Chickens are arguably the most commonly eaten animal of all, and this is with good reason. They taste delicious and can be used in a huge variety of different dishes. Before you can start using them for cooking though, the important thing is getting the skin off of them. Skinning chickens is a very common practice, but definitely not an easy one if it’s one of your first times trying it. As a result, many new cooks ask us how to remove the skin from a chicken. If you’re also wondering how to do this, continue reading below to find out.
How to Remove Skin from A Chicken
The first step of them all is to clean the raw chicken up and then place it on a completely clean cutting board. Plastic cutting boards are usually the best option in this case since they don’t catch bacteria as easily as other cutting board materials. Start off by cutting the chicken’s skin near its neck. Continue cutting it all the way down until you reach one of the wings.
When you finally reach said wing, make sure to use a sharp knife and cleanly cut the first joint. Repeat this process with both wings. Once both of the wings are freed, carefully make your way to the breast and get rid of the skin here. Do this by dragging the knife underneath and loosening the skin. Once the breast area of the chicken is done, similarly make your way to the back. This area is relatively tougher than others, so make sure you’re careful. Go as high as possible to separate the meat and the skin.
Once the back and breast areas are done, users will need to work on trimming the skin at the end of the thighs. Cut the skin around the end of the bones in each thigh, as this method proves to be most effective. Once the skin at this end is cut, simply use the knife again to separate it from the meat. The next step is making one’s way to the hip joints. Cut these cleanly and the thighs will now be free.
What should be left is all of the skin of the chicken hanging to it by mere threads. You can easily pull this off yourself and then do whatever you’d like to with it. For those who don’t know how to pull it, just make your way from the neck all the way to the bottom. Make sure to check for any areas where there still might be some skin attached. Use a knife to get rid of this remaining skin.
Depending on what you’re going to be using it for, there’s the option to just throw away the skin in the bin. However, if you intend to use it for a recipe, give it a thorough cleaning and it will be all set for cooking purposes.