How to Flatten a Whole Chicken

Truthfully, I had never flattened a chicken {and I guess you could still say I haven’t, hubby did it this time, someone had to run the camera} until last month.  But I didn’t feel to bad because neither had he.

So we learned together!

We had been watching the movie, Last Holiday with Queen Latifa for quite a while, and yes I know it isn’t Christmas, but anyway she was making Poulet Tchoupitoulas in the beginning of the movie.  I googled the recipe and we set out to make it.  I’ll share that portion with you in another post.

But the recipe didn’t tell you how to flatten a chicken.  So I had my trusty little laptop in the kitchen with us and I went to google, my best friend sometimes, and they taught us how, so I thought I’d share with you, plus It’ll help me remember someday if I ever have to do this again!

1.Start with a whole Chicken.  Seems simple enough but…. 🙂

2. Turn the bird over on the front side {breasts down exposing the backbone} and put the top away from you {tail to you}. Locate the backbone and proceed to cut along side the back bone, all the way up the spine.

3. Then move to the other side of the backbone and proceed to cut up that side.

4. Once you have the backbone “cut” out, pull it out and set aside. Save all these bones, they’d be great for making Chicken Stock.

5. Now open the bird up so you can see the insides.

6. Locate the Keel bone, shown here. See the white around hubbys fingers, this is the grissel.

7. Cut down both sides just barely scoring the skin all the way to the tail bone.

8. Now you have exposed the Keel Bone. Run your fingers between the skin and the bone, then bend the chicken apart to pop the keel bone out.

9. Now you have a flattened chicken, here is where you cut it in half to make it easier to work with and to cook.