How to Break Down a Whole Chicken Like a Champ
By Elyssa Goldberg
Put down the pre-cut chicken breasts and wings. You absolutely should be buying and cooking with whole chickens instead. Yes, the prep can be daunting, but the work is well worth it. All you have to do is get over the mental hurdle of breaking a bird down the way your butcher would. Which is why Chi Spacca chef Chad Colby is here to show you how to butcher a whole chicken the right way, at home, each and every time.
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Colby explains why you should buy a whole chicken in the first place. You get more bird for your buck, for one thing. You’ll also be eating more interesting food at home, as you get acquainted with cooking with chicken scraps—which Colby believes is a very, very good thing. The neck, bones, and stray tips go a long way toward rendering and building your best-ever chicken stock. Heck, at Chi Spacca, Colby and his team roast half a country chicken on top of bread and let those drippings seep down into the bread before crisping it. That, friends, is what you would call chicken fat French toast.
The bottom line? By the time you’re done being your own butcher, Colby explains, “you’ve taken something that might be around $3 and taken something out of it that might be closer to $7, $10.” And we’re very, very down with that.
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