How To: Carve a raw chicken for dinner and save money

Gwen Schoen and Paul Carras share with you in this video how simple it is to save money by carving a whole raw chicken. You can save your pockets an average of 20 – 30%! First take out any insides; this is usually the neck, heart and liver when included. Lay the chicken on its back and start with the wings. Break the skin with a boning knife and pull the wing away from the body until the socket pulls out. Finish the incision where the socket meets and repeat on the other side. Then you’ll want to remove the legs. Do this by first cutting the skin where the leg meets the body and pull until you feel the socket pop out of the hip joint, finish by completing the incision and repeat on the other leg. To separate the drum and thigh of the leg after it is removed from the body, spread them apart, feeling for the joint and cut. Next you need to remove the breasts from the back. Standing the chicken up will make this easier. Carefully cut the chicken lengthwise where the back bones meet the breasts until you reach the shoulder blades and pull them apart. Continue by finding where the ribs end on the back of the chicken. Make a cut in that location and tear apart. There isn’t much meat on this part of the chicken but there is lots of flavor. You can put these to good use in a broth or for soups and stews. Next you’ll want to separate the breasts. Cut in between them until you reach the breast bone. To remove this, simply run your finger down each side of it until you can lift it. Twist and remove. Finish the process but cutting the breasts apart in the same place you just removed the bone from. This is a fairly simple procedure that gets easier and faster with the more whole raw chickens you disassemble and it will save you money!