The cheap shears trick my old boss showed me that saved my hands on 40 birds
Last Saturday I had 40 whole chickens to break down at the shop in Boise and my right hand was cramping up bad by bird 15. My old boss swung by, grabbed a pair of cheap $12 kitchen shears, and showed me to snip the wing joints and backbone instead of forcing the knife through, and I finished the rest in half the time with way less hand pain. Any of you use shears on a regular basis, or is that a shortcut I should just keep for whole birds?
Keep the shears for the joints but watch out for bone shards, because cheap shears can chip and leave little bits in the meat that you won't catch until a customer bites down. That's the one thing nobody warns you about with the shear method. A $12 pair works fine for wings and backbones, but check the blades for nicks after every few birds and toss them once they start denting.