How to Debone a Chicken Breast

Why Buy Bone-in Chicken Breasts

The main reason to purchase split chicken breasts instead of boneless and skinless breasts is first the price. You can save money with just a little work, especially when they are on sale. The bones in split chicken breasts will make up around 20 percent of their total weight, and you'll get a similar amount of meat as boneless chicken breasts.

Second, you get bones from the chicken breasts to make bone broth. And that is always nice to have on hand for casseroles, soups, and making chicken noodles.

Third, if you want to make pre-cooked chicken for the freezer you only have to cook it. Cooking the chicken on the bone helps to keep the meat from shrinking up. Some people say it adds flavor too.

Steps to Debone Chicken

1. If you’re chicken breast has been frozen already, you need to thaw it out before working on it.

2. Prepare the cutting board you usually use for meat and poultry and ensure it is clean. Also, make sure you use a sharp good quality chef’s knife.
3. If your chicken breasts has not already been split in half, to prepare for splitting, cut the into the thickest part of the chicken lengthwise, but do not cut all the way through. This is in the center of the breast and will help you find the breastbone easier.
• If you are keeping the skin on, you need to find the bone by turning the chicken over, skin side down, rather than by cutting through it. Find the ends of the breastbone. You can start deboning from either end--whichever end has more bone visible from the outside
4. If the skin is still on, you can remove it, if you want. You can do this by sliding your fingers into the cut you made and peel back the skin. If it doesn’t come off, you can cut it off with the knife.

5. Find the breastbone, which is in the middle of the breast. The ribs might still be attached but they will come off when you start cutting off the bone.
6. Take your knife and cut along one side of the breastbone in a scraping motion to separate the meat from the bone. Work your knife as deeply along the bone as you can, pulling up on the meat with your other hand. Take your time to ensure that you remove the bone without damaging the surrounding meat. Do the same thing on the other side of the bone. Separate the meat in a scraping motion and you’ll end up with two breast halves.
• Use your hands to pull the entire breast off the bone. You can use the knife to help, but pulling will prevent you from cutting through the skin. You should have an entire single breast with the skin on.
7. You can now remove any unwanted extras like skin, fat, cartilage, or tendons.

After the bone is cut away, you can take off the tenderloin, if you want. There is a little strip of meat called the tenderloin you can use separately. The tenderloin of a chicken is the long, innermost muscle of the breast lying along the breastbone. It is the most tender meat on the bird. If you have a split breast without the big bone, the tenderloin will be mainly intact once you are done. In fact, you can gently pull the tenders (which are about 1 1/2 inches wide and 5 inches long) off with just your hands!

When you buy chicken tenderloins from the store, you’ll notice they usually have a white string attached to them that runs down the side. This white string is a tendon, and while it is technically edible, it’s not pleasant to eat. To remove the string, place the end in between the tines of a fork and carefully pull it through with one hand holding the fork and the other pulling the string. The string should tear away from the tender.