Rinse and dry the chicken.

1. 1. Place rinsed and dried chicken on a large cookie sheet or cutting board.
   2. Break the tips of the leg bones off with the back of the blade of a large knife by giving the leg bone a firm whack. This helps when tying the legs with twine after stuffing the bird to hold the legs in place.
   3. Cut the tip ends off at the first joint of both wings, leaving the wing bones inside the chicken. These are the only bones left in the chicken. Discard the tips.
   4. Remove the wishbone with a sharp knife by cutting through the meat on both sides at the top of the breast along the wishbone. Then, pull the wishbone out with your fingers and discard it; sometimes, it breaks into pieces. This will allow you to slice right through the chicken after it's cooked.
   5. Lay the chicken with its breast side down and backside up. Cut along the backbone skin from top to bottom using a sharp, long fillet knife or a short carving knife. Use what is comfortable for you.
   6. Rinse and dry the chicken.
   7. On one side of the cut, start carving, keeping the skin and meat together. Cut them away from the chicken carcass toward the breastbone, starting from the chicken's neck to its bottom. At about three-fourths down the back, cut out the oyster from the backbone and continue toward the bottom or rear of the chicken.
   8. Return to the top of the chicken and, with your knife, cut away the wing bone at its joint from the carcass. Leave the wing bone in the chicken.
   9. Continue slicing the breast meat away from the bone along the side of the rib cage toward the chicken's rear.
   10. Cut away the thigh bone at the joint from the carcass.
   11. Continue cutting the meat from the carcass down toward the front of the breast bone.
   12. Do the same on the other side of the chicken, cutting and removing the whole carcass from the meat. Some people have enough strength in their hands to easily pull the carcass away from the meat. Use the carcass and bones to make stock or broth.
   13. Next, use a small, sharp knife to cut meat around the thigh joint and scrape down the thigh bone to the leg joint.
   14. Cut meat from around the leg joint, scrape meat from the leg bone, and pull the leg bone out. Remember how the leg tip was broken away from the leg bone in step 2, making this removal easy.
   15. Do the same with the other thigh and leg bones. Again, discard the bones and boil them in water to make a chicken broth, or add vegetables to the bones and water to make a chicken stock.
   16. Now you can season the deboned chicken. Stuff with your choice of stuffing and tie it up or sew up its backside through the skin with butcher twine to keep the stuffing in place before freezing or baking. I have found that letting it marinate in the refrigerator for several hours before freezing or cooking helps to tenderize the meat.
   17. If frozen, place the chicken in a baking pan to defrost. Then bake at 375 degrees for 1 hour. Let it sit for a few minutes, then slice it and serve. It's delicious and so juicy!