Use a thin, sharp 6" boning knife which can be sharpened easily. Keep a sharpening steel handy.

To bone chicken thighs, cut along the thinner side inside of the thigh to the bone, slashing the thigh the length of the entire bone. Grasping on end of the bone, scrape the meat away from the bone until it is free. Chop of the small round piece of cartilage at the end. Use wooden toothpicks to skewer the boned meat together.

To bone chicken breasts, place a breast skin side down on cutting board. Using a boning knife, slice just through the white gristle section at neck end of the keel bone (the keel bone is the darker bone which is located in the center of the two halves of the whole breast). Bend the keel bone back and press flat to expose it.

Run the tip of your finger down each side of the keel bone to loosen it and then pull it towards you to remove it in 1 or 2 pieces.

Working on one side of the breast, insert tip of knife under the long rib. Run the knife underneath the bone and cut it loose from the meat. Lifting away the bone, strip meat away from the rib cage, cutting round the outer edge of the breast all the way to the shoulder joint, then slice straight through the joint. The entire rib cage should now be free. Discard or save for soup. Turn the breast around and repeat the procedure for the breast on the other side (when working with a whole chicken breast which has two sides).

Now, working from the ends of the wishbone, scrape the flesh away from each piece of bone and cut it away.

Slide the knife underneath the white tendons oneach side of breast, and pull up while slicing it away to loosen and remove.

Finally, remove skin by pulling upward away from chicken and running knife toward skin.

Skin may be used to roll up stuffed or ground chicken meat for cooking, or maybe be used with bones for stock.

Submitted by: CM