Here's the Skinny! How To Butterfly or Cutlet a Chicken Breast ~ Noreen's Kitchen Basics!

Today I wanted to share a kitchen basic with you.  How to prep, and butterfly a chicken breast.  This can also be referred to a prepping a chicken cutlet.  No matter what you call it, this is a simple task that you can do at home.  

The most important thing is to have a good, sharp knife.  Remember a dull knife is more dangerous than a sharp one.  Especially if you are slicing meat like this!  One slip in the wrong direction with a dull knife and you will have done much more damage that if the knife were sharp.

Get the Rada Cook's Knife Here:  http://amzn.to/25BCnSD

I am using my Rada Cooks Knife with an aluminum handle.  If you are interested in getting one, click the link above.   This is my favorite knife and I use it multiple times every day for just about everything.  If I could only have one prep knife, this would be it.  

The process for butterflying the chicken breast is simple.  Trim your piece of meat,  Lay it flat and place your non dominant hand on top.  Estimate what half of the thickness would be and gently run your knife along the chicken breast, opening up like a book as you go.  If you are new to this process, do it slowly and you will have success.  

When you have opened up the chicken breast, flip it over and place it between some plastic wrap in in my case, I used a zip top bag that I cut open on three sides.  Then use a meat mallet or a heavy bottomed skillet to pound the meat a bit thinner.  This will be helpful in breaking down the fibers of the meat and will allow you to use the chicken in recipes that require rolling such as chicken cordon bleu, Kiev or Marco Polo or in my spinach rollups.  This thin chicken cutlet can also be breaded and fried to be used on it's own or in chicken Parmesan, Milanese or picatta.  Left unbreaded this thin chicken can be used in chicken scallopini or my creamy lemon pepper chicken.  There are a number of ways to use this thin, butterflied chicken cutlet!  

Get the Norpro Meat Mallet Here: http://amzn.to/1WxwhO7

This is a very basic skill to know how to do in the kitchen and if you did not know how, I hope that I helped you learn!

If there are other kitchen basics you may like to learn leave me a comment and I will add them to the list!  You can also check out my kitchen basics playlist to see more skills that everyone should know how to do in the kitchen!

I hope you give this a try and I hope you love it!

Happy Eating!

See how I did this in my YouTube video: