Cutting Up Chicken

Featured Pro: Tyler Florence
Category: Cooking
Time: 2:00


TYLER FLORENCE: Hey, everybody. I’m Tyler Florence here with a GMC Trade Secret, and my very good friend, Mr. Benny Pizzuco. He is the owner of Florence Prime Meats here in New York City. He’s the best butcher in town. And he’s going to show us how to cut up chickens for whatever you’re looking for, either for the grill or for, say, crispy fried chicken. He’s got two.

So show us what you’ve got.

BENNY PIZZUCO: Okay. First we’ll cut this chicken in eighths for frying.

TYLER: Okay, right.

BENNY: We’ll make smaller pieces out of it.

TYLER: All right. So you take the wings off, right.

BENNY: I take that wing off.

TYLER: I’m a big wing fan. Are you?

BENNY: Oh, absolutely.

TYLER: I like crispy fried wings.

BENNY: Like that. And you flip it over and go right in the thigh joint, just like that.

TYLER: All right, just like that, right?

BENNY: And to make it easy, you just snap this open.

TYLER: All right. That looks pretty good, right?

BENNY: Yeah.

TYLER: So you’ve got one clean cut.

BENNY: Exactly; another in the joint, like that; same thing on the other side. Don’t be afraid to pull it.

TYLER: Exactly right. Now, and this little fat line in between the thigh and the leg really makes it easy to cut.

BENNY: Right. If you can’t -

TYLER: It’s almost like a dotted line.

BENNY: If you can’t find it, you actually can move it and then you’ll see it.

TYLER: Okay, great.

BENNY: You move it and you can see it.

TYLER: Oh, great. Okay. There it comes, right there.

BENNY: Exactly.

TYLER: Perfect.

BENNY: Exactly.

TYLER: Okay, so take the breastbone off. Now, this is a really good thing, right?

BENNY: Yeah.

TYLER: So we’ve got the backbone, which is really good for stock too.

BENNY: So this can actually just snap off.

TYLER: Okay.

BENNY: Okay. And this here, you just put a little pressure on it.

TYLER: Okay.

BENNY: Okay. And then we go right through it like that.

TYLER: All right, great. And then -

BENNY: Turn it around and you cut right down that soft bone.

TYLER: All right, perfect. And you’ve got two great pieces for fried chicken.

BENNY: Exactly.

TYLER: Now, if you notice, they’re all real consistent in size. That way they cook at the same time. Okay, now we’ve got chicken for the grill.

BENNY: Yes. And this you cut in quarters. They’re a little bigger pieces. You do the same thing. You go down the back.

TYLER: Okay.

BENNY: Okay. You go in the soft bone here. You can just push down a little bit.

TYLER: All right.

BENNY: Turn it around. Go down there. Over here you could stick your hand in there and you –

TYLER: Okay, so we’ve got, like, a couple of good pieces. These are quarters because they’re going to take a little longer to cook on the grill, so you want them in big pieces so they’re not going to dry out. All right, those look great. Fantastic, man. So you’ve got eight for deep fried crispy chicken and you’ve got quarters for chicken on the grill.

Benny Pizzuco at Florence Prime Meats in New York City. I’m Tyler Florence, and that’s my tip. These are great.