French and Chinese cuisine have many things in common including a variety of poultry dishes that involve deboning birds (the galatine and eight-treasure duck are two examples that I can think of).

What’s different is the technique, as most French applications break the skin and lay the bird flat, while Chinese applications leave the bird whole, using a technique quaintly called “the glove method” (see my original eGullet post).

Why am I scribbling about an old post I did on a bulletin board? Lead-in: I need something to lead into the blah-blah about the anniversary of the Buttter Event and I’m already late on that one.

Anyway. Martin Yan can take the skeleton out of a duck with a cleaver in under one minute using this method. I don’t do this as often but I do know that I can generally debone a chicken in under five minutes and just over 20 if I have to stop and take photos.

The stuffing can be whatever is required for a particular dish; for this particular demo, I ground some pork loin and flavored the mince with mirepoix and lobster mushrooms that had been rehydrated in white port. Since the back of the bird generally doesn’t have any meat, the purchase and use of additional chicken breast gives a rounder overall shape.

Photos

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Notes

Deboning poultry is always a good way to test/demonstrate one’s knife skills, and I think mine are pretty good as I can zip through birds without too much difficulty. The glove method can be used on any bird, though it’s easier with medium-sized ones like chickens and ducks rather than something too small (quail are the worst) or too large.

The resulting bird is a different way to prep a showcase dish, and it’s always good for laughs at carving time, especially when you don’t tell anyone that you’re doing a homage to Mortal Kombat’s Sub-Zero.

And yes, I did burn the freaking roast.

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