Introduction: Removing the Bones From a Chicken

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How to remove all the bones from a chicken and what to do with your floppy Chicken. This is a follow up to Spinward's How to Easily Debone a Chicken. Please visit this Instructable, it has great information on safely handling raw meat products.

Step 1: Tools and Materials for Deboning Your Chicken

Whole raw Chicken
Poultry or utility shears
Sharp boning knife or long paring knife
Sharp Chef knife or cleaver

Step 2: Empty the Cavity

Remove the liver, heart, neck and gizzard from the body cavity and reserve for your chicken stock. You will be reserving all the little bits and scraps for stock. Don't be wasteful, a good Chef never throws anything away. Wash the inside of the cavity with cold running water and pat dry with paper towels. Let's get cuttin'.
With your shears cut the wing tips off at the first joint and reserve.

Step 3: Removing the Wishbone.

Breast side up, pull back the neck skin, exposing the breast meat at the neck cavity opening. You can feel the wishbone through the meat at the opening. Starting at the top, with your boning knife, carefully cut behind the wishbone all the way down on both sides. Continue to trim until the wishbone becomes detached. Reserve.

Step 4: Removing the "Cage"

Turn the chicken breast side down. Begin you cut at the center of the backbone from head to tail. Following the contures of the ribcage, continue separating the meat from the cage on both sides. Trim as close to the cage as possible and stop when you get to the wing and leg joints.

Step 5: Detach the Leg and Wing Bones

Use your poultry shears to detach the leg and wing joints from the cage. Continue to separate the meat from the bone following the contours of the cage around to the breast until it begins to become free from the cage.

Step 6: The "Cage" Is Out.

Holding the cage in one hand continue to trim around the breast until the cage comes out. Again reserve.

Step 7: Removing the Thigh Bone

Removing the thigh bone is tricky. From inside the bird, carefully trim and push the meat down the length of the thigh bone until it reaches the drumstick. You are basically taking the thigh bone out from inside the bird. Seperate the thigh bone from the drumstick and remove. Leave the drumsticks intact, they will be removed after you roast your chicken.

Step 8: Trimming Up

With your Chef knife, cut off the bottom of the drumstick and the wings at the second joint.

Step 9: Finished!

You now have successfully removed the bones from a chicken! Now, what to do with this floppy chicken. Stuff it of course!