How do you bone & skin chicken breasts?

[Nanci]

http://community.cookinglight.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38170&highlight=boning+and+chicken

I did some searching, but I couldn't find detailed descriptions on how to bone & skin a chicken breast. My local grocery had the split chicken breasts on sale for .88/lb and I couldn't pass them up, but I have a recipe that I want to make this week that calls for boneless, skinless.

I did find the very good link above on how to carve a whole chicken.

Thank you for your help!

[beckms]

The skin peels off quite easily, but it is not for the faint of heart! You can also pretty easily trim the fat either with your fingers or poultry shears or a good knife.

For boning, I've found that the best tool to use is a good pair of poultry shears, but a sharp knife will do. You can pretty easily cut along the bone to get the breast off, but beware the small, pointy shoulder (I think) bone that extends at a right angle to the breast bone. When you find this and cut the meat out from around it, the rest should be fairly straightforward. Just feel along the edge of the bone as you're doing it so as to get the most meat possible without leasving a bunch attached.

It's much easier to describe this if we're both in the kitchen looking at the chicken!

Once you get comfortable boning and skinning chicken, then you'll find that it's much cheaper to buy bone-on/skin-on chicken and do it yourself. Plus you can save the bones for stock later, if you make stock.

[sunberst]

i just use a knife.

i lift up and peel away the skin (it comes off pretty easily but is gross & bumpy) and then i just cut the meat away from the bone. if i see any visible white fatty gunk, then i cut that off as well.

[Nanci]

Thank you. I'll give it a try. It sounds a little messy, but straight forward.

[SusanT]

It's a little easier if the breasts are semi-frozen. I start on the rib side with a sharp boning knife and work my way in along the bone. Also, if you don't like handling the skin, grab a dry papertowel. It gives you excellent grip on the skin.

[scrappycat]

Here is a link to a page that shows you how to do it. I used it, when I had some chicken breasts to bone, and I found it really helpful to see the pictures.

Pam

http://www.tyson.com/chicken/classroom/boningbreast.asp