Green is for chicken

Our resident butcher STEVE BAIN is full of ideas this month. Specifically, a great idea using boneless chicken thigh fillets.

In a turn of events, it was me who came up with the idea for this month’s recipe.

I wonder if Lynn will pass the accolades my way? It tasted lovely, very lovely — appropriately she has a fair claim towards the end result as well!.

So for me it was off to the green cutting board (green is for chicken) to whip the thigh bone out of each chicken thigh fillet.

Step 1

Step 1: In this case I started with a chicken Maryland — this is the thigh and the drumstick still joined together. Because I only wanted to use the thigh for this recipe, I separated the thigh and the drumstick at the ‘knee’ joint with a sharp knife.

Step 2

Step 2: Just to show where the cut starts. You start by cutting on the inside of the angle/fold/bight of the ‘knee’ joint (aka the back of the knee). You can find the best place to start the cut by bending the knee inwards a few times. When cutting, the knife’s leading edge will go straight through flesh, open spaces in the joint and cartilage if you’ve located the correct cut line — that is, your knife won’t have to cut through bone.

Step 3

Step 3: The tip of the knife points to the bone (the end of it) that you are going to remove.

Step 4

Step 4: With the tip of the knife, carefully cut/loosen the flesh around the top of the bone in the thigh. Continue to cut away/loosen the flesh further down/along the bone.

Step 5

Step 5: Lift the bone slightly away from the flesh to allow for ease of cutting underneath and cut outwards (and underneath) in order to free all of the flesh from the end of the bone.

Step 6

Step 6: A close up of cutting outwards and underneath the thigh bone in order to free all of the flesh from the end of the bone.

Step 7

Step 7: Now do the same at the other end of the thigh bone. Free the flesh from the ‘new’ end and work your way towards the already freed other end of the thigh bone.