Poultry Shears Recommendation

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

So I've never harvested and deboned a chicken or bird before. However, given my recent post in What did you do in the garden today? the time is nigh for me to be bagging up some guineas.

I know I'm going to need some deboning shears, so what's your goto one for your kitchen and poultry cleaning needs?

 

[wyoDreamer]

I use the kitchen shears that came in the knife set for cleaning chickens. Most is done with a sharp knife - I part them out (bone-in/skin on), cut in half, or cut off the breast meat for boneless skinless. wing tips, backs, necks, etc. I use for broth. I only use the shears for cutting in half - I cut the ribs to get back-bone out to split in half.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I have a good sharp knife. That does the bleeding, gutting, and disjointing. Needs frequent sharpening. I have a pair of kitchen shears. (sadly no name brand written or engraved on them) They have a hingy doo-hicky thing that allows them to be completely taken apart at the pivot, so you could use one blade as a knife if wanted, though I never do. I love those shears and use them on almost a daily basis. Then, for heavy duty stuff, I use a new pair of stainless garden nippers.

 

[SprigOfTheLivingDead]

Ok, so the shears omare a minimal use item; it's more about the knife. That's what I'm taking away from your two comments

 

[Hinotori]

I have no brand name for the ones I picked up at the Costco Business Center. Just affordable spring loaded poulty shears.

I use a pair of hand pruners when taking off the lower legs and wing tips when I butcher. I rarely deal with the effort to remove the feathers at the tip. Just have to keep the pruners separate and oil them with food grade oil after cleaning.

 

[Hinotori]

Knife is easiest for dividing up birds. I don't often use anything else except when I'm spatchcocking.

 

[wyoDreamer]

Yes, a good knife that will hold an edge and a stone to resharpen as you go. Knife needs to be easy to grip when wet also.

 

[Britesea]

I like a carbon steel knife for that job; it seems to take and hold a sharper edge. I save my stainless knives for regular kitchen work.
For the turkeys, we had to resort to a cleaver and mallet for some parts.

 

[tortoise]

I'll also chime in and say a knife is easiest for everything except for cutting the spine or ribs. I like Fiskars poultry shears. They are spring loaded which makes them easier on my hands.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

I would love to learn to spatchcock. I'm sure it's just a matter of deciding to do it... then practicing a bit to find the proper place to cut/break. Any readers spatchcock a duck? I have 16 duck eggs due to hatch Sunday, and am picking up an other 18. !0 of the first batch are Welsh Harlequin, and the other 6 are either pure Blue Indian Runner (so there may be some blue, some splash and some black, if I understand the genetics of it.) or IR x Khaki Campbell. So... they will all be light duty birds, but, I expect them to be tasty. I've never tasted duck! I hope to sell a lot of the ducklings to cover feed costs, but, am sure I'll end up eating some of the drakes. I did my gender egg shape selection so... it will be interesting to see if it will work with ducks. Also, setting a second batch of chicken eggs on Sunday.