Chicken and Turkey Parts Cut Your Own

Place the turkey on its back with the front end angling away from you toward the left. With the fingers and thumb of the left hand, push against the breast and thigh to tighten the skin. Now cut the skin between the breast

Lay down the knife. Take the thigh-drumstick joint in your left hand and steady the carcass with your right hand. Press downward with the left hand and pull with your right to pop the hip out of joint.

Hold the leg in your left hand. With the point of the knife forward of the hip joint, cut the leg from the carcass working backward through the hip joint. Repeat the process to remove the other leg.
Lay the leg flat with skin side down. Locate the fat seam that marks the joint between the thigh and drumstick.

Place the knife on the drumstick side of the fat seam and cut through the leg joint. Repeat for the other leg.

Place the carcass on its back with the neck to your left. Using heavy shears, start at the back of the rib cage at the point where the ribs from the back meet those coming from the keel bone. Cut forward to the wing joint. Do this on the other side.

This process can also be done with a knife. Insert it at the wing joint and cut backward through the rib cage.

This is the really hard part. Lift the breast so you can get your hand inside and behind the breast at the wing joint. The other hand must be worked into a similar position around the back. Press outward with both hands to break the shoulder joint.
With a knife or shears, finish the cut through the break in the wing joint to separate the whole breast.

Place the whole breast rib side down with the front to your left. Hold the skin taut and cut it along the keel bone from front to rear.

Holding the breast firmly, cut and scrape the muscle from the side of the keel closest to you. Make your cuts from front to rear and on a line with the keel. Continue the cutting and scraping process down over the other side for the second piece of boneless breast.

Place the back rib side down and neck to the left so you can separate the front from the rear. Just behind the last rib, cut across the back and down the sides to the bone.

Grasp the front and rear on either side of the cut and break the back. Now cut through the back with a knife or shears. This completes the process of cutting your own turkey parts.