To offer variety in the serving of chicken, as well as to present an easily carved bird, the process known as boning is often resorted to. Boning, as will be readily understood, consists in removing the flesh from the bones before the bird is cooked. Boned chicken may be prepared by roasting or broiling. In either case, the cookery process is the same as that already given for poultry that is not boned. If it is to be roasted, the cavity that results from the removal of the bones and internal organs should be filled with stuffing or forcemeat, so that the bird will appear as if nothing had been removed. If it is to be broiled, stuffing is not necessary. Cooked boned chicken may be served either hot or cold. Of course, other kinds of poultry may be boned if desired, and if the directions here given for boning chicken are thoroughly learned no difficulty will be encountered in performing this operation on any kind. Boning is not a wasteful process as might be supposed, because after the flesh is removed from the bones, they may be used in the making of soup.



Before proceeding to bone a chicken, singe it, pull out the pin feathers, cut off the head, remove the tendons from the legs, and take out the crop through the neck. The bird may be drawn or not before boning it, but in any event care must be taken not to break any part of the skin. With these matters attended to, wash the skin well and wipe it carefully. First, cut off the legs at the first joint, and, with the point of a sharp knife, loosen the skin and muscles just above the joint by cutting around the bone. Cut the neck off close to the body. Then, starting at the neck, cut the skin clear down the back to the tail. Begin on one side, and scrape the flesh, with the skin attached to it, from the back bone. When the shoulder blade is reached, push the flesh from it with the fingers until the wing joint is reached. Disjoint the wing where it is attached to the body and loosen the skin from the wing bone down to the second joint. Disjoint the bone here and remove it up to this place. The remaining bone is left in the tip of the wing to give it shape. When the bone from one wing is removed, turn the chicken around and remove the bone from the other wing. Next, start at the back, separating the flesh from the ribs, taking care not to penetrate into the side cavity of the chicken, provided it has not been drawn. Push the flesh down to the thigh, disjoint the bone here, and remove it down to the second joint. Disjoint the bone at the other joint, and remove the skin and meat from the bone by turning them inside out. If the bone has been properly loosened at the first joint of the leg, there will be no trouble in slipping it out. When this is done, turn the meat and skin back again, so that they will be right side out. Then proceed in the same way with the other leg. Next, free the flesh from the collar bone down to the breast bone on both sides. When the ridge of the breast bone is reached, care must be taken not to break the skin that lies very close to the bone. The fingers should be used to separate the flesh at this place. When the sides and front have been thus taken care of, free the skin and the flesh from the bones over the rump. After this is done, the skeleton and internal organs of the undrawn bird may be removed, leaving the flesh intact.

If the boned chicken is to be roasted, the entire chicken, including the spaces from which the wing and leg bones were removed, may be filled with highly seasoned stuffing. When this is done, shape the chicken as much as possible to resemble its original shape and sew up the back. The chicken will then be ready to roast. If the boned chicken is to be broiled, shape it on the broiler and broil.