How To Cut Chicken Wings in 7 Steps

Did you know that cut-up and ready-to-cook chicken wings tend to be more pricey than whole chicken breast and chicken wings? As such, it’s the right call, budget-wise, to slice up the chicken wings yourself. 

Don’t worry, as cutting up fresh chicken wings is not as complicated as you think! We made a step-by-step guide that will show you how to cut chicken wings before recreating finger-licking good chicken wings dishes like this spicy fire wings recipe!

How to Cut Chicken Wings

Learning how to cut chicken wings is a great way to provide you with more chicken pieces to share with your family and friends! 

However, in case what you have is a whole chicken, you can first check out how to cut up a whole chicken in just 4 easy steps.

Know The Parts of a Chicken Wing

The first step is to know the three main chicken wings section: the drumette, the wingette, and the wing tip. 

Learning the parts of a chicken wing helps you in separating whole chicken wings into even smaller pieces.

Drumette

The drumette is the one attached to the main part of the chicken and is also the meatiest and the juiciest section. 

Once the chicken wing is cut up, you will most likely find a bone in the middle part of this specific section. Meanwhile, on both ends, there’s cartilage and some joints. 

Although it’s considered dark meat, a chicken drumette has a texture almost akin to white meat.

READ ALSO: White Meat vs Dark Meat Chicken: What’s The Difference?

Wingette

The chicken wingette or the flat wing is the middle part of a wing that consists of two parallel thin bones. Wingettes, having dark meat covered with skin, might need a longer cooking time to tenderize all the way. Furthermore, it is smaller than the drumettes.

Wing Tip

The wing tip is the pointy piece at the end. Wing tips usually have less meat as compared to the other chicken wing parts. This portion is mostly skin, bone, and cartilage.

Now that you’re familiar with the three types of chicken wings, you can now proceed with cutting the chicken wings.
Place your fingers between the drumette and wingette. Once you feel a ball-shaped object, you’ve found the joint connecting the wingette and the drumette.

Next, hold both ends of the wing then slightly bend it back until you hear a crack.

The goal is to snap the joint connecting the drumette and wingette. This will separate the two parts and make cutting with a knife easier and faster.

Once the joint is already visible, place the chicken wing on the cutting board. 

Then, using a sharp knife, carefully slice through between the exposed joints to separate the wingette and the drumette.

READ ALSO: 15 Best Electric Knives To Get In 2022 

Next, hold the wingette part (which is still attached to the wing tip) with one hand and the wing tip using the other. 

To break apart the two sections, you have to bend back the wing tip, similar to what you did earlier in Step 3.

Slightly twitch or wiggle the wing tip part, all while steadily holding the wingette section. Continue this process until you can see the two joints where the wing tip and the wingette meet.

Again, using your knife, cut through between the joints connecting the wingette and wing tip.

Now you have a drumette, a wingette, and a wing tip to use for tempting chicken wing recipes!

How To Do French Cut on Chicken Wings

READ ALSO: How Many Chicken Wings Are in a Pound?

There’s an alternative method to cutting chicken wings: the French cut. 

Frenching is a culinary method where chicken wings and legs are cut and shaped to separate the meat and skin from the bone. 

Doing this provides you with a sort of a handle, so you can freely munch on finger-licking good appetizers like chicken lollipops. Some people do French cuts to give the meat dish a fancier presentation.

In case you want to give this method a try, here’s how to French chicken wings:

1. Follow Steps 1 to 7 on How To Cut Chicken Wings to separate the whole chicken wing into three parts (drumette, wingette, and wing tip).  
2. After you’ve cut each whole wing into three parts, pick out the drumette parts and set the rest aside.
3. Grip the exposed bone at the end of the drumette. Gently cut through the skin at the other end (the thin bottom one) in a sawing motion.
4. Continue cutting through until you can scrape all the meat away from the bone, and you only have a drumette, all with that length of the bone and a lump of meat on top.

Delicious Chicken Wings Recipes To Try

Everybody will agree on one thing: chicken wings make the best appetizers and main dishes. Now, if you’re thinking of ways how to make chicken wings oh-so-inviting, then you are in luck! Here are some chicken wings recipes that you should try right now:

• Easy Baked Chicken Wings – We found the trick to bringing out the flavors of baked chicken wings: it’s all in the sauce! In this recipe, the flavors of ketchup, vinegar, brown sugar, and soy sauce blend deliciously. Before popping them in the oven, pour over a delicious homemade sauce on top of the chicken wings.
• Air Fryer Chicken Wings – Bust out your air fryer for this one! Just a warning: these chicken wings are going to be a show-stealer at your backyard party. Serve these air fryer chicken wings with hot sauce or any dipping sauce.
• Slow Cooker Honey Buffalo Chicken Wings – If there’s one thing that should not be missing on your game-day food ideas, it’s buffalo chicken wings! While we love the classic recipe, there’s something about this variation of buffalo chicken wings. They’re sweet and spicy and savory all at once, and yet it requires little effort on our part. Serve them with either blue cheese or ranch dressing.
• BBQ Grilled Chicken Wings – Wondering what else to make with chicken wings? Trust us, you can’t go wrong with this grilled chicken wings recipe. The special secret? They’re slathered with a special barbecue sauce.