I almost always buy boneless, skinless chicken breasts but this week the bone-in chicken was on sale and I couldn’t pass it up. Unfortunately, my family won’t eat chicken with the bone in so I have to de-bone it before I cook it. Years ago a friend who was training to be a chef taught me how to de-bone chicken breasts. I was surprised at how easy it was once you got the hang of it. If you’re interested in learning, here are some photos that might help. They’re not awesome photos but hopefully they’ll get you started.
First of all, a whole chicken breast actually consists of two halves. When you’re de-boning, one of the halves is a LOT easier than the other. Unfortunately it seems like I usually get a package with more of the harder side, though. This package was no exception: one easy, three hard.
I like to use a small paring knife I got from Pampered Chef. You’re definitely going to want to use a small knife and the sharper the better. It’s also a little easier to de-bone the chicken breasts if they’re still just a little bit frozen.
Here we go!
The photo below shows the two halves. You’ll notice these pieces have the skin on. The first step is to remove the skin which is actually the easiest part. Take your knife and run it up under the skin, pull up and then start pulling with your hands. The chicken breast is in one hand and the skin in the other. It comes off pretty easily.
The photo below shows the easy side of the chicken breast. You’ll de-bone it from underneath – the bone side.
Take your knife and run it up under the rib bones. Then gently, using a sawing motion, cut the meat away from the bones. On the bigger end of the breast, there will be a small bone you’ll have to cut out. Then gently use your knife to remove the tender from the bottom side of the breast. 
Now for the harder side. You’ll cut this chicken breast from the top. Using your knife, cut the chicken breast along the edge, between the bone and the meat. Your first cut will just be to get an opening. Then you’ll go back and start gently sawing the meat away from the bone. When it’s almost completely separately, pull the two pieces apart. You might have to deal with that small bone at the top, like you did on the other piece. If so, just cut it out. Gently use your knife to remove the tender from the bottom side of the breast.
And that’s how you do it. Hopefully you’ll get lucky and your package of chicken will have the easy pieces. I love when that happens!
Don’t be discouraged if you feel clumsy at the beginning. Just like with anything else, the more you do it, the better you get. Then you’ll have the benefit of being able to buy boneless skinless chicken breasts or bone-in – whichever gives you the best price!
Now here’s one final tip – something I’ve learned the hard way. Those bones and skin that you’re throwing away can really stink up your trash. The best way to deal with them is to put them in a bag, close it tightly and store them in the freezer until trash day. If you toss them directly into your trash can, especially in the summer, you might be sorry! No, I take that back – you will definitely be sorry!
So head off to your grocery store and pick up a package of bone-in chicken breasts and see how easy it is to de-bone them.
I keep all those bones in the freezer and make your own chicken stock!!
I’ve never done that but I need to. How do you do it?
Oh there’s a bunch of recipes out there… I almost never follow them.
Make sure you have enough bones to equal or ecxeed what you think you have in a normal chicken carcass…like picture a used up rotisserie chicken… Since yours will be raw, I’d roast the bones on a cookie sheet, spraying both with cooking spray. You’ll get a better stock that way…get them brown, doesn’t matter if all the meat is cooked or not. Then I throw in carrots (don’t peel), celery (only chopped enough so it fits in the pot), onion (quartered). Some call for leeks but they are way too expensive to me for just plain old stock.
[This is also a great way to use dried up carrots that you don't want to use or limp celery or the tops and insides of celery that we don't eat... I keep a couple "chicken stock baggies" of old produce and bones in my freezer because I'm bad at produce.]
Anyway, put your bones, veggies, about 10 peppercorns, and I like to put fresh parsley and thyme in mine…about 10 springs each all in a 8 qt. pasta pot or stock pot…it needs to be deeper than wide, does that makes sense? cover with cold water, and bring to just a simmer. you can skim off the white foam or not. I don’t care, I’m not on a cooking show. I don’t need sparklingly clear stock. My mom, however, has to skim hers. whatever makes you happy.
VERY LIGHTY simmer for at least 4 hours. I often do mine overnight. Some people do theirs in their crockpots. strain it, and then run it through a cheesecloth and you’re ready to go!
come to think of it, almost all of my crockpot cookbooks have stock recipes in them…maybe one of yours does, too. Happy housewife has a good tutorial of whole chicken in a crockpot with stock to follow without even cleaning it. I don’t like that method because it makes the chicken so tender that it just falls apart and hard to pick the meat off of.
Sorry for the blog post, here. If I’ve made it seem complicated, it’s really not!! Barefoot Contessa (Ina Garten) has good videos but she makes like catering size batches…
oh and once cooled, it’s often gelatinous because of the natural protein you get in there…don’t get weirded out by it!
sorry…one more thing…when you do this overnight, you wake up to your house smelling like Boston Market.
Thanks, Becky. I’ll give it a try.
I’ve always wondered how to go about de-boning a chicken breast because, like your family, my family doesn’t like bones. This makes it look really simple. I’ll have to give it a try the next time I’m making something with chicken.
Definitely do try. The best part is that you can buy whatever chicken is on sale for the best price and you’re not stuck with just getting boneless skinless when its NOT on sale. Of course, I’d rather not have to de-bone them but you do what you have to do! And once you get the hang of it, it’s no big deal.
I’m horrible in the kitchen, and I live on a student budget, so I really appreciate this post. Deboned chicken is always so expensive. I’ll definitely try this “method”, thanks!
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It’s really not hard once you get the hang of it and it will definitely save you some money!
We use chicken IN stuff way more often than we eat whole chicken breasts, so I’ve found that roasting them with skin on and on the bone produces way better chicken to shred, cube, etc. and is WAY cheaper than how I used to buy boneless skinless for everything. It’s more moist and most of the time the meat falls off the bone. Ever since I’ve been educated about kitchen-aid chicken shredding I do this way more now!!