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Lift the skin of the neck. Using a small knife separate the wishbone from the flesh cutting around it.

Pull the wishbone out.

I published several months ago the technique to de-bone a whole chicken. The difficult part of that technique is you need to know quite well the anatomy of the chicken to keep it whole and avoid breaking it apart.

This time I will show a simpler way for de-boning a chicken. It is also shown in the ultra-famous book “La Technique” by Jaques Pepin, recently re-published with the name “Complete Techniques”. Once the chicken is de-boned, opened butterfly, and flattened, it can be rolled and stuffed in a variety of ways.

Use a free range naturally fed chicken for the best result, about 5 - 6 lb (4 - 5 lb after boning).

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Place the chicken upside down on its breasts, and cut longitudinally along  the backbone.

With the tip of the knife cut all around evenly to separate the bones from the meat. Cut also the connections of the legs and wings to the carcass.

Pull away the carcass in one piece.

Cut the skin at the end of the drumstick. Lift the thigh and cut to separate the meat from the bone all around, pushing the meat back.

The fillets will come out loose. Use them to patch the areas under the breasts where there is no meat on the skin, in order to have all the surface covered with meat.

Remove the end of the wings.  Cut all around the wing bones to separate the meat from the bone.

Now that the chicken is completely de-boned, place a plastic sheet on the chicken and pound it with a meat pounder to flatten it.

See recipe for chicken roll.

***TIP***

The bones and the trimmings of the chicken can be used to make an excellent chicken broth. See my recipe for broth.