Understanding Chicken Carcass Cuts for Tastier Chicken Dishes
A guide to chicken cuts for cooking: whole carcass, breast, wings, thighs, drumsticks, feet and fillet, plus the dishes each part suits best.
Every part of a chicken has a different flavor. That is why it pays to know the different chicken cuts so you can prepare each one properly when cooking. Understanding chicken carcass cuts also helps you measure seasonings correctly so they soak fully into the meat. Here are the chicken cuts commonly known to meat traders and consumers alike.
- Whole chicken carcass
A chicken carcass is the bird after its head and feet have been removed, its feathers plucked and its innards taken out. The carcass is usually cut into pieces before cooking, although some dishes, such as ayam panggang (roast chicken) or ginseng chicken, use a whole carcass.
- Breast
This cut is the entire breast, made up of white meat only. There is still some bone, but only in the part next to the wings. Among the carcass cuts, the breast tastes milder, with more fibrous meat. This cut is best battered and fried, made into steak or cooked as sate ayam (chicken satay).
Also read 4 Things to Watch Closely in the Chicken Business
- Wings
Wings are well suited to fried chicken and can usually be cut further into 3 parts: the tip, the flat middle section and the drumette.
- Thighs
Thigh meat is darker than the other carcass cuts. Thighs are best for opor (chicken braised in coconut milk), semur (chicken stewed in sweet soy sauce) or fried chicken.
- Drumsticks
The lower leg, commonly called the drumstick, also has dark meat like the thigh. Drumsticks are usually a good fit for ayam bakar (grilled chicken), fried chicken or ayam balado (chicken in red chili sauce).
- Chicken feet
As we know, chicken feet have no meat compared with the other carcass cuts. Their savory flavor makes them a good choice for chicken feet chips, soup, soto (Indonesian spiced soup) or as a topping for bubur ayam (chicken rice porridge).
Besides these cuts, you can also take just the meat from the carcass, usually called chicken fillet. A fillet is boneless, skinless chicken that is easy to turn into steak or battered fried chicken.
Also read What a Chicken Carcass Is and How to Store Chicken Meat
