There are plenty of hacks for preparing your own chicken wings, and we have some useful tips for making sure you cut your wings safely. But the very act of cutting up raw chicken can be intimidating for some, so why not look to the experts for the best method? We spoke with Tini Younger, who you may remember from her viral mac and cheese made with Carnation Kickin’ Jalapeno flavor Evaporated Milk, to see if she had any tips for carving perfect flats and drums every time.
Younger’s secret involves getting the joints in the wing to pop out so you have a smooth place to cut. “So, what I like to do is I’ll take the wing, the wing bone or wing, and I’ll kind of like pop the joint out,” she explains. “Once you hear a pop, and then it moves like a joint, so you just slice right in the middle.” In her words, “The chicken tells you where to cut.”
Normally, when cutting chicken to separate the drum from the flat, you just go right through the joint. While not especially difficult, this method can slow you down and sometimes results in messy and uneven cuts. Popping the joint out first ensures that you have a nice, clean spot to cut through without hitting the bone. It also makes for a more presentable result, especially if you’re serving them to guests. As Younger notes, “Get your knife in there and just feel where that divot is and just slice it.”
How to pop a chicken wing joint
If you have never broken down a whole chicken wing before, it’s actually not as hard as you think. The first thing you want to do is find the joint. Chicken wings make this very easy because you can already see which part is the flat and which part is the drum. You can flex the joint with your fingers until the wing forms a 90-degree angle. Following Younger’s method, you want to push past that 90 degrees with your hands until you hear or feel the pop. You’ll know when it happens.
The wing won’t come apart. The skin is still holding it, and the joint will remain in the socket. But now you can line your blade between the two wing segments and slice through. With the joint popped, you’re not cutting bone; you’re finishing the separation of the joint. It should go smoothly now, and you may only need to cut through the skin, depending on how forcefully you popped the joint.
You may have some cartilage here that may offer slight resistance. If you do hit hard resistance, that’s bone. Either reposition your blade or try to pop that joint again to make sure it came out of the socket properly. Your knife should cut cleanly through every wing if you follow this method. You can do this to remove the wing tips if they’re still attached, but it’s usually not necessary as the tips are much easier to cut.
