1. Start with the whole chicken wing skin facing down.
This makes it significantly easier to cut.
2. Use your fingers to find the ridge where the elbow joint connects the flat and the drum.
Put your knife to the right side of this ridge so that your knife is parallel to the drum and slice through it.
Note: It can sometimes be difficult for folks to understand where this “ridge” is.
Instead, you can take your knife and make a cut at a 45 degree angle into the skin to expose the joint.
Once you’ve exposed the humerus you can simply take your knife and slice to the right of it.
3. Find the second ridge that connects the wingtip to the flat.
Place your knife parallel to the wingtip; Press your knife through.
Note: When you cut chicken wings, the knife should go through fairly easily.
If you find yourself having to use significant force, you’re likely cutting into bone.
Carefully remove the knife and attempt to find the ridge again.
4 comments
SkinnyMike
When you say “6-10” wings per person, are referring to trimmed or untrimmed wings? In other words, are you calling the flat one wing?
Dylan Clay
I’m referring to the flat and drum as individual “Wings.” My apologies – I should of specified that in this article and will get it amended. From that text I link to how I deduced that information and it’s simply broken down by average weight of those portions. Assuming most “meat” portions of a meal are 4-6 oz and those parts weigh 0.5 oz and 0.8 oz respectively, it’s around 6-10 wing portions per person OR 3-5 whole chicken wings (drum, flat, and wingtip attached).
I also note that Myself, my Father, and Brother-in-law can easily eat 10+ wings where-as my Mom will eat like 5 and be happy.
Brenda
Thanks for the information. I never knew where to cut to separate the wing from the drum me. This was very helpful
Dylan Clay
Happy to help Brenda!
Likely I’ll update the article at some point with a video too.