Any tips for chopping up bone in chicken?

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tubaroo

tubaroo

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I'm having difficulty getting evenly spaced pieces when cleaving/chopping up bone in chicken. Occasionally I am not successful in cutting through the meat and bone in one go, especially through the thicker thigh bones. Then I have to take another swing which tends to mangle the chicken since it doesn't always land on the exact same spot. Or sometimes problems aiming on the downswing and end up with a wider or thinner piece than intended.

How far up should I be swinging from? Any tips for getting even pieces?

I'm cutting up cooked chicken in this case, but there are dishes where I'd be cutting up raw chicken. And the last time I did that last year I ended up with lots of splintered bone. So nowadays I buy cut up bone in drumstick and thigh at the supermarket when cooking those types of recipes. I imagine they use the band saw for those. How do you guys minimize the bone splinters in raw chicken if you're cutting with a bone cleaver?

Made cantonese poached chicken for dinner today which got me thinking of this topic
IMG_4169 (1).jpg

The bone cleaver and board I use (weighs around 500g, spine thickness 4mm)
IMG_4171.jpg
 
To start with, are you using the heal of the edge? Lots of Chinese cleavers come with an arrow that tells you "bone behind this line, slicing in front" Most of the time I use a relatively small but heavy cleaver I bought in Thailand. I watched a lady in a wet market close to Chiang Mai cutting up chickens for her stall using one of these. She was both slicing and chopping. Looked good to me so I hunted down an identical cleaver before I went home.
 
But there is a difference between cutting chicken into the basic pieces and chopping it up bone in for various Asian style dishes. The first just requires a sharp knife and a little skill. The second requires a stronger, thicker edge.
 
With cooked chicken thighs instead of high swing using weight of cleaver, you can use a forward slicing push cut from a lower hight still using weight of cleaver. One cut what you want. A sharp blade and purposeful forward push cut chops give a clean bone cut.
 
You can also baton the second swing. Not sure how well I'm explaining, if you get stuck mid bone leave it and hit the back of the cleaver with something else. Also don't totally sweat the perfect cuts, people who cook and cut for a living have a huge lead in muscle memory over you. Also I suspect your family doesn't care too much if the pieces are totally symmetrical.
 
Benuser said:
Traditional European cleavers have a rounded edge to avoid splinters.
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Rounded edge meaning more convex profile? Or a blunt knife?

Noodle Soup said:
To start with, are you using the heal of the edge?
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I've tried using the front, middle and heel. Felt about the same to me, I'll experiment more next chance I have to break down bone in food. Maybe because I'm using a heavy cleaver not the all purpose style cleaver which is much thinner on the front.

I'll try having more of a push motion during the cut. I have tried whacking the spine of the knife with my palm when the cut doesn't go clean through, it does work in some situations, but hurts after a while. Sounds like I just need more practice (and possibly a heavier knife, but I'm trying to avoid that 😅)
 
A medium weight cleaver with a sharp but not too steep an angle edge seems to work best for me. But I don't know your cleaver. All i do know is every cooking class I've taken in China has included chopping up poultry and waterfowl bone in for various dishes and the cleavers were pretty ho hum.
 
tubaroo said:
I have tried whacking the spine of the knife with my palm when the cut doesn't go clean through, it does work in some situations, but hurts after a while. Sounds like I just need more practice (and possibly a heavier knife, but I'm trying to avoid that 😅)
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A dead blow hammer will spare you some bruises on your palms, cheaper than a decent new cleaver
 
Noodle Soup said:
A medium weight cleaver with a sharp but not too steep an angle edge seems to work best for me. But I don't know your cleaver. All i do know is every cooking class I've taken in China has included chopping up poultry and waterfowl bone in for various dishes and the cleavers were pretty ho hum.
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What cleaver would you recommend for this?
 
Decisive cuts with a normal chinese cleaver is how I learned it. Chicken bones are soft. You always have the possibility of bone fragments and splinters though. I get bone fragments in poached chicken and roast duck from chinese restaurants or markets. I just spit them out like fish bones.

Of course, I dislike bone fragments so I bone the chicken when making steamed chicken at home. The disadvantage is that the meat cools, but the time it takes to take the legs and wings off, breasts off and slice them, and bone and slice the legs and thighs isn't isn't that high. Maybe 5 minutes? Not a big deal if the chicken is last to the table. The problem I have is that the carcass is delicious, so I like to shred the meat from the carcass and mix with a little chicken broth and herbs. That often takes more time and by that time things start to cool down. I probably need an extra set of hands.
 
bobby2shots videos are not applicable. sorry.

raw chicken bones are different that cooked ones. i gave away my cleaver away, since i didnt use it much, but i simply walked into a chinese hardware store and asked for the same blade the bbq houses uses. it was not expensive. i think i should have put up some cash for the right chopping block as well.

it didnt take much more than the weight of the blade dropping to chop up a soy sauce chicken. a duck was easier. i think i still have my stepdads blade at my mom's house. it is the drumstick that kicks my ass.
 
demirtasem said:
So the knife in the video is a heavy cleaver like CCK KF 1601 or more like a bbq chopper like KF1502 or so? Any ideas?
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According to the specs, they both weigh roughly the same. The difference is that the bone cleaver (1601) is less height, and thicker spine meant for smashing thru fat stock bones, while the bbq chopper (1501/1502) has more height/surface area and slightly less spine. For the thinner type of bones you would typically need to cut for bbq, I think the 15xx would be better suited because you get a larger surface area for scooping stuff while still having plenty of girth to power through crunchy stuff and small bones.
 
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