Jacques Pépin does poulet galantine. This is unfinished.
Video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kAekQ5fzfGM
The lollipop
- Cut lower two-thirds of the wing off.
- Holding tip half securely with a towel, bend the two pieces in half, breaking
them at their joint.
- Place the thumb of your hand holding the middle section (not the one with the
towel) behind the ends of the two (radius and ulna) bones of the middle section
and pull to expose the two bones.
- Cut the skin connecting the two pieces together and discard the wing tip for
stock later.
- Then remove the smaller of the two bones by pulling it out.
- Left with the ulna or bigger bone, pull the meat down it rolling it inside
out as if a sock coming off your leg.
- This leaves a ball of meat and skin at the end which you can roll in breading
and fry as an appetizer.
- If you wish, you can do a lollipop with the upper (humerus) bone too once
you've cut it away from the breast.
Bone out the chicken
Remove the wish bone.
- Incise into the triangle formed at the top of the bird laying on its
back.
- Look for wishbone and pull it out; it usually comes out in two pieces
because already broken.
- Take care not to puncture your finger on a broken end; it can be sharp.
- This is always a good thing to do even if you're not trying to bone
the chicken out completely because the wishbone gets in the way of
carving.
For the rest of this process, a big mistake people make is to use too much
knife. Mostly, you're going to make 4 cuts—relieving each major
joint of shoulders and hips.
Begin by making an incision straight down the middle of the back, having
laid the bird on its side.
Still on its side, lift the skin to look for the shoulder joint. Wiggle
the wing stub (humerus) to help you find it.
Put the knife right where the articulation is, this will be cutting from
the back side into the bird, and cut down in wiggling the knife if you're
not sure just where the articulation is.
Flipping the bird over on its other side, do the same thing there.
Now, grasping the two drumsticks and the butt, stand the bird straight up
then set it down on its butt and stick your thumbs into one of the
articulations you just cut and pry the carcass open bending the shoulder
away from the bird.
Tear, literally, the flesh away down the back all the way to the oyster.
Do the same to the other side.
The front of the chicken will have the breast beginning to fold down over
the legs and the belly. Place your two fingers in a V on either side of
the sternum and pull down until the whole front of the carcass is clean.
Set the bird down on one side and grasp a leg with one hand holding a
knife at the ready in your dominant hand.
Cut the oyster for that side whole taking care not to ruin it.
Drop the knife and rise the knee higher with your thumb at the hip and
crack the hip open.
Taking the knife again, cut through what sinew holds the leg to the
skeleton.
Repeat for the other leg.
What you have now is a mostly naked carcass (skeleton) and the bird's meat
and skin separated. The latter still has the drumstick and leg bones
(femur, tibia and fibula). The former still has two long breast filets on
either side of the keel bone.
Remove the breast filets by running your thumb or finger underneath them
to separate them from the keel.
Discard the remaining carcass for stock.
There's a sinew in the filets to remove. Find the top of it, hold it
against the cutting board with a towel so it doesn't slip and scrap the
filet away from it using your knife.
Deboning the legs
- If desired, scrap meat away at the knee from the head of the hip.