Mastering Bird Breast Removal: Ripping vs Cutting Technique

23 Sept 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:19

A butcher shows how to remove a bird breast by ripping rather than cutting. He leaves the neck skin attached for stock, makes a small nick in the breast, then uses both thumbs to pull the meat away from the ribs, keeping a knife close to the breastbone to guide the separation and expose the tenderloin.

Chapters

Now, one of the most important parts of the bird, what's going to bring you the most return, is the breast. Now we're going to do skin off, so I'm going to go ahead, use my thumb and rip a lot of it. I like to leave this skin though attached to the bird with the neck because we can use this for stock, we can use the back for soup, but we can also do what we're doing now and sell it to a customer for his dog food. So I'm gonna leave this skin on with the neck. Now we're gonna do a lot of ripping and not a lot of cutting. I know that sounds weird, but you see where this fat line is? This is the breast, this is the bone. I'm just gonna make a little nick right here with my knife, enough to where I can now get both of my thumbs underneath. And I'm following the rib cage and I'm just ripping it down. Loosen it up, and look, I've exposed the tenderloin right there. Now you can either start from here or you can start from here. With the first one, I like to start from here, close to the center as possible. I feel my knife hugging the breastbone. There's your breast.