recipes low-sodium (or low-fat for that matter) and doesn’t plan to. Why not? It’s unnecessary. Once you learn proper cooking techniques you control these factors. So over the next few weeks I’ll be devoting the occasional post to simple ways to reduce the salt in your diet. And as a special bonus, you’ll find you’re saving money.

An easy place to start shaving that salt lick from your diet is at the butcher counter with plain old fresh chicken. Not only will you avoid sodium-laced seasoned meats,  you’ll have plenty of bones for homemade stock — low-sodium, tasty, rich stock.

I buy bone-in, skin-on chicken breasts. As soon as I get home, I debone them and freeze the bones for stock. Now, I know a lot of you are thinking this is time consuming. Initially, I thought so too, but I got out my timer. Deboning a whole chicken breast (that’s left and right side, so two pieces) took me exactly 4 minutes 8 seconds. And I don’t even have a proper boning knife. Cubing the chicken breast took and additional 1 minute 15 seconds each breast. In just over 6 minutes I had enough boneless, skinless chicken cubes for two mains.

Money saved? At least 10% of the cost of the boneless version. I went to my butcher (Valeriote’s Market on Yorkshire for those who wonder where I get gigantic, local chicken), and he kindly indulged me in a true comparison. He weighed a 3.3 pound whole skin-on, bone-in chicken breast and calculated the price. It cost $11.55. He then skinned, deboned and weighed the same chicken breast again. This time the cost was $12.82.  By buying bone-in chicken, I saved 10% on my meat bill AND had bones for stock. Plus, I had the option of keeping the skin on, which is essential for some recipes like Roasted Lemon and Cilantro Chicken, which I often make it with chicken breasts alone.

Want to save more? Buy a whole chicken and butcher it yourself. Seriously. It’s not that hard. With a bit of practice “Easy as deboning a chicken” will become part of your lingo.

To help you on your deboning journey, once again, I turn to the good people at Rouxbe Online Cooking School. They’ve kindly provided videos that will reduce the intimidation factor.

How to Butcher a Whole Chicken

Rouxbe Online Cooking School & Video Recipes

How to Debone a Chicken Breast

Rouxbe Online Cooking School & Video Recipes

Feeling inspired by your new found skill? Each video has a “Related Recipe” tab at the top. Just click it and you’ll see pictures of — related recipes. Click one and go straight to a great recipe that let’s you put your knowledge into practice.  It’s so easy. Easy as deboning a chicken.

Me? I’m kicking back and letting Rouxbe do the work today. Or maybe I’ll make some stock…

What’ll you do with your chicken?

Oh yes, in the interest of full disclosure, here’s the explanation of my Rouxbe Affiliate relationship.

Like what you see? As part of their affiliate program, I have the power to give you a free, full-access, no-videos-barred, one-week pass to their site. All you have to do is go to Rouxbe Online Cooking School and redeem the 7-day Gift Membership. You can enjoy all Rouxbe has to offer for a full 7 days, no strings attached.

And then? Your Gift Membership will silently morph into a Basic Membership, which means you can access the recipes but not the Cooking School videos. However, if you?d like to purchase a Premium Membership, it is very reasonably priced. A full-year is only $99.

Salt photo © kevindooley. Published under a Creative Commons License.