Chicken is the most widely used and consumed form of meat. The recipes like pizzas and pasta need boneless chicken chunks, but how do you convert bone-in chicken to boneless? You have come to the right place because we are sharing the for deboning the chicken and additional tips!
Convert Bone In Chicken To Boneless
To begin with, converting the bone-in chicken to boneless chicken is pretty easy and won’t take more than a few minutes. In the first step, you have to put the whole chicken piece in the chopper or cutting board. You have to hold the chicken piece firmly on the cutting board and cut it into two halves by making lengthwise cuts.
Keep in mind that you’ve to use a sharp knife for cutting the chicken pieces into halves. Once the chicken is cut into two halves, you have to pull away from the skin from the halves (you might have to make cuts for it, so don’t worry). Now that you’ve removed the skin, press the chicken pieces on the board and cut the connection between bone and chicken for complete removal.
Once you make the cuts between bone and chicken, you can cut the chicken into whichever shape you want. However, while cutting, it’s best to keep the blade of the knife parallel to the cutting board since it makes cutting easier for you. You can follow the same steps for cutting the other half of the chicken half. So, start cutting up!
Cooking Time Difference Between Bone-In Chicken To Boneless
To begin with, the boneless chicken is easier to cook and will have quicker cooking time as compared to the bone-in chicken. However, the boneless chicken tends to be expensive, but we have already told you how to do it on your own. It’s essential to outline that the boneless chicken will not have a similar flavor profile as compared to the bone-in chicken.
Before we start with the temperatures and cooking time, let us tell you that bone-in chicken can retain the moisture much better than other chicken (boneless). It’s pretty obvious that bone-in chicken will need more cooking time, but the flavor and outcome will be pretty different as compared to boneless chicken.
Baking & Grilling
The bone-in chicken tends to take longer for cooking, irrespective of which cooking method you use. The bone-in chicken has a skin layer on, which makes it easy to retain the moisture, and the bones will keep absorbing heat. That being said, it will take longer to retain the moisture. On average, grilling the boneless chicken will take around twenty minutes, but the bone-in chicken will need around forty-five minutes.
Whole Chicken & Piece
The cooking time also depends on the cut. That being said, the bone-in chicken will take around fifty minutes if you are cooking around 3.5 pounds of chicken. The smaller pieces of chicken will have less cooking time. Even if the boneless chicken has less cooking time, you can reduce the cooking time even more by cutting it into smaller pieces.
What About Simmering?
In some cases, the bone-in chicken is preferred above boneless chicken (it depends on recipes). For instance, when you’ve to make chicken soup or chicken stock, you can simmer the chicken thighs (with bones, of course). Keeping the bone is important because it adds flavor. All in all, cooking time doesn’t matter with broths and stocks because your goal isn’t to cook chicken, right?
That being said, once the chicken is simmered, you can remove the meat and shred it as you like. Also, it will need more cooking. Keep in mind that when you shred the chicken, it won’t be fully cooked. So, just cook it some more. You can also mix the chicken with other ingredients of the broth or stock.
Finished Chicken
Since boneless and bone-in chicken have different cuts, temperatures, and densities, you have to use a meat thermometer to see if the chicken is cooked. It doesn’t matter if you are cooking boneless chicken or bone-in chicken; the internal temperature of cooked chicken should be 165-degrees Fahrenheit. However, if the bone-in chicken has skin on, it can be cooked for a longer time without losing the moisture.