Cut-Up Chicken

1. Wash your hands scrupulously in hot, soapy water, or put on a pair of disposable kitchen gloves. Place a small, sharp-bladed knife near your work space to aid with any stubborn pieces.

2. Hold the first breast firmly to the cutting board with one hand, and pull the skin from the breast with your other. The skin should come away freely, leaving behind a small quantity of loose membrane. Pull this away from the flesh, using the knife if necessary to sever it. Repeat for any remaining breasts, plucking or trimming off any pockets of surface fat.

3. Pull the skin from chicken thighs in the same way; then trim the flat ridges of fat that occur on either side of the thigh muscles. Whole, back-on chicken legs are slightly more complicated, because the skin adheres relatively tightly to the portion of backbone. Start there, peeling the skin away from the bone with your fingertips. You might find it easier if you undercut the skin slightly with the knife, creating room for your fingers to grip.

4. Grasp the loosened skin firmly with your fingers and pull down toward the knee joint, using the knife to sever it as needed from the underlying thigh muscles. Hold the thigh firmly in one hand and then pull strongly on the skin to slide it over the knee joint and down to the end of the drumstick. The skin should turn inside-out and slide from the end of the drumstick's knobby bone, as if you were removing a sock from your foot.

5. Skin drumsticks from the thicker, "knee" end. The skin should be loose enough to pull away easily, providing a good grip by the time you get to the narrow end of the bone. Grasp the skin tightly, and give it a strong pull to part it from the leg bone.