Holiday Meal Prep Essentials: Poultry Shears
Ask any skilled chef how to ensure a perfectly cooked roast chicken or turkey, and they likely will urge you to spatchcock your bird. Spatchcocking is a process that involves breaking the bird down prior to putting it in the oven, and it's key to having perfectly cooked, juicy roasts. While this may run contrary to our mental pictures of Thanksgiving tables that feature a huge roasted turkey on a beautiful serving platter, it ensures even cooking and the most succulent results. Since the turkey has to be carved prior to serving anyway, it's worth giving spatchcocking a try. Best of all, the only specialty kitchen tool you need to execute this virtually foolproof cooking method is a pair of poultry shears.
Spatchcock Your Roast With Poultry Scissors
A spatchcocked turkey or chicken is one that has had the backbone removed so that the bird can be butterflied or flattened out in the roasting pan. This method offers a few key advantages. First, flattening out of the bird allows for more even cooking, ensuring that the leaner breast meat and the richer dark meat of the legs and thighs will be fully cooked at roughly the same time. Secondly, since all of the bird's skin is on top and exposed to the oven's hot dry air, you maximize the amount of perfectly crisped, golden-brown skin on your roast.
Best of all, the only thing you need to spatchcock your turkey or chicken is a sturdy pair of poultry scissors, which will allow you to cut out and remove the backbone. These specialty tools look fairly similar to standard kitchen shears, but are much stronger and sharper. While standard hears are essential for a multitude of tasks ranging from snipping herbs and woody flower stems to cutting twine and parchment paper, they are no match for poultry shears when it comes to preparing chicken, turkey and other poultry.
Unlike standard kitchen scissors, poultry shears will easily slice through bone and cartilage, making it possible to spatchcock a roast or divide a whole bird for cooking or freezing. Read on for more about two of the poultry scissors available at Williams Sonoma.
- Williams Sonoma Poultry Shears - The only tool you'll need for cutting and breaking down whole chickens and turkeys, these spring-loaded shears cut easily through meat and bone. Nonslip handles provide a secure, comfortable grip. Available only at Williams Sonoma, the shears lock closed for compact, safe storage.
- OXO Poultry Shears - From one of the most trusted names in kitchen utensils, these shears more than live up to OXO's exceptional standards. The tapered, finely serrated stainless steel blades feature a notch for holding bones in place as you cut. The ergonomic loop handles ensure a comfortable, controlled grip. Blades separate for cleaning and lock closed for storage.
More Thanksgiving Meal Prep Tools
Whether you're hosting your first Thanksgiving or 20th, you'll want to conduct a thorough inventory of your kitchen well in advance of the big day in order to ensure that you have all of the necessary tools on hand. If it's your first Thanksgiving, check out Williams Sonoma's selection of kitchen tool sets, several of which are focused on the Thanksgiving meal.
The Turkey Prep and Roaster Bundle, for example, includes everything you'll need for your turkey, from the brining bag and twine to the roasting pan and turkey forks. You'll also find a potato-focused bundle that includes peelers, a ricer, a masher and a spatula. If you're an experienced Thanksgiving host, you may already have most of the tools you need, but it's worth making sure that they're all in working order, so you don't find yourself struggling with a dull peeler or malfunctioning digital thermometer in the busy hours before the meal. Of course, if you're going to try out a new dish or cooking method this year, spatchcocking, for example, you may find that you need to add a tool or two to your kitchen arsenal.