How to Debone a Whole Chicken

The benefits to doing your own boning are many:  There is less likelihood that any food-borne illness will develop; processing elsewhere delays the time before it gets to you and there will be no guarantee of freshness; it is much more economical to buy a whole chicken; and you get the added benefit of getting all those bones to make your own stock.

When you remove the plastic cover from the chicken, do so over a bowl to catch the dripping. Towel off the chicken and remove the bag inside the chicken.  Use the neck for chicken stock, and don't break the gall bladder.

Step 1 - Place the chicken breast side up on a clean cutting surface.  Stretch out each wing flat against the board by pulling the tip.  With a Boning Knife, cut off the wing tip and next joint, leaving the largest wing bone still attached. 

Step 2 - Feel the backbone.

Step 3 - Turn the bird over, and with breast side down, cut along the backbone from the neck to the tail.

Step 4 - With short sharp strokes of your knife, keeping the knife close to the bones, cut the flesh and skin, carefully using your fingers to pull the flesh away from the carcass.  Cut through the ball-and-socket joints connecting the wing and thigh bones to the carcass, so that they are separated from the carcass but still attached to the skin.  When this step is completed on both sides, the meat will be attached only along the ridge of the breastbone.   Gently (the skin tears easily) pull to separate the breastbone and the carcass from the flesh.

Step 5 - Cut the flesh from the curved bone near the wing and remove the bone.

Step 6 - The partially-boned bird with leg and wing bones left in is now ready for stuffing.

Step 7 - While holding the wing bone from inside the bird, cut through the tendons and scrape the meat from the bone with the knife.  Pull out the bone, using the knife to free it.

Step 8 - Cut off the end of the leg bone.  NOTE:  The use of a chef's knife for chopping through chichen bone is acceptable for this application, but is not recommended for cutting through other bone. 

Step 9 - Repeat step #7 to remove the leg bone.  Reposition wing and leg meat so the skin side is out.

Step 10 - The whole chicken is now completely boned, with the skin intact, and ready to be stuffed, rolled and roasted.