How To Properly Butterfly A Chicken Breast

For less experienced home cooks, some recipe instructions sound like they're calling for acts of magic — and some seem just about as achievable. Is butterflying, for example, a Frog Prince situation, or a poultry preparation method? For the uninitiated, it could be either. But for dinner purposes, butterflying is just a simple way to cut a chicken breast, sans magic wand.

Unlike spatchcocking, which deals with the whole bird, this instance of butterflying involves only the breast. The method borrows its name from the world's least scary winged insect due to the chicken breast's appearance when the technique is properly executed. To do so, place your chicken breast flat on a cutting board. Apply gentle pressure to anchor it with your less-dominant hand, carefully keeping fingers clear of what's to come.

Using a knife that you regularly sharpen based on its use, cut into the chicken breast's side, sliding the knife most of the way through. Its other side should ultimately maintain the functionality of a book spine or a door hinge. Continue slicing through the chicken breast's length, careful to adjust for variations in thickness. Once you are proficient, this should be done in one continuous movement. And when this step is complete, the chicken breast will fold open like a butterfly's wings.

At a minimum, butterflying helps a chicken breast cook more evenly, thanks to the thinner cut you just created. By reducing the gradient, you've altered the surface for a more even heat distribution. You've also created more space to season. So, should you add nothing more here than salt and pepper, you've already improved your kitchen skills.

In a better case scenario, however, you'll go even further. A butterflied chicken breast has all kinds of applications. You can pound it even thinner for a "truly excellent" celebrity chef chicken parm. You can take the same pounding route but swerve to create a light, lovely chicken paillard salad (just do not forget the simple step that levels up any salad: a chilled plate). Or you can stuff it with a virtually endless array of fillings, and even mix and match some of the ingredients, like cheese and chopped veggies, that you already have on hand, for a choose-your-own chicken adventure any night of the week.