How to Carve a Chicken (Video)

For whatever reason, carving meat is a right of passage for men—especially when it’s a holiday or a special occasion.

Whether it’s the Thanksgiving turkey, the Christmas ham, or Easter lamb, it’s a privilege to be tasked with cutting up the feast that your family is about to enjoy. But it’s also nerve-racking if you haven’t had much practice with a big roast.

I still remember when my wife and I started dating, and we spent our first Thanksgiving with her mother. When she pulled the bird out of the oven, my future mother-in-law handed me a carving knife and fork, and asked me to do the honors. It was as if to say, “welcome to the family.”

Naturally, I was touched that she trusted me with such an important task. But I was also nervous. I had never carved a turkey before. What if I totally eviscerated it…and RUINED Thanksgiving?!

Fortunately, I had an Ace in the hole: over the course of the past 10 years, I had roasted and carved about 20-30 chickens.

And once you learn to carve a chicken, it’s not really any harder to carve a turkey, or even a duck.

Learning to carve a chicken is a great stepping stone to when you need to “go on stage” for the main event like carving the Thanksgiving turkey.

Best of all, by “practicing,” you get to enjoy one, two, or even ten roast chickens on your own. A freshly roasted chicken just out of the oven is pretty much one of the most delicious and mouthwatering things you can cook. And it’s so simple, you’ll be amazed that you cooked it yourself.

In this video, I show you the finer points of how to carve a chicken. Once you learn to carve a chicken, you’ll be able to step up to duck and turkey, and you’ll never be scared again about doing the honors for Thanksgiving day.