Advertisement
If not roasting or grilling a butterflied whole chicken, chefs must cut the chicken into parts. First, the chicken is quartered (tagliare in quarti/squartare). From this point, the chef can easily fabricate the chicken into smaller pieces, or use the quarters for roasting, braising, or grilling. In classic cuisine, the ends of the wings and the drumsticks are cleaned of cartilage to give the cooked bird a neat appearance.
There are several methods of quartering chicken and other poultry. The photos here may be used as a guide. They illustrate the technique used when making Pollo alla Griglia, Pollo alla Cacciatora, Pollo Fritto, and Pollo alla Cacciatora in Bianco.