How to properly cut a chicken. How to butcher a homemade chicken

Compliance temperature regime, duration of processing, order of operations - a guarantee of obtaining a carcass completely ready for storage.

bleeding

After slaughter, the bird is immediately hung upside down. This operation allows you to completely bleed chicken carcass.

The time allotted for this operation is from 1 to 2 minutes. The length of time the hens stay in limbo depends on:

type of bird;
type of bird;
slaughter method.

pen department

There are two ways to separate the feather: dry and wet. The second method is used more often. Hot water makes it easier to separate the feather.

Water temperature for processing young birds - from +51С to + 53С. Dip in water for 1-2 minutes. It is permissible to immerse an adult bird in hot water with temperature from +55С to +60С for 30s.

First, the largest, toughest feathers are removed from the tail and wings. Next, pluck the abdomen, legs, shoulder area and neck. Small feathers are removed after heat treatment much easier than with the dry method.

Down and feather processing

Feathers are sorted, sorted by size: in one container - large, in another - downy and small feathers.

Feathers and down are valuable raw materials. It is used for filling mattresses, pillows (small feather), for sewing collars, hats (down feather).

Feathers are cleaned in the following way:

washed in warm water with a solution of detergents;
rinse well to remove soap or powder residue;
wring out;
dried for 48 hours. Recommended drying temperature: + 70С…+80С. Final moisture percentage: 12%.

You can dry the pen well at home with the help of large gauze bags. Fill bags with feathers, hang from the ceiling in dry, well-ventilated areas.

Shake the bag several times during the drying process to avoid caking of the contents. To store the pen, you need to choose a room with good ventilation and low humidity.

gutting poultry

Before evisceration, the oral cavity is cleaned of blood residues. The throat of the bird is squeezed and, moving the fingers, the clot is pressed through. After the discharge of the blood plug, the site of the incision is thoroughly cleaned of drops of blood.

The beak is wiped dry. A paper swab is made and inserted into the oral cavity. The beak and legs are well washed, wiped and begin to gut the chicken.

Delete internal organs. Most of them are used in the future. Offal - the heart, liver, stomach without a shell are tasty and healthy. They are used for food. The lungs, esophagus, spleen, trachea, ovaries and testicles are boiled, crushed and used to feed the bird.

After extracting the entrails, the head is cut off along the second cervical vertebra, the legs are cut off to the heel joint, and the wings to the elbow joint. Processing completed.

Wash the bird thoroughly cold water, leave at room temperature for 2 - 8 hours. During this time, the chicken carcass is completely cooled and the meat ripens. It acquires a pleasant smell, becomes juicy and tender.

Post-mortem rigor mortis occurs fairly quickly in birds. Gutted young birds are enough to withstand from 2 to 4 hours, old chickens - up to 8 hours. The chicken can then be eaten or stored.

Storage of chicken meat

There are different ways to store chicken. Distinguish between short-term and long-term storage.

short-term

3–5 days. Chicken carcasses are stored in the refrigerator. Temperature: from 0C to -4C. If you don't have a refrigerator, remember to the old fashioned way how to save a chicken. Soak a clean cloth in vinegar and wrap the meat around. The fabric must remain damp.

Long term

2-3 months or more. For long-term storage the bird needs to be prepared in a special way. There are several ways to prepare poultry for long-term storage.

Preparation methods

Freeze

Within 12-18 hours, the carcasses are gradually cooled to a temperature of -2C ... -4C. After freezing is carried out at a temperature of -12C to -18C.

Ice Shell

Villagers in winter period Gutted chickens are stored in an ice crust. Nothing complicated:

chickens are taken out into the cold, dipped in water;
freeze in the air;
dip again;
freeze again;
the process is repeated up to 4 times until the chicken is completely covered with a crust;
wrap the carcass in parchment. Store at temperatures from -5 to -8C.

A layer of ice protects the carcass from the penetration of microbes. The bird can be stored in an ice shell for up to 2-3 months. Pour the carcasses with straw or sawdust.

Be sure to take out the box with the "ice chickens" in the cold. Defrost poultry before cooking should be gradual. This will preserve the quality of the meat.

salting

The gutted carcass can be salted in a strong saline solution. For 1 kg. birds will need 150 ml. solution.

Step by step:

300g table salt dissolve well in a liter of water;
using a syringe, pour a saline solution through the bird's mouth;
well bandage the neck;
hang the carcass by the legs;
for 20 hours leave at temperatures + 22C ... + 23C;
at the end of the period, the brine is drained;
kept cold.

Tip: the strength of the solution is easy to check. If boiled egg does not sink, so you put enough salt.

Dry salting

With this method of salting, meat can be stored for more than six months. The prepared chicken is rubbed with salt and put into a barrel. Sprinkle each carcass well with salt.

Stored in a cellar. After 2-3 weeks, the bird is taken out, spices are added to the salt: black pepper, clove buds. Place at will Bay leaf. Repeat the process of laying the chicken. The barrel is again removed to the cellar.

Smoking

A popular way of long-term storage of chicken carcasses. Procedure:

chickens are salted in a dry way, after cutting along the line of the chest;
salt (1 kg) is mixed with sugar (20 g) and ground black pepper (5-10 g). This amount of salt is for 10 medium chickens. After 2 days, a load is placed on each carcass. Weight: 2-3 kg for every 10 kg of chicken;
small birds are salted up to 4 days, large birds - up to 6 days. Salt is washed off the carcass cold water and dried at room temperature;
if you want to eat meat after a short time, use hot smoke with a temperature of up to + 80C. Maintain this temperature for the first hour. In the next 2-3 hours, reduce the heat and bring the temperature to + 35C ... + 40C;
for long-term storage of chicken carcasses, smoking with cold smoke with a temperature of + 20C is more suitable. The process is long - up to 3 days;
finished carcasses should be wiped well from soot and soot. Smoked products are stored at a temperature not higher than + 5C. The room must be dry.

canning

Simple, fast, delicious. Cooking process:

cut off all the fat, melt over low heat for 45 minutes - 1 hour;
chicken is boiled until cooked, put in processed, steamed, clean jars;
prepared meat is poured with chicken fat. It covers the meat with an airtight film. If there is not enough fat, goose or duck lard is added;
white paper is moistened in alcohol or vodka, covered with jars and tightly tied with twine. Store homemade canned chicken in the cellar.

If you are raising chickens for nutritional and tasty meat, tune in from the very beginning that you will have to slaughter the bird, process it and engage in further processing of carcasses. The right mental attitude is very important.

After slaughter, gut the bird, butcher it and consider how to store it. It would be wise to prepare part of the meat for use in the near future, and prepare the rest for long-term storage. Then you will be provided with valuable dietary meat for a long time.

By carving the chicken yourself, you will save a considerable amount of money, since when buying the same parts separately, their cost will be much higher. How to cut a chicken yourself?

Before butchering a bird, it must be gutted. Let's figure out how to gut a chicken.

How to properly gut a chicken

First you need to buy a chicken. It is better to buy chilled poultry, not frozen. This is due to the fact that the shelf life of chilled chickens is only five days. After that, they are frozen. And everyone knows that when frozen, the product loses its taste qualities. Therefore, it is better to buy a chilled bird, butcher it and freeze it if necessary. And when buying a frozen bird, it will have to be thawed, then cut and re-frozen.

Using a knife, carefully cut out the bird's anus. You have to cut in circles.
Now make an incision to the keel.
Remove all internal organs.
Remove goiter. To do this quickly, do not feed the chicken before slaughter. If the goiter is full, then you will have to make an incision on the neck.
Cut out the genitals.
Rinse the carcass with water.
Now you know how to gut a chicken.

How to cut a chicken into pieces.

That's all! The bird is divided. It turned out eight pieces of chicken: two wings, two thighs, two drumsticks and two breast pieces. The remaining bones can be used to make soup.

How to cut a chicken for a roll

Every novice housewife wants to learn everything, and chicken roll is no exception. How remove bones from chicken for the future roll?

If chicken more than three kilograms then the breast must be cut off. Divide the breast into small pieces and put in the middle of the future roll. Salt the meat, pepper, sprinkle with seasonings, you can put the filling. This is for an amateur! Roll the meat into a roll, tie with a thread and put on a net.

Prepare the right utensils so that the roll can fit in it. Pour olive oil, the roll should be completely covered with it. Fry the roll on all sides. Add wine, it should fill one-fourth of the dish. Wait for the wine to evaporate

Chop a small onion, add it to the bowl with the roll. Add peppercorns and fragrant fresh herbs there. Add a little broth, cover the dishes with a lid and leave to stew for an hour and a half.

Take out the finished roll, let it cool, put it in the refrigerator for a while. After that, the roll can be cut into pieces. Warm up the roll before serving.

Closed cutting method.

There is also a closed way to separate the bones from the carcass. This way suitable for stuffing chicken.

It is rare when a hostess thinks about how to cut a chicken carcass.. Many do it either on a whim, or according to a well-established tradition in the family. And, meanwhile, there is a general cutting technology that can not only speed up this process for experienced people, but will also become an indispensable instruction for those who are just trying their hand at culinary skills.

The method described below will show the step-by-step cutting of the carcass into 8 relatively equal-sized pieces. Or even 10 if you separate the wings. And, among other things, the chicken back and cartilage will remain in the form of a pleasant addition - it is hardly suitable for stewing, frying or baking, but it will become great addition to the standard soup set.

The advantage of purchasing a whole carcass is obvious- whatever parts you need, they will come out much cheaper than a separate purchase chicken breast or shins. But if you buy chicken exclusively for cutting and subsequent freezing, then you need to keep in mind one important rule: preference should be given to chilled products. It is almost always fresh, and even if not, it is very easy to recognize by its characteristic smell or appearance.

With frozen carcasses, alas, such a trick will not work. And most often, chicken gets into the freezer, which has already lain for 2 or 3 days in the chilled department - this is how stores and suppliers extend its shelf life. But, you see, such a carcass, and even after repeated defrosting, cutting and freezing, will definitely not be the first freshness.

Useful tricks for the hostess "on a note"

How to butcher a chicken - step by step guide

The first thing to do is to thoroughly rinse the carcass under running water.. After that, it is desirable to dry it slightly, you can use a towel. And boldly proceed to the process of cutting the chicken:

Cut the breast into portions

The main preparations for cutting the chicken carcass are completed, the turn has come to divide the received into “portions”. Let's take a breast:

Cut the legs into portions

We'll get four more pieces so the chicken lasts longer. Whole chicken leg It's good, but it's still big. Therefore, we will divide it into several parts, separating the thighs from the shins. The cutting process is very similar to separating wings from a chicken carcass: in order to correctly determine the location of the cut, it is necessary to feel for the joint connecting the bones. In turn: straighten the leg, find the articular connection - carefully cut the legs into two parts.

This method of cutting allows you to get 8 pieces of chicken due to the breast and legs. And 2 more, if you separate the wings from the carcass. On top of that, the chicken back and breast bones remain. They can also be cooked, but it's much better to put them in a separate bag and freeze them - they will later become a good basis for rich chicken broth.

Today I have a slightly bloodthirsty post. I want to show you how to cut domestic chicken how to remove unnecessary, unfit for food insides and how to process the ones we need. After all, it is not always sold in the form in which they sell factory chicken.

Before creating a post, I looked at what is on the Internet and did not find similar posts. Therefore, I decided to conduct such a peculiar, slightly bloodthirsty master class. I already wrote.

When you need to cook a delicious and rich chicken broth, it is better for him to buy it grown in freedom and on natural feed. The meat of such a chicken is a little tougher than factory chicken, but it has a number of advantages that factory chickens do not have.

Homemade chicken broth is much more nutritious and healthier. And in order to cook the broth, the chicken needs to be disassembled. Indeed, on the market it is sold as a whole, removing only unnecessary insides, and even then not all.

How to butcher a homemade chicken. Master class with step by step photos

Before carving a domestic chicken, it can and even needs to be lightly singed over a fire to remove small remnants of fluff. If you have electric stove, then this procedure can be done with an ordinary lighter.

In order to remove the insides from the chicken, you need to put it with its back on a cutting board, carefully cut along the keel bone (this bone goes along the chicken breast and protrudes upwards).

With a hand, carefully take out the fat, if any, the stomach and liver with the gallbladder. It is necessary to ensure that the gallbladder does not burst, otherwise the meat will become bitter. Separate the chicken fat.

Chicken fat should not be thrown away, as it can not only add flavor chicken cutlets, for example, but also to saturate your body with useful unsaturated acids, which are necessary for the growth and renewal of cells, as well as for strengthening bones.

From the liver, carefully cut off the gallbladder and everything that you do not like. If suddenly the bile spills, it is better to throw away the liver, anyway it will be spoiled.

The chicken stomach needs to be cleaned.

To do this, you need to tap it on both sides with the flat surface of the knife, and then cut it along the protruding edge and unfold it.

Remove leftover food from it and remove the yellow film.

All, chicken stomach can be washed and boiled in broth.

Cut the skin on the neck lengthwise and remove the esophagus with the pouch and trachea. Thus, we can assume that the insides of the chicken are removed.

How to cut a domestic chicken into pieces

Now the simplest thing left is to cut the homemade chicken into pieces. Of course, it is not like a factory one, but this does not mean that it needs to be cooked as a whole. I am not a professional, but an amateur, so I do not pretend to be correct. I carve the chicken the best I can.

First you need to cut off the neck, wings and legs. Then cut off the legs.

The legs can be cut off the tips, as shown in the photo.

Then remove from the tail the place where the chicken accumulated fat, and cut the carcass in half, separating the tail.

You need to remove the lungs from the breast with your finger, they give a lot of foam during the cooking process and everything that you don’t like, and cut the breast into pieces.

Master class - how to cut a homemade chicken, completed. It remains only to prepare the broth.

Subscribe to updates so you don't miss anything. And for the most impatient, I can advise you to cook homemade chicken over low heat for at least 2 hours.

When raising chickens, it is important to know not only how to care for them and how to slaughter them, but also how to butcher them. This process has its own subtleties and, if you follow them, cutting the chicken will not cause difficulties.

In the event that the breeder has a poultry meat processing workshop, then the processing of carcasses occurs automatically.

Manual cutting of poultry is used only for non-mass processing of chickens. You need to cope with this work quickly, since the more the bird is left untreated, the higher the risk that it will deteriorate.

gutting

The first thing to do with a chicken after it has been plucked is to gut it. The more offal left in the carcass, the more likely it is that the meat will begin to rot.

Before slaughter, do not feed the chicken for 12 hours so that her intestines are completely cleansed and it is as easy as possible to gut her.

If there is a processing plant, then the insides of the bird are usually sent to the preparation of animal feed. On their own farm, they are washed and, after high-quality grinding, are used as poultry feed, because they are an excellent additional source of proteins and proteins for it.

It is best to familiarize yourself with how to butcher a chicken in stages. Step-by-step instruction avoids mistakes.

Evisceration is carried out in the following sequence:

Anus removal- for this, the chicken carcass is placed on the back and sharp knife the anus is cut out in a circle, without inserting the blade very deep so as not to pierce the insides. If the intestines are cut through and the remains of its contents come out, then the meat will be completely spoiled and the chicken will only be used for feeding animals. It is not necessary to pull out the anus.
An incision from anus to keel- It is also important to be careful not to cut through the intestines.
Removing the innards- take out the insides should be in a bowl, which is prepared in advance. The intestines are carefully removed by pulling on the anus. Once all the intestines are in the bowl, the chicken's stomach and liver are cut out. It is best to cut out the liver without separating it from the gallbladder. It is removed after the liver is removed. This minimizes the risk of crushing the bubble and ruining the product. In production, the separation of the gallbladder from the liver is automated.
Extraction of goiter- by the time of slaughter, the goiter of the chicken must be empty, otherwise it will be problematic to butcher chickens at home. If the chicken was slaughtered without preparation or died as a result of an accident, and its goiter is full, to extract it, a skin incision is made on the neck and the organ is pulled out through it. This manipulation is a little complicated and requires certain skills.
Removal of genitals- the testis is cut out from the rooster with a sharp thin knife. When the chicken is butchered, the ovaries are removed.
Heart removal- it is cut out with the same knife as the genitals.
flushing Gutted chicken is quickly washed with cold running water. When there is a processing plant, washing is carried out automatically, and water is supplied under high pressure.

This evisceration scheme is optimal for cutting a chicken carcass on your own. Poultry farms have a workshop for processing chickens, and there automatic evisceration is only controlled by the line operator to exclude defects.

After the giblets are removed, the question arises of how to butcher the chicken quickly and competently. If it is planned to cook a whole carcass, then on gutting its preparation for cooking ends.

This is not economical, and therefore housewives most often cut the chicken into pieces for cooking several dishes from one carcass.

No Waste

This method is the most profitable. The cutting is carried out in the following sequence:

Separation of the legs - carried out by putting the carcass on the back and pulling the leg to the side. The junction of the legs with the body is incised. The leg is twisted out of the joint and then finally separated with a knife from the body.
Separation of the wings - the shoulder joint is incised and after that the wing is completely separated, slightly pulling it to the side.
Dividing in half along the spine and in the middle of the breast of the carcass.
Separation of the breast and back at the junction of the ribs.

If it is necessary to cut the carcass of a large chicken, each half of the breast is additionally cut into 2 parts.

The meat processing shop carries out the cutting of the carcass automatically, which is why the presence of bone fragments in the meat cannot be ruled out. This does not happen with home cutting.

Chicken pieces are put away for storage freezer. To get high-quality meat, it is important to know exactly how to cut a chicken carcass.

For portioned pieces

Cut up the chicken portioned pieces, which will be close in size, is usually required if the bird is planned to be served on the table.

To understand how to properly cut a chicken in this way, you need to familiarize yourself with what exactly is done at the same time and in what sequence.

On the back of the chicken, an incision is made across under the shoulder blades.
Longitudinal section from the middle of the first section to the tail.
Separation of the leg muscles from the spine.
The twisting of the legs from the joints.
Complete separation of legs.
Incision to the neck from the center of the transverse incision.
Separating the shoulder blades from the chest with a thin and sharp knife.
Separation of the carcass along the spine from the inside.
Separation of wings with part of the breast.

The part of the breast that does not have wings is filleted. To cut the chicken into portions, the hostess can change the technology for herself, so that the process is as convenient as possible for her.

Conclusion

Cutting a chicken carcass into pieces is quite simple, despite the fact that the process consists of several stages.

When there are enough broilers for slaughter on the farm, it is necessary for the owner to master the cutting technique.

Video

Best of all, in order to understand how to butcher a chicken, watch the video.