In this post, we’ll show you how to break down a chicken into wings, leg quarters (or thighs and drumsticks), and chicken breast. We’ll also show you how to de-bone chicken breasts to create boneless skinless chicken breasts and tenderloins.
In addition to step-by-step photos and instructions, we also have a video showing the entire process!
Why Learn How to Break Down a Chicken?
While a whole chicken is good for roasting, you can also cut it into various pieces for a variety of uses. Wings, thighs, and drumsticks are great for braised and stewed dishes, as well as for frying and roasting. Then, you can use the remaining chicken breasts for stir-fries, and the chicken back/carcass for stock!
You may also be wondering why you’d go to the trouble of breaking down a whole chicken when you can get these various pieces from the grocery store.
Often, whole chickens are cheaper per pound than individual pieces. If you like to buy organic, you know that whole organic chickens are expensive, but organic chicken parts can be even more costly. Sometimes organic chicken leg quarters, thighs, or wings aren’t even available!
Buying a whole chicken is also more flexible for the home cook. You break down a whole chicken, use what you need, and freeze the rest.
Freeze chicken bones and backs and chicken parts every time you buy and process a whole chicken, and you will soon have enough parts for the meal you want to cook. See the end of this post for ideas on how to use your whole chicken—whether you like it bone-in or boneless—including recipes!
It takes some planning, but this is a skill worth learning, especially if you’re an avid cook, so let’s get started!
How to Break Down a Whole Chicken: Instructions
Before you start, make sure you have a sharp chef’s knife or Chinese cleaver.
Rinse the chicken inside and out, and clean out the cavity (there may still be some organs remaining, depending on how the chicken was processed).
Pat the chicken dry with a paper towel so the chicken is easier to grip. Be sure to thoroughly disinfect all your kitchen surfaces afterward.
Remove the leg quarters (chicken thighs and drumsticks):
Place chicken breast-side-up on your cutting board, and first remove the leg quarters (the thighs with drumsticks attached).
Make a slit between the drumstick and the rest of the chicken, cutting only through the skin to expose the meat underneath.
Then pull the leg quarter away from the chicken to pop the thigh bone out of its socket. Cut with a knife just past the joint, getting as much meat as possible.
To separate the drumstick from the thigh, cut along the fat line, right between the joints. If you feel resistance, shift your knife around to find the joint until it slides through fairly easily.
If you’d like boneless chicken thighs, check out our tutorial on how to de-bone the thighs.
Remove the chicken wings:
In the photos below, I separate the wings next.
However, in my video (just above the recipe card at the end of the post), I separate the wings from the breast pieces after they’ve already been removed from the rest of the chicken.
Just know that you can remove the wings at any point of the process!
Lift one of the wings and look and feel where the joint is that attaches the drumette to the rest of the chicken.
Cut through the skin to expose the joint, and cut through the joint to disconnect the wing from the rest of the chicken.
Separate the breast from the chicken back:
With the chicken breast-side up, place your chef’s knife or cleaver knife across the cavity, between the breast and backbone.
Cut through the skin and then the delicate rib bones, until you reach the top of the chicken, to separate the breast from the backbone.
Then make cuts on either side of the neck to separate the chicken back from the breast. You’ll have the full chicken breast, and a chicken back including the neck and tail (unless the neck has been previously removed).
To make split chicken breast (optional):
You can keep the chicken breast whole and roast it, or if you like split chicken breast, flip the whole breast on the cutting board so it’s breast side down, and firmly cut the cartilage and soft bone down the middle to cut the breast into two halves.
Or, see the next section on deboning chicken breast.
To debone the chicken breast (optional):
If you’d rather have boneless chicken breasts, place the whole chicken breast on the cutting board breast-side up. Cut on one side of the breastbone, between the breast bone and the meat, and continue to the top of the breast until you hit the wishbone. Cut along one side of the wishbone, using it as a guide.
Continue the cut down to the lower part of the breast as well. Hold the chicken breast with one hand, and the breast bone with the other, and pull. You should be able to pull the breast meat away from the bone in a whole piece. The chicken tenderloin should come with it, but if it doesn’t, you can also pull that off easily.
Repeat on the other side.
(This process is shown in the video! Click to view the section of the video that shows how to separate a boneless chicken breast from the chicken.)
Ideas for using a whole chicken:
1. Chinese method – use everything in one dish:
Once the chicken is broken down into manageable pieces, you can use a chef’s knife or cleaver to cut the chicken into bite-size pieces.
The wing and drumette can be cut and separated, drumstick and thighs are chopped into 2 or 3 pieces, the breast with the bones are also chopped into bite-size pieces. Finally, the backbone is cut into smaller pieces. Then the chicken can be stir-fried, braised, or added to a soup.
While Americans love the experience of eating boneless chicken, the rest of the world is more open to cooking chicken on the bone, including the Chinese. Soups, stir-fries, braised dishes, and stews are much more flavorful when cooked with the bones. You don’t even need any chicken stock!
Recipe suggestions for this method:
- Sticky Oyster Sauce Chicken
- Chicken with Haam Choy (my grandma’s favorite dish—while we use boneless chicken in our recipe, the dish is traditionally made with a whole cut up chicken)
- Red Braised Chicken
- Braised Chicken with Mushrooms
2. Flexible method – use various pieces in different recipes:
This was what I was getting at in the introduction of this post—break down your chicken into various parts, and use each one for whatever cooking method works best for that piece of chicken.
You can leave the chicken breast whole and roast it. Trust me, with just some salt, pepper, and olive oil (or whatever marinade you use), you can cook the chicken until it’s just done (160-165°F for breast), and it will be better than any cooked chicken breast you buy at the store!
The backbone and wing tips can be used in stock, and the chicken wings, thighs and drumsticks can also be roasted, braised, fried, or grilled!
Here are some recipes you can use these pieces in:
- Sticky Oyster Sauce Chicken
- Taiwanese Three Cup Chicken
- Chicken Adobo
- Oyster Sauce Baked Chicken Wings
- Roasted Lemon Chicken with Potatoes
- Five Spice Baked Chicken
- Korean Fried Chicken
- Takeout-style Fried Chicken Wings (you can fry drumsticks and thighs also, but let them fry 6 to 9 minutes longer than the wings)
- Grilled Char Siu Chicken
- Tandoori-Style Grilled Chicken
- 3-ingredient Grilled Chicken Wings
Tip!
Each time you debone a chicken, you can freeze any of the breasts, wings, thighs, drumsticks, backs, and bones separately, and collect them until you have enough to make a dish (or pot of stock, in the case of the chicken backs and bones).
3. Boneless method – debone everything and use bones for stock:
If you prefer all your chicken boneless, you can debone the thighs and breasts for stir-fries and other dishes. Then use the bones you removed and chicken backs for a flavorful stock.
Keep the chicken wings and drumsticks for braising or frying, or if you really don’t like eating them, add them to your chicken stock. This is still much more economical than using whole chickens to make stock!
Before using boneless chicken for stir-fries, be sure to see our post on How to Velvet Chicken.
Tip!
Each time you debone a chicken, toss any bones into a freezer bag, and make chicken stock when you have collected enough.
Boneless Chicken Recipes:
- General Tso’s Chicken
- Chicken and Asparagus Stir-fry
- Chicken with Broccoli: Brown Sauce Version and White Sauce Version
- Roasted Chicken with Sticky Rice
- Cantonese Steamed Chicken and Chinese Sausage
- Ginger Chicken
- Mongolian Chicken
- Chicken with Chinese Broccoli and Mushrooms
- Chicken Chop Suey
- Sweet and Sour Chicken
- Cashew Chicken
- Chicken Egg Foo Young
- Bourbon Chicken
- 15-Minute Chicken Curry
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Recipe
How to Break Down a Chicken
Equipment
- sharp knife or cleaver
Ingredients
- 1 whole chicken
Instructions
Remove the chicken leg quarters (and split to get thighs and drumsticks if desired)
- Make a slit between the drumstick and the rest of the chicken, cutting only through the skin to expose the meat underneath.
- Then pull the leg quarter away from the chicken to pop the thigh bone out of its socket. Cut with a knife just past the joint, getting as much meat as possible.
- To separate the drumstick from the thigh, cut along the fat line, right between the joints. If you feel resistance, shift your knife around to find the joint until it slides through fairly easily.
Remove the wings:
- Lift one of the wings and look/feel where the joint connects the drumette to the rest of the chicken. Cut through the skin to expose the joint, and cut through the joint to disconnect the wing from the rest of the chicken.
Separate the breast from the chicken back:
- With the chicken breast-side up, place your chef’s knife or cleaver knife across the cavity, between the breast and backbone. Cut through the skin and then the delicate rib bones, until you reach the top of the chicken, to separate the breast from the backbone.
- Then make cuts on either side of the neck to separate the chicken back from the breast. You’ll have the full chicken breast, and a chicken back including the neck and tail (unless the neck has already been removed during processing).
To make split chicken breast (optional):
- Flip the whole breast on the cutting board so it is breast side down, and firmly cut the cartilage and soft bone down the middle to cut the breast into two halves.
To debone the chicken breast (optional):
- Place the whole chicken breast on the cutting board breast-side up. Cut on one side of the breastbone, between the breast bone and the meat, and continue to the top of the breast until you hit the wishbone. Cut along one side of the wishbone, using it as a guide.
- Continue the cut down to the lower part of the breast as well. Hold the chicken breast with one hand, and the breast bone with the other, and pull. You should be able to pull the breast meat away from the bone in a whole piece. The chicken tenderloin should come with it, but if it doesn’t, you can also pull that off easily. Repeat on the other side.
