Hello Dear Reader,
We are told all the time that we can still eat meat if we eat the cheaper cuts but so often we have no idea what to do with them. My mum, unusually for a women in her time, worked as a butcher. And yes, she could carry sides of meat over her shoulders! You didn't argue with her! So, with her being a butcher, I was perfectly used to butchering meat myself and I'm not squeamish when presented with an oxtail or tongue. Skinning and boning out chicken is fiddly but means, once you have acquired the skill that you can use cheaper cuts. If you have children, you may find that they don't like bones so being able to bone out a chicken or leg of lamb means you will have less fuss when you feed them. The current trend for boneless chicken breasts means some where, a lot of chicken has gone to waste.
I'll start by sharing how to skin and bone out a chicken thigh. (Chicken thighs can be bought for £1.50 a kilo and that's a bargain).
Firstly, sharpen your meat knife and you'll need a medium blade. Turn the chicken thigh over and grab and edge of the skin and lift.
Hold the knife against the skin to loosen any fatty bits. Oh and by the way, most of the fat is in the skin so removing them saves a big bum!
Hold the chicken with the knife and pull the skin.
Trim any fat and bits of skin that hang on.
Here we are so far with a skinned chicken thigh and now how to take the bone out.
Turn the thigh on its side and work the knife near the bone. Make small cuts making sure you don't shave off fragments of bone.
When you have loosened some of the bone, hold on to it and work the meat off the bone with the tip of your knife.
Work the meat and sinew off the end of the bone. Run your fingers over the meat to make sure you haven't left any tiny pieces of bone. If you wanted to 'butterfly' the thigh, you could cover it with a plastic bag and bash it with a rolling pin so it's flat. This is a great way of griddling or grilling the chicken as it will cook evenly and quickly.
And there it is, skinned and boned chicken thigh with the bone removed.
As ever, I'm multi-tasking and fitting in feeding us with a minute to spare. I go to the gym after work and then come home and whilst dinner is cooking, I have a shower. Not so glamorous as the last time you saw me!
I certainly don't waste the chicken bones and I've boiled them up, removed any fragments of meat and have made stock and we'll have soup tomorrow.
Now, the recipe for sticky chicken thighs.
You will need chicken thighs,
Sweet chilli Sauce - I buy job lots of this from Approved Food.
2 crushed cloves of garlic
A good squirt of honey
A splash of soy sauce.
I covered the chicken thighs and put them in the oven for 30 minutes. I just used my mini-oven to cook them but they were not sticky enough when they came out.
I transferred them to a small frying pan and cooked them for another five minutes on a high heat. This gave the sauce a sticky jam like quality. Cook them until they start to brown but catch them before they burn as there is sugar in the sweet chilli sauce which will weld itself to a frying pan.
I cooked a small head of broccoli and some value brand noodles (12p Aldi) and served that with the sticky chicken.
Chicken thighs are really versatile so I thought I would share some of the other marinades I cook them in.
Italian Marinade
Mix 2 crushed garlic cloves with 4 tbsp of olive oil, the juice of 1 lemon a 1 tsp of dried oregano - mix and marinade the chicken thighs.
Oriental Marinade.
Mix together 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of sugar, 2 tbsp of rice wine or apple juice, 1 tbsp of finely chopped ginger and 1 crushed garlic clove - mix and marinade the chicken thighs.
Honey and Mustard Marinade
Mix together wholegrain mustard, runny honey and the zest and juice of one lemon - mix and marinade the chicken thighs.
Sorry about the big post tonight but I would love it if more people would use cheaper cuts of meat. I'm also a great fan of offal (hence my pate and faggot recipes) and think it's possible to eat well as long as we eat all of an animal and not just the choice cuts.
We ate two chicken thighs each and we both have chicken for lunch tomorrow as well as plenty of chicken stock for our soup tomorrow night. It's certainly an economical cut of meat that I hope more of you try.
Until tomorrow,
Love Froogs xxxxxxxxxxx
I love using chicken thighs. I often slow cook them in the place of other pieces because they retain shape and flavor better.
ReplyDeleteI prefer to use chicken thighs too, but have been lazy recently and bought them already filleted; however, you do miss out on the lovely stock. I must look out for some with bones and compare the price, it will be interesting to compare the prices, as I noticed that now the supermarkets seem to be charging about £4 per 500g for the fillets. Another couple of really good deals (if you can stomach offal) are ox heart (usually sold trimmed and often sliced/diced) and pigs/ox kidney. I used to buy a whole heart from the butcher in Norfolk, but I know occasionally the supermarkets sell it too. I use it the same way as I would stewing steak (ie slow cook) but I truly believe most people would think it was just steak. I usually buy pigs kidney which is good value, but this week managed to get nearly 1kg of ox kidney for just over a pound. On the same day I managed to get two rainbow trout for 75p which I though was a bit odd, but realised afterwards that they needed to be gutted. Well just got on and did it, for 75p I cannot afford to be squeemish!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the great advice. Would you share your stock recipe as well? Carla
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice. We prefer the thighs as well for both flavour and cost. Would you share your thoughts and recipe for stock? Carla
ReplyDeleteSome Chinese people I know told me they always use chicken thighs rather than breast meat because it is juicier. They are a little fiddly to bone but so worth the effort. I like chicken marinated in lemon, thyme, garlic and honey. If I do a whole chicken in that, I put the squeezed and zested lemon shells in the cavity for extra flavour. Last Sunday, we roasted a chicken and as I was too ill to bother, we had instant gravy, but we poured the pan juices into a small bowl and let it solidify in the fridge overnight. We skimmed off the fat for frying and used the pan juices in stock with the carcass. DH fried the onions and veg in a little chicken fat then made soup with the stock and veg, adding lentils and pearl barley. It was gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThat looks like a dinner I could eat every night for a week and love it every time! Chicken thighs are the only chicken I buy these days, and I was comparing notes with the woman behind the counter at my local butcher and we agreed that we had first bought thighs instead of breasts because they were less expensive and we both found them much more flavorful! It's that win:win situation we hear about ;)
ReplyDeleteAs for your picture being less glamorous, now it's like seeing "the star at home" :)
Thighs used to be very reasonably priced in Oz however because more people started cooking with them instead of breasts the prices have increased by 100% and are now about $12 per kg. Now I know how to fillet them I will stock up on bone in thighs which were selling for a lot less. Don't you love the supermarkets that just continue to price gouge.
ReplyDeleteFran I know supermarkets overcharge but occasionally in Woolies I find bags of thighs,bone in, for $6 for 2 kg.
DeleteFroogs I feel guilty now. This winter I made the decision that making stock from chicken leftover bones etc was not practical for me. Forgive me it is dangerous with my dad around. However I certainly agree that buying and cleaning your own meat is worth the saving. For instance I regularly buy a whole rump at $6 a kilo and break it down to steaks, roasting pieces, stewing meat and meat for mincing.
ReplyDeleteI buy a whole chicken and sometimes butcher it up. Will be trying some of the marinade recipes. They sound tasty
ReplyDeleteCarolx
Chicken thighs are $.49/lb. here in the US. I really don't like thighs at all, but I do cook up ten lbs, some in the oven and some in a pot for chicken and dumplings. Maybe you could tell the easiest way to debone a breast. I can do it, but you can probably make the work easier.
ReplyDeleteWOW! Not sure where you are in the USA, but here in Connecticut, I am lucky to get them ON SALE for $1.19.
DeleteCarol in CT
I prefer chicken thighs to breast meat especially in a slow cooked stew but fried in a little oil first until golden brown , scrumptious.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much Froogs for this "step by step" guide. I always buy whole chickens and use every part, but find the challenge of removing the carcass without wasting too much meat a challenge. I love the idea that I can now buy boned thighs and successfully remove the bone. The recipes looked good too!
ReplyDeleteJust got paid yesterday and was wondering what to buy with my pennies for cheap meals - you've just saved me! Will be trying out these recipes and de-boning thighs over the weekend! Thank you! (as for the piccie in your gym gear - you're a real woman! life, work, cooking! that's already glam!)
ReplyDeleteFantastic! That's now on my must-try list.
ReplyDeleteThat looks freaking delicious! Thanks for the great recipe.
ReplyDelete