BONE A CHICKEN
Before proceeding to bone a chicken, singe it, pull out the pin feathers, cut off the head, remove the tendons from the legs, and take out the crop through the neck. The bird may be drawn or not before
boning it, but in any event care must be taken not to break any part of the skin.
With these matters attended to, wash the skin well and wipe it carefully. First, cut off the legs at the first joint, and, with the
point of a sharp knife, as shown in Fig. 31, loosen the skin and muscles just above the joint by cutting around the bone. Cut the neck off close to the body, as in Fig. 32.
Then, starting at the neck, cut the skin clear down the back to the tail, as in Fig. 33. [Illustration: FIG. 38] Begin on one side, and scrape the flesh, with the skin attached to it, from the back bone, as in Fig. 34. When the shoulder blade is reached, push the flesh from it with the fingers, as in Fig. 35, until the wing joint is reached. Disjoint the wing where it is attached to the body, as in Fig. 36, and loosen the skin from the wing bone down to the second joint.
Disjoint the bone here and remove it up to this place, as Fig. 37 illustrates. The remaining bone is left in the tip of the wing to give it shape. When the bone from one wing is removed, turn the
chicken around and remove the bone from the other wing. Next, start at the back, separating the flesh from the ribs, as in Fig. 38, taking care not to penetrate into the side cavity of the chicken, provided it
has not [Illustration: FIG. 39] been drawn.
Push the flesh down to the thigh, as in Fig. 39, disjoint the
bone here, and remove it down to the second joint, as in Fig. 40. Disjoint the bone at the other joint, and remove the skin and meat from the bone by turning them inside out, as in Fig. 41. If the bone has been properly loosened at the first joint of the leg, there will be no trouble in slipping it out. When this is done, turn the meat and skin back again, so that they will be right side out.
Then proceed in the same way with the other leg. Next, free the flesh from the collar bone down to the breast bone on both sides,
proceeding as in Fig. 42. When the ridge of the breast bone is reached, care must be taken not to break the skin that lies very close to the bone. The fingers should be used to separate the flesh at this place.
When the sides and front have been thus taken care of, free the skin and the flesh from the bones over the rump. After this is done, the skeleton and internal organs of the undrawn bird may be removed,
leaving the flesh intact. The skeleton of a chicken will appear as in Fig. 43.
If the boned chicken is to be roasted, the entire chicken, including the spaces from which the wing and leg bones were removed, may be filled with highly seasoned stuffing. When this is done, shape the
chicken as much as possible to resemble its original shape and sew up the back. The chicken will then be ready to roast. If the boned chicken is to be broiled, shape it on the broiler as shown in Fig. 44 and broil. When broiled, boned chicken should appear.
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