hi there I'm Chef Eric Crowley owner of
the culinary classroom in West Los
Angeles and today I'm going to show you
how to butterfly a chicken breast
sometimes you can procure a butterfly
chicken breast from a a butcher it would
have to be a specialized butcher
sometimes they call it a a chicken front
basically what we're going to be looking
to do with our whole chicken is cut away
the chicken breast from the rest of the
body and then we're going to wind up
taking out the uh ke bone in the breast
bone and keep both halves of the breast
meat intact so as you can imagine from
that shape of the cut of chicken you're
not going to find this in a prepackage
at the supermarket somebody's going to
have to do it for you or you could do it
yourself right now whole chicken is
definitely going to be necessary we're
going to uh basically run through a
little bit of identification on the
chicken here we have the wings here we
have legs and thighs and then running
along the back of course is the back
backbone to start off with in order to
separate the uh breast from the chicken
itself I'm going to go ahead and cut out
the wings and I'm going to use the wings
for something else a boning knife is
going to be really helpful for this pick
the chicken up by the wing and right
where you can see the wing bone meet up
with the breast along the side here
we're going to make a little cut into
the
skin and into the meat slightly until we
actually start to see the very end of
the wingbone right here this big piece
of cartilage we're going to cut right
underneath
that and basically separate the
wing from the breast do the same thing
on the other
side can actually let gravity help you
out a little bit
here hold the chicken on up cut where
the skin is stretching as you can
see and as the chicken starts to fall
under the gravity you could see the end
of the wing
bone cut underneath that
then I at this point I'll wind up going
into um my uh chef's knife and I'm going
to basically start to separate the uh
breast from the leg and the thigh and
from the backbone so I lay the uh
chicken breast uh on its chest uh here
is the backbone the neck and the tail
and I'm going to wind up utilizing a
chef's knife and basically cut on both
sides sides of the backbone all the way
through and I'm going to have to work
around right where the thigh bone meets
up with the back you could use your
boning knife as well actually either one
will wind up working fine make sure as
you start to cut that you don't cut too
far forward or else the tip of the knife
is going to start to hit into the breast
might even find it's easier to stand the
chicken on up like this going to come in
with my chef's knife lightly hold on to
the neck and I'm going to cut on this
side of the neck all the way down and
then move over and cut on this side of
of the neck you're going to hear a
little bit of clicking as I do this I'm
going to actually start to get the knife
to cut into to uh through some very
delicate rib bones so make sure your
knife is nice and
sharp and as I start to cut down you can
see how it easily it cuts away and then
very shortly I run into where the thigh
bone meets up with the backbone I'm
going to pop that thigh a little
bit then I'm going to have the chicken
laying on its breast and I'm going to
start the cut down towards the
tail and basically start to cut the
backbone away from the thigh and the
leg can even give it a little separation
with your fingers come in here cut that
away now the chicken is basically opened
up here we have our the remaining half
of our backbone that we're going to have
to cut away lightly hold on to the
backbone cut along here once you start
to get up to the thigh I'm just going to
reach around and feel where the thigh is
and give it a little
pop this is right here at this cut is
where the thigh bone meets up with the
backbone and cut along
there separate that that you could
actually save and uh throw into a pot
covered up with some water and make some
chicken stock out of it now our uh um
backbone is removed we still have some
legs and thighs I flip the chicken on
over to Butterfly our chicken breast
we're basically going to be working with
this so with the chicken turned around I
want to try and keep as much skin on the
breast as possible basically take my
knife and going to cut right through
here to remove this leg and thigh and
then cut through here to remove this leg
and thigh
there we are we have legs and thighs and
wings that we can use for something else
like a Covan or a chicken stew and here
is our whole chicken breast if I turn it
over again after the backbone's been
removed you can see the Keel bone and
the breast bone this is going to wind up
being removed in order to create a nice
a nice butterfly easiest way to take out
this is we're going to wind up taking a
knife you can use your chef's knife
again I usually use my uh boning knife
and I'm going to make a very very slight
cut not too deep I just want to be able
to get into and get through a little bit
of connective tissue that I'll just peel
away here you can start to see it want
to get through that and then the easiest
way to take out this bone after you make
this little cut or a score is go ahead
and grab a hold of the breast by the top
of the breast or the shoulder area bring
the breast on over get your Thumb Thumbs
right in the middle of the breast here
and we're basically going to bend the
breast in half like that and you can see
that the Keel bone starts to get
exposed there we are and then you can
come in with your hands basically peel
that bone on
out with a little bit of finger work you
can see that the bone easily pops out we
do have a little bit of cartilage on
both sides of the chicken breast that
can easily be removed by just simply I
get my thumb on one side of the piece of
cartilage and start to move it towards
the tip of the chicken
breast and I can grab a hold of that up
at the top
here pull that on
out one on the other side as well all
these pieces here this Keel bone and
this little bit of carage are really
great to throw into a stock
pot and you'll actually see this ke bone
is still attached to a little bit of
ribbing and I want to actually take
these rib bones out very easily done
with a boning knife just going to Simply
get my boning knife underneath those
ribs and very
gently get underneath and cut
away do the same thing on the other side
here we'll actually take my knife and
I'm going to get underneath the
bone going to angle my knife upward a a
little bit cuz I don't want to cut too
deep into the
meat what I also have with these rib
bones right up towards the top or the
shoulder of the chicken breast is I
actually have a little bit of the
clavicle and as I start to EXP ose I
could actually see the end of the joint
and very much like the wing bone I'm
going to cut right in between that joint
and the breast itself up near the
shoulder
here separate that can even give a
little pull there we
go that's all good for a stock pot as
well okay got a little bit of bone right
there get underneath that cut that
away and we have also have the wishbone
which is laying right inside here it's
actually broken right up at the front
but you can see the very ends of them
you could even grab a hold of those guys
and if you have a really good grip you
can just start to pull them a little bit
I'm actually going to take my knife and
kind of gently just cut them out and
then that's going to go into my stock
pot as
well another one laying right here the
other half that is I'm just going to get
underneath
it cut that
away almost ready to be butterflied one
of the things that you'll notice after
the rib bones come on out I've got a
couple of secondary muscles laying right
here with these little white connective
uh tissues attached these are the
chicken tenders you're going to wind up
taking these out you'll see that they
easily just grab the top and they easily
just pull away
there's
one there's the
other these guys I'll wind up saving and
I can chop them up and or cut them up
into bite-sized pieces and use them for
a stir fry something like that we're
going to clean up a little bit of the
fat and a little bit of the skin that's
laying
on the chicken itself a little bit of
extra meat right here we're going to
trim that
off maybe a little bit of connective
tissue right here we can get under
underneath that and cut that
away little bit of fat lying right along
here we can trim
that turn this guy on
over straighten out the
skin and there you have it a butterflied
whole chicken breast boneless ready to
go into the the oven or go on to the
grill and very quick cooking without the
bone and a fairly thin thickness of
meat thanks for watching be sure to
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wonderful additional information thanks
and I'll see you soon