Boning Chicken Breasts

Boning Chicken Breasts: How and Why

Buying bone-in split chicken breasts is a good idea.  If you wait until they are on sale you can get them inexpensively, bone them, freeze them
and make stock with the bones.  The boned half-breasts can be the basis for many good things to eat!  The following instructions and pictures
should make it easy for you.

Almost all of the chicken breasts at markets have been split in a big hurry.  This splitting makes two kinds of breast halves: those with a
keel-bone or sternum and those without.  Here's a shopping tip: if you want mostly the breast halves without keel-bones, buy the packages
that weigh less.  These packages will have more pieces without than with keel-bones.  They are easier to bone and have less "waste" but
if you are going to make stock the bones are not waste, they are desirable.  You decide.
The chicken breast shown below is the type without a keel-bone, only what's left when the actual keel is cut off.  Here's how to bone it out:
first pull the skin off and set the skin aside. You won't need a knife, just tug the skin off with your hands.

Turn the breast-half over and make a cut that begins separating the keel-bone and cartilage from the meat.  Deepen this cut, cutting the meat
away from bone, cartilage and ribs, trying as you cut to free the maximum amount of meat.  Cut with the edge of your knife and "peel" the
meat away from the bones with the flat of the blade.  Now you must free the wishbone.  Pierce the meat below the letter "w" inside the wishbone
and cut toward the letter "e", separating the wishbone from the meat.

Make a final cut finishing the division of the meat from the bones. You're done! I like to collect separate containers of meat, bones and skin
to finish up after all the breast halves are boned.

Now for the other kind of half-breast: one with a keel.  Make an inital cut to begin separating the meat from the keel, the base of the keel-bone
and the cartilage.  This initial cut should be from one half inch (1 cm) to three quarters of an inch (2cm) deep.  Obviously you want to get as
much meat away from the bone as you can but you should be reasonable about this.  This is not surgery and any meat left on the bone will
enrich the stock you may make.

Deepen the cut, again cutting with your knife's edge and "peeling" the meat away from the bones with the flat of the blade. When the meat
falls free cut out the wishbone and you're done.

When you have boned all of your half breasts, if you like you can wrap them individually in plastic wrap and freeze them. Very convenient!

I find that removing the skin and bones removes about half the weight so the price paid per pound for the chicken with skin and bones should
be doubled to evaluate the price for boneless skinless chicken breasts. If you throw the skin and bones away all this may not be worth doing.
However, you already know what to do with the bones: make stock. What can you do with the skin? Take a look here.